Two topics dominated the headlines in September: politics and children’s issues.

Early on in the month Family Centre issued a rallying call for the community’s help in tackling a “disturbing” rise in child neglect reports on the island.

Referrals for child neglect rose by more than 25 per cent in 2015 — leading the charity to embark on an awareness campaign to educate the public on what constitutes neglect and how it can be properly tackled.

Also in September, police reported a small spike in crime during the second quarter of 2016 — calling on residents’ help in combating it. Michael DeSilva, the Police Commissioner, announced a worrying trend of gangs recruiting a growing number of younger members and police officers charging people as young as 18 for violent crimes.

“It’s clear that their gang life at that age started before then,” he said.

Mr DeSilva attributed three factors as the driving force behind gang violence: respect, revenge and revenue.

They hosted a series of public meetings to tackle the negative trend; police were also working to discuss options with Family Centre, Mirrors, the Champions Programme and Men on a Mission.

Statistics show gun crime has fallen over the past three years and figures for 2016 at that point showed crime had generally declined as well.

While road crashes were down overall, fatal collisions were an area in which Mr DeSilva said law enforcement were “just not having the impact that we hoped”.

In positive news, Gina Spence’s Champions Programme announced mid month they had sent a 15-year-old boy to Boston to take part in an internationally acclaimed bereavement camp for children.

The teenager, who lost his father to gun crime on the island, benefited from the Comfort Zone camp thanks to public donations. During his time overseas he joined with about 80 other young participants to engage in trust building and counselling exercises, as well as healing circles. Over the three days, participants were also paired with an older “buddy” who had experienced similar trauma in their life.

Dr Spence said the trip was “extremely successful” — they are now hoping other children on the island can take advantage of the programme. Their next step is to coordinate a representative from Comfort Zone to come to Bermuda in the near future.

Statistics collected by Gina Spence Productions reveal that since 2009 24 boys and 26 girls have lost their parents to gun and gang crime on the island. Six of these young people are living overseas, while 44 are in Bermuda.

Politics also had its share of headlines in September — starting when two MPs Silvan Richards and Patricia Gordon Pamplin admitted to attending the Olympic Games in Brazil with the total cost to taxpayers of $38,000. Ms Gordon-Pamplin, the Paget West MP, recorded more than $6,300 in expenses for the trip, while Mr Richards, her successor as sports minister, sparked anger for spending $31,566 on his visit to Rio de Janeiro.

In later news a poll commissioned by The Royal Gazette showed the public lacked faith in both the One Bermuda Alliance and Progressive Labour Party’s ability to lead the country. Four of the island’s leading politicians were widely criticised for a “lack of transparency, unity and trust”.

More than half of the 402 people quizzed through the poll believed both parties had too much “internal strife” to run the country.

September 1: Late St George’s Deputy Mayor Louis ‘Red’ DeSilva is honoured for his commitment to the island, which includes multiple posts with the Corporation of St George’s and a stint as President of the St George’s Cricket Club.

September 1: Bill Zuill, former editor of The Royal Gazette, is appointed the new executive director of the Bermuda National Trust, after Jennifer Grey stepped down in July.

September 4: Anthony Williams, 50, becomes the island’s latest traffic fatality after the motorcycle he was riding on collided with a taxi going in the opposite direction.

September 5: Bermudian Zina Jacobs was reported as injured in an apparent hit and run while visiting New Orleans, according to news source WWLTV. She was visiting with her family on a seven day cruise.

September 8: Two men convicted of possessing a firearm were jailed for 12 years. Eston Joell, 47, and Lekan Scott, 27, were described by the judge as ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’.

September 9: Warwick man, Damion Smith, 44, denies attempting to import $265,289 worth of cannabis into Bermuda. He was stopped at L F Wade International Airport on August 28 after sniffer dogs identified two suitcases.

September 10: A short film series, which highlights issues faced by people with mental illness, called The Faces of Mental Illness, produced by Think Media, with support of the Bermuda Mental Health Foundation, was screened on island.

September 12: An 88-year-old taxi driver, Richard Johnston, died after he lost control of his vehicle on Middle Road in Southampton and struck a wall.

September 13: Team StreetSafe, a programme providing direct intervention for young people involved in gang lifestyles and antisocial behaviour, was handed a $40,000 cheque from Senator Jeff Baron, as part of the Cash Back for Communities programme.

September 14: Pauline Cafferkey, a former Bermuda nurse, is cleared of two charges of misconduct by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, after being acused of concealing her body temperature at an Ebola screening. She survived the deadly virus, which she contracted while working in Sierra Leone in 2014.

September 16: Michael Dunkley participates in Butterfield’s IPO listing launch on the New York Stock Exchange. The official launch included a performance by Gombeys, was considered a milestone for the island.

September 19: John Rankin, the former British Ambassador to Nepal, is named the island’s next Governor, after George Fergusson’s departure in August.

September 19: A second death, that of Ben Buenaventura of the Phillipines, is reported after a cruise ship accident on the Norwegian Breakaway, which also seriously injured another man on July 20.

September 19: Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Trust named Lisa Sheppard as its new development director. A former reporter at The Royal Gazette, Ms Sheppard will be tasked with fundraising for the BHCT and the Bermuda Hospitals Board.

September 19: A JetBlue aircraft bound for Bermuda had to make an emergency landing at Logan Airport in Boston after an apparent lightning strike.

September 20: Dakia O’Brien closed her takeout restaurant Wild Wing Wednesday.

September 22: W. Roger Davidson, a passionate businessman who guided The Royal Gazette’s parent company through its most challenging decades, dies at age 78.

September 23: Premier Michael Dunkley asks prison inmate Dwayne Signor to carve a cedar gift for the Pope. He describes it as a “milestone” in his life.

September 24: Tahira Baker, a 25-year-old Bermudian woman who died due to a fire last year in Britain, is understood to have died in her bath after breathing in carbon monoxide, and inquest heard.

September 26: The Bermuda Government donated $15,000 to youth development charity, Raleigh International, as part of its Cash Back for Communities programme.

September 27: Local film lovers get to join viewers from around the world in judging the 19th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival, which will feature ten shorts from eight different countries.

September 28: The late Johnny Barnes is honoured in a short documentary, Open Arms, by filmmaker Rosanne Ma, which is now available online.

September 30: A 21-year-old Devonshire woman, Yasmyne Simons, admitted to stealing $200 in cash for a BTA tourism booth.

September 30: A 40-year-old Pembroke man was arrested in connection with a series of armed robberies, including two that week.

September 30: Ministry of Tourism and Transport announced the tourism figured were up 7.9 per cent in August – with 94, 555 people visiting Bermuda for leisure.