The Caribbean Child Development Centre (CCDC) of the Consortium for Social Research and Development of the Global Campus, The University of the West Indies (UWI), in partnership with the Childhood and Youth Research Institute at the Anglia Ruskin University in England presented a special public lecture on Thursday, November 29, 2012 under the topic, “Children’s Rights, Gang Culture and Citizenship: Empowerment and inclusion towards reducing youth gang culture”. The public lecture which has been made possible through support from the British Academy was held at the Registry Undercroft of the UWI Mona Campus.
Guest speakers were visiting Research Fellow from Anglia Ruskin University, Dr. Darren Sharpe, as well as Mr. Horace Levy of the Peace Management Initiative in Jamaica. Dr. Sharpe’s topic was “Children and Young People's Citizenship: who's in and who's out of British democracy." Mr. Levy‘s covered “Youth Violence and Organized Crime: causes and counter-measures Project.” The panel also included presentations from youth programme representatives.
Prof. Julie Meeks - Head, CCDC
Dr. Darren Sharpe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Childhood and Youth Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, in Cambridge. His specialisations include the involvement of children, young people and vulnerable adults in policy research. He brings a high level of knowledge and understanding of youth policy and the evaluation of prevention, targeted and universal services aimed at disaffected youth. He led the young person strand of the feasibility study to evaluate the “Aiming High Ten Year Strategy” on behalf of Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and has advised and undertaken work for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, British Council and European Commission. He is the author of several publications on children and youth.
Mr. Horace Levy is a member of the Peace Management Initiative in Jamaica, a community outreach programme, which over the past ten years, worked to head off and defuse community violence. He was a research fellow in the Institute of Criminal Justice and Security at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. He is the author of the 2009 monograph, Killing Streets and Community Revival.
