The photographs of 43 murder victims on the front cover of The Royal Gazette on September 16, left me feeling gutted. We are no longer a community that was once rooted in the belief that it takes a village to raise a child. Too many Bermudians are giving up hope; most of us believe in God, and for those of us who do, faith, hope and love are biblical requirements for riding out life.

The situation with organised crime that is spiralling out of control in certain pockets of our society can be remedied, but it will take a huge financial investment in our youth.

The solutions are already known — they have been researched, presented and discussed for decades. The reason we do not carry out the solutions is because Bermuda is broke. It is important for us to understand that former premier Ewart Brown consistently spent over budget between 2006 and 2010, and this combined with the 2008-09 global financial crisis led Bermuda to enter into grave national debt. The subsequent David Burt government inherited the debt and had to carry out extensive austerity cuts in social services and national security.

It is important to remember that austerity measures were prudent at that time, but the Civil Service took a huge hit when a four-day week was introduced, followed by early-retirement offers and freezing of salary increases and new hires. It matters that our Civil Service salaries are far lower than those in the private sector. It matters that over the past decade there have been continued cuts in social services, and declining staff numbers in both the police service and prison service.

Then the pandemic pretty much cleaned out everyone’s finances and dried up or significantly reduced the services of government and financial support for integral charities. We have yet to rebound, and this affects our society, our young people — not to mention the elderly and otherwise vulnerable — and has definitely contributed to the gang culture.

Let us consider what type of services a labour government should be providing to prevent gang violence. Let’s clean the dust off many studies already presented over the decades that recommend what resources should be offered to keep our children’s hands from being idle.

Let the microscope be placed on social services to ensure that it has the financial ability to hire professional staff and offer physical resources to provide robust early-childhood intervention programmes. The following ideas are not new:

Free nursery school care

The Government could provide a capped amount of free hours per week based on family income, with low-income families receiving more extensive support when it comes to the care of children starting at the age of four months.

For example, there are ten European countries which have strong economies and which have adopted social capitalist economic models. Norway, Germany, Austria, Finland, Iceland and Denmark offer largely free, or heavily subsidised, childcare, with some countries such as Luxembourg and Lithuania providing free hours for younger children. Bulgaria has abolished fees entirely and Portugal is heading in the same direction by introducing a universal free childcare programme.

Early childhood intervention

The Government’s Child Development Programme works in partnership with families to enhance the development of all children from birth to 4 years of age. Developmental screening for children island-wide occurs upon turning 2. It is at this point that we should know if a child is at risk — when intervention should take place with constant monitoring.

If there are signs of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect or abandonment, are the staff in the child development programme able? Are they confident when they refer children to social services programmes and facilities?

Housing

The number of families and people on the Government’s housing waiting list has dropped, so it is not all doom and gloom. But there were still more than 350 applicants, and we should be aware of overcrowding owing to astronomical rents. In terms of low-income families, we need to understand that overcrowding may cause physical and emotional harm to children — think of their future developmental issues when they are exposed to too much adult content, too much noise, no place for respite, no bedroom of your own.

The Government needs to introduce a three-year freeze on rent increases across all stratums of society because it is the high earners and captains of industry renting beautiful Bermuda homes paid for by their firms who are crucially affecting our housing market.

Adults renting homes in Fentons Drive and in Middletown who are worried about the safety and potential “recruitment” of their children for gang membership should be the first on the list for Bermuda Housing Corporation to relocate.

Safe house for children awaiting foster care

The Sunshine League children’s home was closed in 2011 when it lost government funding. For more than half a century, the seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom facility on King Street in Hamilton had served children and teens — including the Editor of this newspaper. It was taken over by Family Centre, which is another crucially required family counselling service.

The Government needs to provide a home for children who have been identified as at-risk. This facility, requiring professionals, would be a bridge to these children entering foster care or adoption.

Centre Against Abuse

The Centre Against Abuse used to have a “safe house” that provided refuge, but it was closed in 2014 when it lost government funding. The Government needs to provide a safe house for women and children; it is their responsibility.

Counselling

There used to be a walk-in youth counselling service with a sort of plain door in the alley near The Supermart on Front Street. Young people do not like their friends knowing they receive counselling. A private walk-in facility should be re-established. Back in the 1990s, everyone was excited about a programme and facility proposal called The Door.

At the standing-room-only town hall meeting on gun and gang violence held on September 29 at the St Paul AME Church Centennial Hall, Gina Spence-Virgil, founder and chief executive of the Gina Spence Programme, urged attendees to remember the 112 children who lost parents to gun violence. I agree with her suggestion that grief counselling be one of the main pillars of the National Violence Reduction Strategy.

Free breakfast and lunch

Introduce food programmes offering free breakfast and lunch to all children attending public schools.

After-school activity

No child should be twiddling their thumbs between 3pm and 4.30pm Monday through Friday when school is in. There should be no latchkey children. Increase public school staffing by hiring teachers or other professionals to make it mandatory that students attend a minimum number of activities no fewer than three or four days per week at primary school and junior high school level.

Sandys 360

The Government needs to include in its 2026-27 budget the purchase of the dilapidated Sandys 360 sports centre. It is the role of a labour government to provide this type of facility for its people. At each end of the island, there should be a well-funded and maintained sports and recreational centre.

School-break activity camps

Children who stay at home because their parents cannot afford camps when schools are on break are vulnerable targets for so many reasons. It is vitally important that the Government provide financial support for every child to have access to camps if their parents are low earners.

I realise that as Bermudians we have a variety of socioeconomic views, but I find it amazing how close we veer towards the heavy capitalism of the United States instead of the social national policies that carve out the difference between a labour government and a conservative government.

Our tax policies are one of the reasons why the Government has been unable to extinguish the lure of gangs. My next article will be on the correlation of untaxed international business and its effect on the government purse, which in turn prevents it from investing financially in Bermuda’s youth.

• Cheryl Pooley is a social commentator and three-times former parliamentary candidate