The recent passing of 16-year-old Jerbiah Kaysia Paul, a Portsmouth teenager who went missing in late July and was found dead in the Capuchin region on August 12, has become a catalyst for urgent child protection reform across the island nation of Dominica. Leading local non-profit Circle of Friends Inc. has issued a bold call for a unified, coordinated approach to keeping children and young people safe, framing the tragedy as a moment that demands systemic change rather than performative outrage.
Circle of Friends, an organization focused on advancing support, access and advocacy for children and youth with disabilities, special needs and from vulnerable, at-risk families, has extended its deepest condolences to Jerbiah’s family, friends and loved ones. In a formal public statement, the group emphasized that Jerbiah was a young person with a full life ahead of her, filled with unfulfilled dreams and untapped potential to contribute to her community. Her senseless passing, the organization argues, should force every segment of Dominican society to pause, reflect and confront uncomfortable questions about the gaps in current child protection systems.
A core message of the organization’s call is that civil society groups cannot continue to cycle between expressing public outrage after a young life is lost and returning to disconnected, business-as-usual programming. Circle of Friends is challenging every civil society organization working with children and families across Dominica to conduct honest internal assessments of their work, asking seven critical questions that cut to the heart of effective youth protection:
– Do current programming sufficiently address the evolving, real-world risks that young people face today?
– Have safe, accessible spaces been created where children and adolescents feel comfortable reporting threats, exploitation, abuse or situations that feel wrong to them?
– Are young people equipped with the knowledge and confidence to identify unhealthy relationships and dangerous scenarios?
– Are parents and caregivers receiving the robust support they need to understand the changing risks their children encounter?
– Are services reaching the most vulnerable young people, or are they only serving youth who already have connections to support systems?
– Most importantly, are organizations working together effectively to deliver coordinated support, rather than operating in isolated silos?
Circle of Friends stresses that child protection is not the sole responsibility of any single stakeholder group. It cannot fall only to law enforcement, government social services, schools, parents or individual non-profits to keep young people safe. Instead, the organization argues that a whole-of-society response is required, with intentional collaboration across every sector that interacts with children and families.
To that end, the non-profit has outlined seven concrete priority areas for collective action across Dominican civil society. First, organizations must conduct a full critical review of their existing programming to identify gaps and areas in need of improvement. Second, every group working with children must strengthen their safeguarding standards, implementing clear policies, confidential reporting mechanisms, comprehensive staff and volunteer training, and formal response procedures for safety concerns. Third, cross-organizational referral and response mechanisms must be improved, so that any young person presenting a concern can be quickly connected to the right support, even when the issue falls outside a hosting organization’s mandate. Fourth, organizations must commit to greater sharing of knowledge, resources, training tools, research and proven best practices, as no single group can hold all the expertise needed to address every risk. Fifth, programming must include more meaningful youth participation: young people must be given safe, intentional opportunities to share their experiences and shape the support services designed for them. Sixth, organizations must deepen engagement with parents and local communities, equipping caregivers with practical tools to identify risks, communicate openly with young people, and respond appropriately before a crisis occurs. Seventh, civil society must engage in collective advocacy to push for stronger systemic policies, expanded support services and greater accountability for child protection outcomes across the island.
Beyond these seven priorities, Circle of Friends is calling for the creation of clearer, more accessible support pathways for young people facing abuse, exploitation, coercion, violence or other safety risks. A key ask is the establishment of formal rapid communication mechanisms that activate coordinated response as soon as a child is reported missing.
The organization emphasizes that its call is not an attempt to assign blame to any individual or group. Instead, it is a recognition that civil society as a whole shares responsibility for protecting young people. In closing its statement, Circle of Friends framed Jerbiah’s death as a challenge for every stakeholder to raise their standards, urging groups to turn collective grief into tangible action. “Let Jerbiah’s death challenge us to do better,” the statement reads. “Her life should not become another statistic that fades from our national consciousness. Let her death be a catalyst for action. Because protecting children is not the responsibility of one organization. It is our collective responsibility. And the time to act is now.”