ST. KITTS: Basseterre, St. Kitts – April 26th 2016 Members of staff in the Ministry of Community Development, Gender Affairs and Social Services in both St. Kitts and Nevis will engage in a four-day training made possible by the OECS Juvenile Justice Reform Project, from Tuesday, April 26th to Friday, April 29th, 2016.
The training which is being facilitated by Master Trainer, Ms. Jemma Alexander from St. Vincent will help the respective staff of the Ministry to strengthen competencies in the use of assessment tools.
Two assessment tools will be introduced to the staff during the training with emphasis on the SAVRY tool. SAVRY is the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth. The SAVRY is an evidence-based assessment designed to assist professionals in making judgments about a youth’s risk for future general re-offending and violence and for identifying a youth’s need for case planning. The other tool is the MAYSI-2 , the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2nd Version is used to assess metal wellbeing of young persons.
With the challenges that our youths face, strengthening personnel and building capacity must be at the forefront of addressing these challenges. These risk assessment provide an avenue to minimize the risk factors and strengthen the protective factors in the young person’s immediate environment. This cadre of professionals which include, counselors, case managers, gender officers, probation officers and child protection officers will be evaluated on their ability to administer the assessment tool efficiently and expected to use the assessment tools to guide in the planning of interventions for the young person.
This training will place the Federation’s direct and clinical intervention team at an advantage in serving our young persons at risk and those in conflict with the law.
