New programmes to encourage more youth involvement

Youth officers have been mandated to start new community clubs across the island to keep young people engaged in structured activities.

Concerned about the level of deviance among the youth and the negative impact it was having in society, Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith said there was a need for additional community groups to allow children, teenagers and young adults to be part of a structured environment that would guide them in the right direction.

He said the ministry’s youth officers have been instructed to implement such programmes in communities across the country.

The minister was speaking to the media on Monday at the Eagle Hall Primary School, where he delivered the featured address at the opening of the school’s Male Week 2023.

“The concern is there. We continue to be proactive in terms of our programming at the ministry and Government as a whole in relation to wrestling all of the deviance to the ground.

“We have started again, after 13 years, the National Youth Awards, and this is one of the initiatives that we are hoping will trigger young people to get involved in positive activities that will be recognized not only by their peers but also by people in the community on the whole. So we are doing all we can,” Griffith said.

Meanwhile, the minister indicated that the proposed hotline through which young people could get help for mental health issues and a transition programme for students entering secondary school were still on stream.

Griffith explained that persons who will be manning the 24-hour hotline were being trained on how to appropriately respond to the needs of young callers through a partnership with the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.

“We believe that there are a lot of things that are happening in the youth population that maybe we can assist with by pointing them in a direction where assistance can be had for all of those who are having stressors. Mental health is a serious concern for me and the Government so this hotline is one of those initiatives to help in relation to mental health in the youth population,” Griffith said.

The minister added that his ministry also planned to implement a Moving On project which would seek to help 11-Plus students entering secondary school with the transition process.

“There is the need to have parents on board as well. So hence we are going to match that particular project, Moving On, with a parenting programme,” he said.

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