The Pride in Gonzales initiative, a collaboration of CITY (Community Intervention Transforming Youth), the Ministry of National Security, the City of Port of Spain, the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP), UWI and the community of Gonzales, has won first place in Motorola’s 2006 competition for Community Police Initiatives.

The rationale for this award is to reward and recognise individuals, groups and organisations who have contributed significantly to the development and implementation of community policing initiatives, which have resulted substantially to the enhancement of police community relations and/or the improvement of community life.

Pride in Gonzales topped Category 2,  which applies to forces/services of participating countries whose membership is more than 1000.

The prize-giving ceremony was held at St Martin de Porres RC Church in Gonzales on Tuesday, July 18. Chairman for the event was Dennis Graham, Assistant Commissioner of Police.

Archbishop Edward Gilbert delivered the welcome remarks and the opening prayer. In his welcome address, he said the reason the Pride in Gonzales initiative was going well was because the many leaders involved had taken the decision to listen to each other, to dialogue with each other, to collaborate with each other and to begin to trust each other.

“Those four essential conditions are at the heart of this work… I think one of the encouraging signs is that it is being transplanted to other areas, a sure sign of its success.

“This project is about participation and about the community taking back its space and cultivating a peaceful community,” parish priest Fr Jason Gordon told the gathering. He gave a brief history of how CITY and Pride in Gonzales began.

Today, three homework clinics, an Internet café, gang intervention activities, programmes in the arts (dance, photography, videography and music), sports, computer literacy and technology, as well as counselling and crisis intervention are a few of the community projects managed by CITY.

Some of the successes of the Pride in Gonzales collaboration include a partnership with the Ministry of Public Utilities to improve the pipe-borne water supply and street lighting in Gonzales, and a partnership with WASA to implement a comprehensive plan to upgrade water delivery to the whole area.

There has also been an upsurge in social activities in the community including football competitions, Indian Arrival Day sports, an Easter extravaganza and a Christmas event for the children. There is too an annual children’s camp that has been held for the last three years, with participation increasing significantly each year.

Fr Jason remarked that the Ministry of National Security has been a model ministry in their partnership with Pride in Gonzales. “In 2005 after the community requested a different type of police presence, the Minister of National Security, the Honourable Martin Joseph, met promptly with us to discuss our plans. His support for the initiative was immediate and consistent.”

The project has, however, hit a couple of snags. “We are waiting nearly a year now for the Ministry of Community Development to enter into a meaningful dialogue with us about the residents’ ideas for the Community Centre that was destroyed in 2002,” Fr Jason noted.

Also, there has been disagreement with that ministry over a pan facility planned for the area. The community drew up plans expressing their desires, but there has been no response from the ministry as yet.
Fr Jason concluded by thanking everyone involved and all those who have supported him and supported Gonzales.

Minister Joseph congratulated Fr Jason and Assistant Superintendent Earl Jackson, the two leading figures in the initiative, for the success of “Project Pride”.

He said when Fr Jason first approached him about the initiative he immediately decided that his ministry would give whatever help it could. “Here was a parish priest who came to the Ministry of National Security to say ‘I have a solution to a problem that is affecting the community’,” the Minister said. He added that he was impressed because, instead of simply complaining and engaging in “ole talk”, “Fr Jason Gordon came with solutions”.

Minister Joseph said too many people simply complain and tell the Government and the ministry, “Fix crime now. Do something. Do something, as if something can be done overnight.”

He said it took dedicated people to really make such projects work, and thanked everyone involved in Pride in Gonzales, particularly Fr Jason and ASP Jackson.

He called on Fr Jason to be a spokesperson for the success of the project so others could get the message, “so that we would be able to bring back Trinidad and Tobago community by community by community and, as a result, we would be able to live in a Trinidad and Tobago of which we all can be proud of.

Other speakers at the award ceremony were Police Commissioner Trevor Paul, Port of Spain Mayor Murchison Brown, Ag Deputy City Clerk Winifred David, and John Magee, Motorola System Sales Manager for the Caribbean Region.

Also present were Minister of Local Government, Rennie Dumas, Minister of State in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Eulalie James, and Councillors Jenelle Young and Newman Clarke. Calypsonians All Rounder and his daughter Lady Wonder performed a few verses that had the crowd laughing.

John Magee and John Anderson of Motorola, along with Minister Joseph, Commissioner Paul and Mayor Brown made the formal presentation of the First Prize Trophies to Fr Jason and ASP Jackson.

Since 2001, Motorola has partnered with the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police to recognise efforts in the Caribbean to improve relations between the police and the communities they serve.

Trinidad and Tobago earned second place in 2005 for the Monte Branch Community Project. Pride in Gonzales was announced as this year’s winner during the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police Conference in May 2006.