Amid vitriol flying about regarding the failure thus far to achieve a national consensus on crime, we believe not enough attention has been paid to an exemplary initiative launched by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ).

We refer to the $2-billion, five-year Project STAR (social transformation and renewal) which we are told will target about 20 troubled communities, starting this month. Eight of the 20 are in western Jamaica, which has seen a frightening surge in violent crime in recent years, alongside robust, tourism-linked economic activity.

PSOJ leaders say Project STAR will be patterned to a considerable extent on a successful social intervention programme in Salt Spring, St James, initiated and nurtured by local police leadership.

“That was the beginning of an experiment that has worked well…” Mr Keith Duncan, president of the PSOJ, told journalists in Salt Spring last week Wednesday.

And for those of us with doubts about such projects, consider the message from Salt Spring Primary School Principal Ms Norma Brydson regarding a breakfast programme executed by the St James police, led by Senior Superintendent Vernon Ellis.

“Before the breakfast programme the attendance was low and punctuality was an issue. We would have… children not coming because of lunch money, [but] then attendance improved; and I attribute that mostly to the breakfast programme by the JCF [Jamaica Constabulary Force],” she said.

Let’s not ignore the testimony of Mr Ellis: “What we saw from this programme is that both the police and citizens got to see a human side of each other. We were better able to relate to each other, so it looked like a resocialisation between the citizens and the police. We cannot arrest our way out of the problems… sometimes it needs a multi-agency approach…”

We applaud plans by the PSOJ to include job creation; formalisation of community small businesses; and to work with social practitioners across the public sector and non-governmental organisations in building self-esteem and empowerment of communities. Skills training and related initiatives such as homework centres will seemingly form part of the project.

This newspaper embraces the appeal by Mr Duncan for an all-of-society approach to social transformation. We agree that “Jamaicans are ready for a reset.” We have been pleading for years for a national effort very much along these lines.

Of course, even with full cooperation, getting the project done will be extremely difficult.

Whatever happens, community leadership must be kept in the loop at all times, and bureaucracy must not be allowed to stifle — which has happened to many a well-meaning project.

Also, let’s recognise that projects such as these won’t, by themselves, bring crime and related problems under ‘manners’. Our political leaders must move to agree on how to deal with crime, instead of merely quarrelling about it.

We are at one with Mr Duncan regarding his recent call on radio urging Prime Minister Andrew Holness to arrange formal talks with the Opposition aimed at achieving bipartisan agreement on crime.

We hear from the broad-based Crime Monitoring and Oversight Committee that stakeholders are expected to sign off on an updated document by the end of October. Next must be implementation. Jamaicans are fast running out of patience.