Westmoreland hopes ‘PSOJ STAR’ will brighten troubled Savanna-la-Mar
Published:Wednesday | November 23, 2022 | 12:11 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Westmoreland business community has embraced the roll-out of the Private Sector of Jamaica’s (PSOJ) Social Transformation and Renewal ( STAR) project in the troubled town of Savanna-la-Mar.
The PSOJ’s STAR project will be having its formal launch at the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (WCCI) annual dinner on Saturday, November 26.
The project is a five-year, $2-billion social transformation and renewal initiative aimed at turning around up to 20 under-resourced communities, including eight areas across western Jamaica.
Since the project was formally launched in Kingston in July, several communities have so far benefited from the social intervention initiatives being led by the private sector.
On the eastern end, communities located in downtown Kingston were among the first to do so.
In western Jamaica, where upwards of eight communities are slated to be positively impacted, Salt Spring in St James is now reaping rewards.
“The PSOJ STAR project is designed in such a way that has very visible key performance indicators that will allow us to have better knowledge of the effectiveness of the various programmes,” said Moses Chybar, president of the WCCI in a Gleaner interview.
The Westmoreland businessman is urging the Government to find ways of measuring the effectiveness of the programme, “so that we can make the necessary adjustment, based on what the outcome is, in order to see better results”.
Under the STAR project, unplanned and under-resourced communities benefit through the facilitation of a national, collaborative, evidence-based approach to sustained violence prevention at the community level. And they will be developed in collaboration with the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the community, business leaders and other partner agencies.
Further, STAR will seek to implement a range of interventions designed to support strategies that encompass inclusive, sustained and measurable objectives, which will result in safer, more resilient communities with reduced levels of violent crime.
Almost five weeks before the end of 2022, Westmoreland has seen several deadly gun conflicts, resulting in 130 cases of murders committed across the parish. That figure represents an increase of 18 murders, or 16.1 per cent, over 2021, when there were 112 such cases.