Nineteen ‘curfew monitors’ from the August Town community in St Andrew were awarded with certificates on Friday afternoon in a graduation ceremony.

In efforts to combat the recent upsurge of violent crimes in the community, the curfew-monitoring programme was developed to promote community safety and security by ensuring that the youth and other community members are off the streets during curfew hours.

A similar programme was implemented in Denham Town, where monitors were also trained. These monitors were chosen because of their ability to engage children in the community and were selected from the five main districts of August Town - African Gardens, August Town proper, Goldsmith Villa, Hermitage, and Bedward Gardens.

Curfew monitors are trained in several areas, including customer service, childcare and protection, effective parenting, leadership, and dispute resolution and mediation. The project elements will include neighbourhood watch, mentorship programmes and community consultations.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Ealan Powell said, “We must believe that it is possible, but we have to put in the work,”in reference to the programme. He encouraged the participants to be “fearless and to be fair,” reminding them that they are models in their community. Powell expects that the monitors will help to demonstrate the change that they would want in their community, as the “future will be in danger if things do not change”.