The Ministry of Youth Development, Sports, Culture and the Arts is extremely concerned over an increase in violence among our youthful population, resulting in serious injuries and in some cases, death.
Violence has a devastating impact on individuals, families and communities. The World Health Organisation acknowledges that “violence of all sorts is strongly associated with social determinants”, therefore highlighting that a different approach to tackling the problem of violence needs to be developed.
Even though violence has always been part of our civilisation, we do not have to accept it as an inevitable part of the human condition. As long as there has been violence, there have also been systems such as religious, philosophical and legal which have grown up to prevent or limit it In recent times, there has been a clear focus on engagement with the community, both in terms of including the general public in the solution, gathering intelligence on violent behaviour, as well as input in to possible solutions to keep young people out of violent behaviour and to build trust.
The Government of Grenada, through the Ministry of Youth Development, Sports, Culture, and the Arts has been making significant investment in addressing these concerns through its many youth projects and programmes such as the MPower Project, Project Reach, Project FLY and Project ACE all geared towards crime prevention, rehabilitation and youth resilience building. All of these projects provide life skills, conflict management, decision making and critical thinking skills as part of its core training areas.
The issue of youth violence is a challenge that affects all of society, and agencies must come together in a co-ordinated, wide-reaching and long-term effort to address same. We are aware that the factors that contribute to violent responses; whether they are factors of attitude and behaviour or related to larger social, economic, political and cultural conditions can be changed.
Working together, we will ensure we meet the scourge of youth violence head on, so that more families are spared the unimaginable suffering that has already been endured by so many. Let’s play our part to educate our youthful population of the effects of violence and keep Grenada peaceful so that we all can enjoy its true beauty.
