Belize City, Belize: The 2010-2011 Crime Stoppers Belize Board participated in a workshop on Saturday and Sunday December 4th and 5th at Pepperland Estate in the Cayo District. The weekend workshop was opened by the chairman of Crime Stoppers, Howard Oldham, with an overview by Chief Operating Officer, Chris Garcia, and facilitated by CSB/CARSI Project Manager, Denbigh Yorke of NOPCAN, Board members Alberto Young and Sharon Fraser. Invited guests included the representatives of the Embassy of the United States of America in Belize, Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally, and Jack Diffily - Deputy Chief of Mission, and Jennifer Barr - Political Officer. The focus of the weekend workshop was to empower Crime Stoppers Board in order to increase its effectiveness in the management of projects, including Crime Stoppers Community Outreach Program: Public Awareness, Community Outreach/Education and Institutional Strengthening funded through a Grant recently received from the US Embassy under its Central American Regional Security initiative (CARSI) program.

An objective of the Board training was to identify pro-active community engagement strategies that will contribute to the reduction of crime in high risk communities. In his opening remarks, Chairman, Howard Oldham, commented that “The success of CSB work will be dependent on the keen interest and diversity of CSB members to unselfishly and creatively use their abilities to execute the CARSI or any other project they undertake”. Ambassador Thummalapally challenged the CSB to focus on how it can influence youths especially males who are at risk of coming in contact with the law to embrace or pursue alternatives to a life of crime and violence. The Board training provided members with a virtual road map for assisting with the very difficult challenge sighted by the Ambassador. It commits Crime Stoppers to developing, implementing and sustaining a dynamic program to increase public awareness through direct community involvement in activities designed to prevent crime by engaging the community in strengthening social structures through incentives for youths combined with meaningful social and educational opportunities within targeted communities. It’s about people taking responsibility and asserting themselves to produce respect for law and order and most importantly, respect for human life and property. The first phase of the project is to be conducted with the aim of creating a model that can be adapted by different communities throughout Belize. Crime Stoppers Belize is a community-based service, which enables citizens to anonymously provide information about unsolved crimes, and to receive rewards when an arrest is made and someone is charged for a crime.

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Contact information: Crime Stoppers Belize (CSB)
P. O. Box: 1960, Belize City
Phone: 607-1484
E-Mail: coordinator@crimestoppersbelize.org
Website: www.crimestoppersbelize.org
Chairman: Howard Oldham