(BRIDGETOWN, September 13, 2017) -- The Canadian Government-funded project Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) hosted a meeting on Saturday, September 9th, 2017, at the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill Campus, Barbados at which the decision was taken to form a Barbados Restorative Practices Association.
The meeting was chaired by Professor Velma Newton, Regional Project Director of the IMPACT Justice Project, and attended by educators who had received IMPACT Justice-sponsored training in restorative practices and who had expressed an interest in forming an association.
The officers of the Interim Executive Committee of the Association are: Ken Layne (President), Dr. Patricia Saul (Vice President) and. Julia Edey (Secretary). Mr. Layne, who is the Deputy Principal of the Daryll Jordan Secondary School since 2014, began his teaching career in the 1980s. He holds the Bachelors’ Degree in Technical and Vocational Education for Developing Countries and a number of other qualifications. Dr. Patricia Saul is the Deputy Principal of Erdiston Teachers’ Training College and has worked at that institution since 1997. Her specialties are adult literacy and linguistics. Julia Edey, whose specialty is counselling psychology, is the Guidance Counsellor at Parkinson Memorial Secondary School.
The floor members of the Interim Executive Committee are: Patricia Warner, Senior Education Officer, Ministry of Education, Science, Technology & Innovation since 2010; Coleen Gilkes-Collymore, the holder of a Masters in Special Education and the Director of the New Horizons Academy; Henderson Nurse, Tutor at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College and a specialist in Geographical Information Systems and Education for Sustainable Development and Nkwa Daniel, the holder of a Masters in Project Management & Evaluation who is currently a School Attendance Officer in the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation.
IMPACT Justice focuses on Restorative Practices as an Alternative Dispute mechanism which is being used in schools worldwide to solve disciplinary and other problems. Professor Velma Newton, the Regional Director of IMPACT Justice stated at the meeting, that since 2015, the Project has trained over 200 Barbadian educators in Restorative Practices and she expressed great satisfaction at the extent to it is being used in schools across the island. She also praised Minister of Education Hon. Ronald Jones and Senior Education Officer Patricia Warner, who had embraced the programme from the beginning and provided the leadership needed to ensure that it would take root in the educational system of Barbados.
Prof. Newton noted that IMPACT Justice had hosted a similar meeting to form a restorative practices association in St. Lucia in mid- August, and plans to assist in the establishment of associations in the other CARICOM countries served by the Project. The ultimate objective is the formation of a Caribbean-wide Restorative Practices Association.
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