ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an attempt to promote peaceful means of resolving conflict in three low-income communities in the Kingston Metropolitan Area in Jamaica: those of Maverly, Drewsland and Southside. It arose out of recognition of the fact that in the context of a difficult urban economic environment and institutional decay, violence had become a part of the accepted logic. Maverly/Drewsland are two areas situated in the suburbs of western St. Andrew and separated by one of the major highways leading out of the Kingston Metropolitan Area. Many residents of Maverly to the north of the highway are semi-professional and skilled workers who own their homes. In Maverly and Drewsland large numbers of young women reportedly became involved in an illegal trade between Jamaica and the United Kingdom. The chapter also describes the intervention programme, designed to encourage harmonious relations between marginalised men and women, by improving their capacity to resolve conflict by peaceful means.
