Police and volunteer mediators last Saturday believe that they have thwarted a heated conflict from turning deadly while conducting an outreach project in Mt D’Or.
While engaging residents, a team of volunteers of the Community Conflict Resolution Centre (CCRC) came across two men who were arguing over a contractual agreement and who were seemingly becoming very enraged.
The team immediately sprang into action, listening and providing mediation services to the men, as they deescalated the situation.
The men later agreed to attend mediation at the CCRC in an effort to come to a mutual agreement and a peaceful way forward.
The CCRC, which is in collaboration with Officium Training Ltd, is housed at the St Joseph Police Youth Club, Abercromby Street, St Joseph, is providing free mediation services to the community.
In this leg of the exercise, the CCRC, led by coordinator WPC Sascha Williams-Goddard and senior mediator Jeneice De Coteau, was joined by the Gender-Based, Child Protection, and the Community-Oriented Policing Sections of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service as well as personnel from the Children’s Authority.
WPC Williams-Goddard said, while many residents may be apprehensive in approaching the police about conflicts and domestic affairs, the police and volunteers are aware of the fallouts of these incidents if left unaddressed.
As such, she said, the CCRC is not waiting for people to come to access its service, but is taking the services to them to reduce conflict, violence, and in some cases, fatalities, in families and in the community.
The CCRC will host a parenting workshop in the upcoming month where all parents are invited. For further information, please call 396-8322.
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