Janice Jackson recounts her dealings with the Guyana National Police in implementing a standardized domestic-violence training program. Her grassroots approach to identifying the scourge of domestic violence, initiating contact with the police commissioner, and beginning with a "training for trainers" session is instructive in its simplicity. Jackson discusses her personal encounters with police officers who attended the training sessions and explains the standardization of the training that took place over years. She emphasizes that the success of any police training program relies on the ownership of the program by the police and offers suggestions as to the financial resource commitment and training rotation for training both new and experienced officers. She shares thoughts on a reporting system whereby participants can evaluate the training and revisit lessons learned.
Full Interview
At the time of this interview, Janice Jackson was an educational psychologist who spent her career working on issues of domestic violence, particularly in establishing and implementing domestic-violence training programs with the Guyana National Police. As the national representative for the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action and a founding member of the Guyana Volunteer Consultancy, she wrote and presented on domestic violence and child abuse, and formed a standardized course of training for the Guyana National Police on awareness of, sensitivity to, and processes for dealing with cases of domestic violence.