Stanton

Western Bureau:

The St James police, through their Community Relations Depart-ment, will be mentoring children in Montego Bay who are neglected because their parents or guardians are incarcerated, according to deputy superintendent in charge of public administration, Paul Stanton.

"As part of our community policing plan for 2009, this programme will involve children of persons who have matters before the court or who have been incarcerated because a lot of the time, these children are left on their own," a concerned Stanton told The Gleaner during Monday's launch of a week of scheduled organisational workshops by a group of United States-based consultants at the Wexford Hotel in Montego Bay.

Despite the lack of funds needed to get this initiative started, Stanton charged that members of the Jamaica Con-stabulary Force (JCF) are willing to offer monetary support to get the project started with the hope that corporate Jamaica will follow the trend.

Need support

In an appeal for support of the project, he stated: "We are going to need the parents or guardians of these children who are left to come on-board and understand what we are trying to accomplish. We will also need the help of corporate Jamaica to assist us with funds. But we are not going to fold our hands and give up or wait; we are going to move forward with this initiative."

The senior police officer noted that the initiative will be implemented by the end of April, as members of the Community Relations Department will embark on a weeklong sensitisation exercise starting today. Among the list of things that they would like to implement is a police homework club in volatile inner-city communities such as Flankers and Norwood, to be spearheaded by the Community Relations Department.

A US-based non-profit organisation, CoreStrategies for Nonprofits Inc, is on a one-week trip to Jamaica from March 30-April 3 and will be working with the Family and Parenting Centre in Montego Bay on how to strengthen the organisational structure of the non-profit facility.

Among the issues that will be discussed are public relations and the community, board development, strategic planning, fund-raising and grant writing. Members of the JCF, local government, social services, guidance counsellors, among other non-governmental organisations, will be sharing in the discussions during the week's events.

sheena.gayle@gleanerjm.com