Press Release

JCF/GoGSAT PARTNERSHIP FOR COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION

Kingston, Jamaica | Friday, March 06, 2009

Kingston, Jamaica – February 19, 2009. USAID’s Community Empowerment and Transformation Project hosted a press launch to highlight the JCF/GoGSAT Partnership for community transformation.

As a part of their commitment to community policing and youth crime prevention, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the U.S. Agency for International Development -Community Empowerment and Transformation (USAID-COMET) Project co-sponsored 370 students from communities implementing community-based policing to participate in the GoGSAT online preparatory course during the 2008 academic year.  This effort was highly successful as more than 80 percent of the participating students, most of whom had been deemed to be at risk of performing poorly and dropping out of school, received very high grades in their GSAT exams.

As a result of this success, the JCF and USAID’s COMET project are expanding the program to benefit approximately 4,000 students in communities where the JCF is rolling out community policing.

This expanded initiative is enhanced by a course on community safety and security, a new and very special, innovative feature.  This course, created by GoGSAT in partnership with the JCF and with the support of USAID, will be a part of the students’ online curriculum.  It is envisaged that the students who participate in this course will have a better appreciation of their role in building community safety and security.