The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice has ex­pand­ed its na­tion­al re­sponse to gen­der-based vi­o­lence through a part­ner­ship with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion to sup­port vi­su­al­ly im­paired per­sons.

The ini­tia­tive formed part of the na­tion­al ob­ser­vance of the 16 Days of Ac­tivism Against Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence. The Vic­tim and Wit­ness Sup­port Unit joined the as­so­ci­a­tion on De­cem­ber 2 at its Cof­fee Street of­fice in San Fer­nan­do for a work­shop ti­tled Safe Hands, Strong Voic­es: Em­pow­er­ing Our Com­mu­ni­ty Against Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence.

As­sis­tant Head of So­cial Sup­port Kirk Pierre and mem­bers of the clin­i­cal team led the ses­sion, which in­volved thir­ty par­tic­i­pants from the as­so­ci­a­tion. The train­ing fo­cused on forms of abuse that af­fect non-sight­ed per­sons, in­clud­ing dig­i­tal ma­nip­u­la­tion, fi­nan­cial ex­ploita­tion and psy­cho­log­i­cal co­er­cion. Par­tic­i­pants al­so ex­am­ined be­hav­iour­al shifts that may sig­nal harm when phys­i­cal in­di­ca­tors are ab­sent.