THE Strategic Review Implementation Team of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) will next Thursday and Friday conduct a series of Police/Community Workers Training Workshops on issues related to domestic violence in the Kingston Western Police Division.

According to Assistant Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant, head of the Implementation Team, the workshops are being held as the authorities become more concerned at reports of a steady rise in the incidence of children and parents violently abusing each other and increased cases of intimate partner violence.

“The number of elders, children, women and men affected by violence and abuse within the family structure is both understated and underreported in Jamaica,” a news release from the Strategic Review Implementation Team said yesterday.

“Reasons ranging from economics to a lack of institutional support and a lack of faith in the criminal justice system are all critical factors which underscore the need for a national investment in organised care and support for both victims and offenders,” the release said.

Assistant Commissioner Grant said that violent acts are no less so because they are committed in the home, and warned perpetrators that the police force was dealing with family violence as a crime.

However, she said that dealing with the issue requires an urgent partnership between the police, non-government and community based organisations, citizens and the private sector to reverse the trend.

“Consequently, one of the expected outcomes of the workshops is to establish a response network that will enable the development of programmes for victims and perpetrators,” the Implementation Team said in its release.

“The confluence of community workers, who occupy spaces of influence within communities, is expected to facilitate an exchange of ideas that will improve the capacity of these frontline responders to act appropriately in matters related to family violence through new knowledge of appropriate tools and methodologies,” the Implementation Team said.

These frontline responders are drawn from various groups of community workers, namely health care providers, teachers, guidance counsellors, social workers, community and faith-based organisations, joined by lay magistrates and police officers.

“The strategy is to train 300 Kingston Western participants from the communities of Trench Town, Tivoli Gardens, Denham Town, Fletcher’s Land, Hannah Town and Craig Town,” the release said. “The workshops will be conducted over three two-day sessions. Each workshop will accommodate 100 persons in break-out groups of 25. Sessions will be led by 16 professional domestic violence trainers, most of whom are police officers.”

“Between the years 2000 and 2004, the JCF conducted training workshops for police officers, social workers and members of community stakeholder groups across Jamaica. Accepting that there are other community responders who are confronted with the evidence and impact of domestic violence, the training workshops were expanded to include community workers and leaders from non-government, government and faith-based organisations. It was this initiative that introduced domestic violence as a key community based policing initiative,” the Implementation Team release said.