APRIL 2023 THE VOICE
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21
News Feature
Street Pastors head to Jamaica C HRISTIANS FROM Britain are heading to Jamaica to prevent crime and keep kids
VITAL ROLE: Street Pastors patrolling the streets at night (photos: Getty Images and TPi Zone/YouTube)
UK initiative looks for volunteers to walk the streets of Kingston. safe. The island has seen 210 EXCLUSIVE by Shirin Aguiar
murders so far in the first two months of 2023, and has one of the highest homicide rates in the world per head of population. The London-based Ascension Trust, which runs Street Pastors in the UK, visited Jamaica for talks with local law enforcement to support parents and children travelling to and from school. Christian leaders from Britain want to send volunteers to Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago for a ten-day stint on the streets. It is hoped the initiative will help stem the tide of youth crime and help deal with peer pressure problems. “There’s a combination of problems that are being played out in and outside schools, on the buses and in shopping areas. In Jamaica and Trinidad, it’s trauma,” Reverend Les Isaac,
inset below, founder of the Ascension Trust, told The Voice. He said violence, poverty, and single-parent families had created a major challenge for children and society at large. The Street Pastors scheme in JaJa origimaica origi nally began in 2014, following talks with the Ascension Trust, and has seen positive interinter action with night revellers in downtown streets in Kingston. Reverend Isaac is working with the Jamaican government’s ministry for national security, police and churches.
Two churches have already promised 100 volunteers to the initiative, with Pastor Bruce Fletcher, chairman of community transformation organisation Operation Save Jamaica, among other church leaders who have invited the Trust to introduce the scheme in Jamaica. Initially, 35 schools in Jamaica and four in Trinidad will be involved. Reverend Isaac added: “We’re talking about collaboration, about synergy, so everybody’s working together, schoolteachers, principals, guidance counsellors, school pastors. “We want to ensure the various agencies are working together so that when we meet the young person that has challenges, we know there’s a route by which they can get help to overcome their challenges, whether it’s mental health, abuse or vio-
lence, whatever the trauma. We talk about collaboration and joined-up thinking.” “The churches are really desperate to throw everything at it because they are concerned about the way things are going with young people.” He appealed for qualified counsellors to volunteer ten days of their time.
“Any Jamaicans or others es post-pandemic among that who are reading this who are generation.” trained counsellors and are willing to do a ten-day stint in Ja- There are over trained 20,000 maica to help with after-school Street Pastors in Britain and Ireprogrammes and get involved, land, and the initiative is currently please contact me. celebrating its 20th anniversary. “We really need to be able Qualified counsellors wishing to support these countries, to get involved in Jamaica can particularly with such a high email L.isaac@ascensiontrust.org. level of trauma and challeng- uk or Schoolpastors.org.uk
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