On December 19, Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) families’ session (for cohort two) was held at the San Ignacio Police Conference Room at the San Ignacio Police Formation. During a short ceremony, all families received a certificate of participation from the GREAT organizers.
Present was the deputy Officer in Charge of the San Ignacio Police Formation Inspector Constance Pascacio and Christine Escalante from the Youth Rise Project, which operates within the Human Development Office. A total of ten families attended the session, which involved 44 participants. Police officer Ciriaco Medina from the Community Policing Unit would like to thank PC Ryan Choc, PC Henry Lemus and WPC Nathly Alvarez for being the co facilitators.
Fourteen families had also concluded their participation in a six-week intensive training at the San Ignacio Police Station in June 2019. The families had learned about inappropriate content on the internet and negative feedbacks such as sexting, online sexual solicitations, and cyber bullying and blackmail.
The Youth Resilience and Inclusive Social Empowerment Project (RISE) is a comprehensive social intervention program, which responds to the challenges facing vulnerable groups, particularly at-risk youths in the towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena as well as in Dangriga. The focus of the project, which unwaveringly supported the police throughout these recent sessions, is to assist Belize to pilot preventative crime reduction initiatives specifically targeting children, youths and their families.
Under Youth RISE, young people benefited from training that focused on basic literacy and numeracy, employability and adaptive skills along with other community programs such as GREAT. This project was implemented by the Government of Belize, via the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation, the public sector, along with social partners, with funding from the Caribbean Development Bank CDB. In San Ignacio and Santa Elena the benefiting partners were the Community Policing Unity, the Department of Youth Services, Community Rehabilitation Department, Cornerstone Foundation and the Saint Ignatius High School Evening Division and others. While in the Stann Creek District the partners of Youth RISE were the Delille Academy, the Progressive Organization of Women in Action, Belize Family Life Association and their ITVET.
