Public Health Approach To Crime & Violence

to make sure that exactly that was done. So again, joining us via Zoom, we have Dr. Ulrich Johnson, the presenter and founder of the Transformative Counseling, Coaching and Consultation Company, along with Karen-Beth Alexander of the Tobago Civil Net. Lady and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to The Now. Good morning, good morning. I like the title, Welcome to The Now. Well, you are on The Now Morning Show and currently we are checking in because we would have seen the final session, actually, of the four-part crime symposium happening on Tuesday, the 3rd of December. So we will see it rather. So Dr. Johnson, you will be presenting the public health approach to crime and violence. But I do want to check in with Karen first, giving us a little bit of highlights from the past sessions, if you will, Karen. Good morning, everybody. It's good to be here once more. And we have been having a very exciting time on turning the tide on crime and violence in Tobago. And you mentioned something a while ago that caught my ear because you spoke about everybody getting involved and it's not just the government. And I want to say it's not just the government, but the government is the main facilitator of these things that are happening that are impacting on the entire island and therefore, whenever good ideas come up, we always look forward to having the participation and facilitation of the government because they are the ones in control of the resources. So we've been having on our own, we have been trying our best with very little funding, got help from Eastern Credit Union, a bit of assistance, and we are grateful to them for that. And we have been having this four-part series. So in the first session on the 12th of November, we had Quincy Joseph, who is an ex-federal prisoner. And Quincy was very good. He was talking on crime and taxation. And he showed us where the cost, the expense of the outcomes of crime are not compatible with the revenue. So even though crime seems to pay, it is not profitable. And therefore, he showed the youth where they should not get involved in crime and violence because it is not profitable at all. It makes no sense. And he was very good at that. So he spoke about his prison experience and his turning point, the challenges in society and all that, and he gave us some solutions. And then we had David Muhammad, who is a powerhouse, as we know. And David spoke about the cultural and social issues of crime. He spoke about the unequal distribution of wealth. He spoke about criminogenic capitalism and the deviant amplification spiral, which is a sociological term, and he explained what that was. And he spoke about post-colonial sovereignty. And then he gave us some solutions. And he sort of spoke about the need for a massive investment into the marginal communities, into the high-need communities. And then he spoke about the transformation, the need for the transformation of the school system. And that has been coming through in all the discussions. And he spoke about refocusing and interfacing with gangs at the state level, youth development, prison reform. All of that, he spoke about the expansion of the tertiary-level system. So then, following David, we had Camille Swamp. And Camille was excellent because she showed us where the lack of joyful learning within this education system is one of the main triggers for crime and violence. Because in the absence of joyful learning, you have school failure and you have poverty, you have a lack of access to money, and then you have crime. So the fact that children are not taught to pass exams in our school system and not trained in accordance with their level of development, because children develop in a certain kind of way at different ages and stages. They are at different areas of development. And therefore, we need to tailor our education system to the development level of the children. And that has not been done. And she was a strong advocate for this joyful learning as an antidote to failing, ailing, and misbehaving among our young people. And she spoke about the family. She spoke about the different environmental impacts on children that caused them to go into deviant behavior. And so, and it was quite interesting. So all of these can be found on the Tobago CivilNet Facebook page. So people who might have missed it and want to catch up or want to listen again can go to the Tobago CivilNet Facebook page. And there too is where we are going to hear from Dr. Ulrich Johnson on Tuesday. When, and Ulrich Johnson is just a powerhouse when it comes to the public health approach. He knows it inside out. He knows it like the back of his hand. And the first time I heard him on the radio here in Trinidad and Tobago, and it was in Trinidad actually, I was in Trinidad. I said, I have to find that man. That is the man who can help us. And that was 2008. And we started having workshops and seminars with him, but we couldn't, we could only have gone so far. We really needed the facilitation and the assistance of the government to have the public health approach mainstreamed into the activities against crime and violence in Trinidad and Tobago. So Karen, let me ask Mr. Johnson then in terms of his delivery, what we can expect. Just a little bit of a snippet, if you will, Dr. Johnson. What is the public health approach? Thank you. Thank you, Karen. As Karen mentioned, my work in Trinidad, my work as an educator is to break down complex concept into really a way that the public could understand. I think the goal of my presentation is to really educate people about the public health approach, which they have been doing, but have not been consistently doing. From brushing your teeth is a public health approach because it's not only about personal violence, it's about how your bad breath will affect the public. So the question is, you have to apply it, and that does not require government intervention. So the public health approach is a combination, is a scientific, scientific. It's not based on rumor, gossip, scientific research-based approach to dealing with gangs and gun violence and other public health issue. I think a perfect example was how we dealt with COVID. We use a public health approach, which in essence, we identify what we call the host, the agent, and the environment, and how that virus spread towards the public, not only in Tobago, Trinidad, but around the world. So there is research-based evidence to show that we can reduce violence. In Boston, we reduced violence, gang violence, to zero for three years. In 2024, we're down to six murders. So the question is, applying the public health approach requires a conscious effort, supported by funding, as Karen mentioned. And so I'm looking to have that discussion with the public on what different parts of the community could do, from schools to community to parents. I was born in Trinidad. Some of the risk factors that could lead me to gangs were there, but there was some preventive factors that that community provided to me that really have me where I'm at today. So I wanna share that with people and have an honest and authentic discussion. Now, Dr. Johnson, you speak of a discussion so that persons are encouraged to participate even via Zoom or in-person as well, yes? Exactly, yes. They could call in with questions, and I encourage them because the public, part of the public health approach is community education, educating the public. So as Karen mentioned, when I came to Trinidad and I was on the radio shows, people were calling in, what could I do? How am I contributing to the risk factors? How could I contribute to the prevention factors? Because like a cold, there's things you could make, you make more of a risk to get the cold. And my grandmother, back who died at 103, always said prevention is better than cure. Better than cure, you know what he said. So the public health model is about prevention, not intervention, right? By the time you get to intervention, you're dead sometime, you know? So I look forward to having that discussion. Well, it is the final session of the CivilNet's four-part crime symposium. It is happening on the Tuesday, the 3rd of December, and we are looking forward to being able to connect with you all both digitally through Facebook and other streaming devices, as well as a follow-up, which we will do with the CivilNet team at the close to give us some of the findings and hopefully things that we can implement. So let me say thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us virtually this morning, and best of luck with your event on the 3rd. Thank you so much. And what we are hoping for to happen after is that as a country, we are going to all get together, including the government, and implement this public health approach because we are able, with the help of Dr. Johnson, to develop an action plan for that purpose. And so we are hoping that that's the next phase. Absolutely, as do we. We, again, thank you for joining us this morning, and we will do that check-in to make sure that we can implement some of those findings from this symposium. But for now, you guys stick around for more things that you can find here on The Now Morning Show after this break.