Jamaica's Justice Ministry Highlights Safe Spaces For Child Victims of Crime

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaican authorities say they are providing child-friendly spaces to help children who are victims of crime feel safe.

Dionne Dawn BinnsThe director of the Justice Ministry’s Victim Services Branch (VSB) Dionne Dawn Binns said these spaces are designed to help the children feel calm and comfortable while they’re interacting with their counsellor, their social worker, whomever it may be.

Binns told the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) News that two of the spaces, located in Portland and Manchester, were developed with donor funding support, adding that “we are looking, going forward, to be able to develop more spaces in our offices”.

Binns said that child-friendly spaces also provide an opportunity for children to not only open up and share what they need to share but to adjust to what is happening and to benefit from the therapy that they are receiving.

“We utilize play therapy a lot with our children, because some persons don’t know that the language of a child is play. So, we utilize play therapy strategies to help them to open up, help them to tell their story, help them to understand what is happening, and to also benefit from the therapy that they would receive from their counsellors.

“We try to ensure that, not only are we providing the counselling and the emotional support, but our physical spaces are also developed and established in such a way that is conducive, especially for our children,” Binns said.

She said that the child-friendly spaces are very colorful, cheerful and bright, while noting that murals are also located on the walls, which the children enjoy looking at.

“[They have] furniture that is conducive to children. So whereas a standard counselling room may have a couch and chairs in a regular setup, these have child-sized chairs, tables, beanbags, things that the children enjoy sitting on [among other things].

“There are also… therapeutic tools (toys) that we use in the therapy [sessions] to be able to assist the children. So, it may look, from a general perspective, like a toy, but it has specific meanings and is utilized in therapy,” she added.