Disaster response gaps ‘could deepen harm to vulnerable youth’

A lack of coordinated disaster response could leave vulnerable young people facing greater harm, Minister of Home Affairs Gregory Nicholls has warned, urging closer collaboration among agencies responsible for their care.

Speaking during the opening of a two-day workshop hosted by the Caribbean Association of Probation and Parole and the Barbados Probation Service entitled ‘Rooted in Resilience, United in Strength: Trauma-Informed Practice and Crisis Preparedness for Juvenile Justice Practitioners’, he warned that disjointed response systems would leave young people within the justice and social services exposed to even greater harm.

Many of these young people carried the burdens of trauma, abuse, loss, instability and exposure to violence, leaving them particularly susceptible during emergencies, he said.

“For them, a disaster is not a singular event. It is an escalation. It deepens existing wounds and can undo fragile progress if we are not equipped to respond appropriately.”  

He argued that this reality placed a clear responsibility on institutions and agencies to ensure that preparation is informed, response is coordinated, and care is intentional.

Praising the workshop, which is funded by UNICEF, he told those gathered at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre that by bringing together emergency management officials, probation services, police, courts, schools, social services and healthcare practitioners, a critical truth was being recognised that “fragmented responses will fail vulnerable young people. Only coordinated systems will protect them”.

Nicholls pointed to the collaboration between the Probation Service and the Department of Emergency Management as evidence of a changing approach to addressing these challenges.

“It is a shift away from silos and towards shared responsibility, and that shift is not optional. It is essential,” he said.

During the workshop, participants will focus on suicide prevention and critical incident stress management, both issues which Nicholls identified as increasingly affecting both vulnerable youth and the practitioners who supported them.

“We cannot speak about resilience for those in our care without addressing the wellbeing of those providing for that care. If we fail to support you, we will weaken the system.”

The workshop was about more than just training; it was an effort to strengthen capacity, protect lives, and build resilience where it is needed most, the home affairs minister declared.

“It is about ensuring that when the next crisis comes, and it will come, we are not reacting but responding with clarity, compassion and competence.”

Chief Probation Officer Dr Angela Dixon said disaster compounds existing vulnerabilities among young people in the system and noted that professionals responsible for them often carried that burden without adequate preparation or support. She added that the workshop was the first of two regional sessions intended to help close that gap.

She said: “The knowledge and connections built here are meant to travel, to take root in other Caribbean territories, and to contribute to a response capacity that is genuinely regional. We are grateful to UNICEF for making this possible.”

Some of those attending the CAPP and Barbados Probation Service workshop. (Photo Credit: Jenique Belgrave/Barbados TODAY)

(JB)