IT’S pointless to deny it.

Ours is a society dogged by a level of evil and insanity debilitating to the mind, body, and soul. Hence, the numbing sense of despair triggered by last week’s murder of an innocent eight-year-old, Danielle Rowe.

Yet, we must not give in to hopelessness. Jamaicans should support the security forces and the justice system in every respect in the drive to probe criminal acts and put away perpetrators.

And, as this newspaper said again on Sunday, comprehensive programmes to organise communities and build grass roots leadership — led by Government with the help of all and sundry — are vital to that anti-crime fight.

In that respect, all Jamaicans, not least journalists, must hold the Government to the pledge made in Parliament earlier this year by National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang for social interventions to prevent crime. The minister spoke then of a joined-up approach involving “all stakeholders — the residents, ministries, departments and agencies, private sector, and our international donor partners”.

Equally, we must encourage private sector-led initiatives such as the much-applauded Project STAR, a social transformation and renewal programme led by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

Readers may recall that STAR, launched in mid-2022, was patterned off what was described at the time by then PSOJ head Mr Keith Duncan as a successful project which built trust between citizens and police in Salt Spring, St James.

Initiated and nurtured by forward-looking police leadership at the local level, the Salt Spring intervention — with breakfast for schoolchildren as a centrepiece — resulted in what Senior Superintendent Vernon Ellis described at the time as a “resocialisation between the citizens and the police”.

Since its launch, Project STAR has apparently had pleasing results in sections of east Kingston. It has more recently been introduced to Savanna-La-Mar, Westmoreland, which — like so many other communities — is struggling to cope with crime, alongside social and infrastructural decay.

In east Kingston project organisers are reporting success in helping young people to find jobs, and for social activities including sport.

Ms Saffrey Brown, STAR project director, tells us of work to “[improve] school attendance at the early childhood level, broaden access to social services provided by the Government, provide job readiness training… place people in jobs and [supporting] the use of sports to build social cohesion among residents”. We hear that the Social Development Commission (SDC) — whose core mandate is community building — is among public and private organisations partnering with STAR.

A number of leading companies and organisations — the latest being the JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation — have committed close to $300 million to bolster the project, we are told.

Also, we are intrigued by a newly launched media campaign, the Fahwud Movement centring on television and aimed at engaging Jamaicans to support STAR by using people at the community level as agents of change.

Says Ms Brown: “Their voices have always been muffled, silenced, and sidelined. This campaign is about finding an outlet for their voices, and hence they are at the forefront of the messages and communication. Project STAR is community-informed, community-led, and community-owned.”

At all costs, that community focus must remain. This newspaper will watch with interest.