Above: Charlestown, Nevis (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Traditional shapers of society must reassert their roles to mitigate the culture of youth gangs and violence that have pervaded society, said Marcella Liburd, St Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Social Development, Culture and Gender Affairs in a speech yesterday.

Liburd was speaking at the opening of the third leg of the CARICOM National Consultations on Gangs and Gang Violence Project in Basseterre.

“It is clear that the traditional socialization institutions — home, church, community and school — are failing to inculcate values in the youths,” she said. “Their role is fast being usurped by new media technologies.”

Liburd said “we all need to get back into step.”

The consultation is funded by the United Nations Development Programme, and is aimed at addressing the needs of Belize, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago, the four countries involved in what, for now, is a pilot project.