If there are more parenting workshops for young parents, there will be a reduction in the level of crime being experienced in the country, according to Senior Pastor at the Grant’s Town Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Peter Joseph.

The church held a workshop for the first time on Saturday and according to Pastor Joseph it is the first of many.

“We have a community initiative called it’s your corner,” he said.

“In this community, we have several segments and different groups from the church go into those segments and find out the needs of the people are and then sit down and put a plan together to respond to those needs. What you’re seeing here today is one of the responses in terms of teens being parents and having a lot of deficiencies. We believe that if we can intervene and equip those parents then we can have a better generation coming up particularly as we think about the kind of crime we are seeing.”

Pastor Joseph said more young people are having children and unfortunately those same young people doo not have guidance because their own parents are not there to guide them.

“We believe if we can equip these young parents with the necessary parenting skills they can have better children and then the children will be better socialised and so criminal activity will decrease,” he said.

“So this is the first of many. We have many speakers coming in and we will try to help as much people in the community as we can.”

Member of Parliament for the area and National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage brought brief remarks at the workshop over the weekend.

He told reporters that more communities need to be engaged in initiatives like this one.

“One of the fundamental issues with crime is the breakdown of the family, that’s the lack of supervision of children by parents and teenage pregnancy,” the national security minister said.

“These are some of the issues that increase criminal activity whether directly or indirectly. This is an extremely important series of seminars that they are beginning and I’m looking forward to not only participating but also supporting it. When I started my gynecology practice my subject of greatest interest was teenage pregnancies. I preached about it and what the impact of it would be if we didn’t get a hold of it. We didn’t get a hold of it so now we are trying to catch up.”

Dr. Nottage said there are too many children without parents in The Bahamas and they are not getting help from anyone.

“We have too many children without fathers,” he said.

“Too often relationships between young men and women are tumultuous so this is an excellent idea and we need to see more of it.”

Bringing the keynote address at the workshop was Assistant Commissioner of Police, Leon Bethel.

He spoke on the topic, “A Parent’s Role in Making Your Community A Safer Place.”