In pursuit of safe neighbourhoods
SOME THEORISTS would posit that a society generally mirrors what happens in communities. This is true to a large extent. The desire to be labelled a good society and a prosperous one is a vision with a high priority.
In many countries, pockets of unsafe neighbourhoods have been of some bother, not only to governments, but most members within those same neighbourhoods. What stands out are crime and anti-social behaviour.  Few would benefit from such a situation.
In Guyana, there is focused approach in the pursuit of safe neighbourhoods. This is driven by the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Citizen Security Programme.   This weekly column has addressed the issue on several occasions by reporting on critical interventions and projects executed by the Community Action Component (CAC) of the CSP.
There are two key benefits when a neighbourhood is deemed or declared safe. First, residents enjoy psychological freedom from fear in their day-to-day life and activities. Secondly, there is the material side, whereby property value rises, and there is the impact of attracting ‘good’ citizens to live in those neighbourhoods. With this come additional opportunities.
The CAC has ten communities in Regions Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) under its umbrella, and has implemented several programmes that will ultimately assist in reducing crime and violence, and creating safe neighbourhoods. Targeting vulnerable youths by empowering them with training in various life-skills, mentorship, and education on issues of youth violence and child abuse prevention is already having an impact.
The success of such a programme, though, requires the support and shared vision of stakeholders. This was highlighted recently when the government unveiled its intention to pursue this programme at a higher level. Led by the Honourable Minister, Clement Rohee, officials of the ten Community Action Councils, the Guyana Police Force and other stakeholders met to develop programmes and strategies, not only to pursue and operationalise the concept of social development interventions to address crime and violence, but to examine ways also of sustaining it. It is a search for solutions.
Well known for his passion for dealing with such issues at the individual and community levels, Minister Rohee reminded the gathering that there is no single approach to crime fighting. The issue is multi-faceted, and can be narrowed down to individuals, then the community and ultimately the country, and there are social and political implications.
Given the foregoing, there is need for different approaches to fighting and preventing crime. It cannot be tackled in isolation. There is the conventional means, with the engagement of the law enforcement and legislative apparatus. And there is the non-conventional approach. This is where such programmes as the Community and Neighbourhood Policing and Traffic Wardens come in.  Alongside these are the programmes in the ten communities mentioned earlier.
In pursuit of this ‘ideal’, several issues and questions have to be examined and considered. How related is the genesis of criminality to the social dimension of communities? What about the role of institutions and leaders in communities when it comes to moral upbringing, moulding of character and empowering people? What is the pathway? And what are the key ingredients in the search for solutions? These are deeper issues the CAC will be grappling with. It has the capacity, the experience, the infrastructure, and most importantly, the support and involvement of the communities.