New CPF head for Montclair aims to empower community, women

HONOURED to serve the Montclair community as the first female chairperson of the Community Policing Forum (CPF), Jacqueline Goncalves has several plans to mobilize women in the fight against crime.

Goncalves, the owner of a pre-school, is a trained trauma de-briefer and shares a passion for helping children and animals, as well as being the voice for the voiceless.

She is no stranger to her community and has played an active role as the CPF’s vice chairperson over the past year, and took on the role after Montclair CPF chairperson, Shawn Smith, bowed out to assume his position as treasurer of the eThekwini District Policing Board.

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Being a mom to two girls and the owner of a school which caters for little children led Goncalves to the CPF as she wanted to make it her priority to help keep the children in her neighbourhood, as well as her own children, safe.

“I also want to lead by example. I want my daughters and all other young girls in our community to know that nothing is out of their reach. As females, we can also fight crime by playing active roles in the CPF and during patrols.

“We will host initiatives to encourage females and youth to get involved in the structures we have. There are so many female patrollers and Community In Blue (CIB) recruits that I am proud of. It warms my heart to see women taking an interest in the patrolling part of the CPF.

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On August 5, Goncalves will spearhead a Women’s Month empowerment flea market, where women will be afforded stalls at a low cost to enable them to make some extra money.

Proceeds from the stalls will go towards the upliftment of the Montclair police station’s Victim Friendly Facility.
“My goal as chairperson is to create as much visibility as possible by conducting regular patrols so that as a community, we are more vigilant and visible, thereby eliminating criminal elements.

“My heart lies at the Montclair police station’s Victim Friendly Facility, where those who have suffered trauma, including rape and gender-based or domestic violence, go to for help. It is a place where a victim is debriefed in privacy and dignity as the stigma of police station can be scary for a victim of trauma. We have trained officers and trained volunteers that assist victims and I’m proud of our facility,” she added.

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Goncalves aims to strengthen the partnership between police and the community and hopes that her message will reach those who want to make a change.

“I believe a clean place is a safe place so we have already teamed up with the Montclair Clean Team and hosted successful clean-ups. We will have more campaigns to get people involved in taking our streets back and taking pride in our neigbourhood.

“I encourage youth to get involved in our youth programmes. I understand that there aren’t many activities for youth and we can keep them occupied by getting them to be hands on in community structures to keep them away from doing negative things,” Goncalves said.

Her message to the community
“We can create a better community together. As volunteers, we do not get paid for doing this and we do not mind at all. We do it for the love of our community. My plea is of residents to support us by getting onto our groups and being actively involved in projects. Those who can afford to, can spare a few rands towards our initiatives as we do not get any funds to keep projects going and to keep patrollers on the road. We could also use safety gear, which is also costly. I look forward to working with Montclair police to arrive at our common goal of making our area clean and safe.”

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