Objectives

To continue the sensitization of involved Principals, Teachers, Guidance Counselors, Pastor, Elders and relevant church personal, Police and community personnel to the Child Resiliency Programme of the Violence Prevention Alliance.
To help caregivers/teachers involved in the programme to better manage their stress.
To assist caregivers/teachers in becoming better equipped to cope with children with behavioral and emotional problems.
To teach caregivers/teachers to pick up early warning signs of physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect.
To review and agree on the referral criteria.

Training Activities

Sensitization and Training of community personnel

This is a critical time of building community cohesion and inclusion and building partnerships. It keeps persons informed and involved, allows for shared decision making and promotes “buy in” to the process. It is done annually for each programme site:

For example preparation for the start up of the programme at Sam Sharpe Teachers College and Falmouth All Age began with a sensitisation workshop for all potential stakeholders. In attendance were all the representatives from the feeder schools and partners: Sam Sharpe Board, Community Safety and Security Division of the police, Mount Salem, Flankers ,Irwin, Barracks Road, Granville Primary Schools, Tourism Enhancement Fund Director, Child Guidance Clinic, CDA Joan Duncan Foundation, Bethel Baptist, CDA representatives etc.

Implementers Training

Staff/volunteers meetings are held at the start and mid- term for each of the programme sites. The team of 12 persons at each Kingston site –YMCA and Boys Town and team of 8 in Falmouth and 12 in Montego Bay- Sam Sharpe Teachers College are consistently present at these meetings and prove to be a very useful time of team building and problem solving for the upcoming terms activities along with ongoing training on the resiliency approach to reducing high risk behaviour.

Teacher Training

Teacher training workshops for all Grade 5 teachers from the feeder schools are held annually. Grade 5 teachers from all feeder schools and facilitators are present. This is a successful time of getting feedback of the start up process of the program from the teachers and helping to iron out the“ kinks”. Teachers are trained in topics such as “Handling behavioural challenges in the classroom”. “Handling attention deficit and learning disabilities in the classroom” “Identifying early warning signs of violence and abuse” as well as learning more about the resiliency approach and “What and Why the Child Resiliency Program? Finally they are given a very important session on Stress Management for Teachers as well as motivational sessions.