Youth Act urges community to help make difference

The Youth Act committee plans the clean-up operation at the site in Rockhole

(CNS): The organisers and volunteers at Youth Act are beginning what they hope will be the first step towards addressing the socio-economic deprivation impacting many Caymanians with the launch of a community project in Rockhole this weekend. Bonnie Anglin, who has been lobbying government to invest in crime prevention, said that nothing has changed in the community since they began speaking out more than six years ago about the problems that are fuelling crime.

The crime prevention NGO needs people to come out to Rockhole Road on Saturday morning to help with a major clean-up operation at a site where they hope to create a major community project that will incorporate number of initiatives to tackle the root causes of crime at the heart of a struggling neighbourhood.  From a trade school to intervention programmes, Youth Act wants to start something tangible with or without the help of government. The NGO’s members continue to be concerned over the lack of investment in crime prevention compared to the amount government spends on security and enforcement.

Anglin told CNS that government must take the need to implement prevention and intervention programmes seriously and address the inadequate mental health provision for young people ahead of any new court or police stations. She said measures such as the completion of John Gray High School, the expunging of criminal records for minor offenses, transitional housing for children moving out of Bonaventure and Francis Bodden are where public money should be focused.

“The government strategy is to address crime after it has happened, not before,” she said, adding that pumping money at the end of the process instead of at the beginning has led to where we are today.

Anyone who can help with this weekend’s efforts is asked to contact Bonnie Anglin bonnieanglin@hotmail.com or show up at the site on Rockhole Road just past George Town Primary School at 7am.