Youth Ministry to Stage Reasoning Sessions With Young People

The Ministry of Youth and Culture will be staging a number of reasoning sessions with young people next month, as part of activities for Youth Month.

The month, being observed under the theme: ‘Reset di ting: the courage to do things differently,’ was officially launched on October 14 by the Portfolio Minister, Hon. Lisa Hanna.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Sydney Bartley, told JIS News that the discussion sessions, dubbed ‘Pon Di Corner,’ are scheduled to take place at locations in downtown Kingston and Highgate, St. Mary.

He said that during the discussions, the Ministry will ascertain from young people “What are the things you want us to do? What are the situations you think that we need to deal with? How can we help you and how can you help us?”

He said the aim is to get young people to take appropriate actions to achieve their goals and to ‘reset di ting,’ in keeping with the theme for the month.

According to Mr. Bartley, some Jamaican youth would often say “a so di ting set” (that’s just the way it is) when asked about their future or situations they encountered.

“‘A so di ting set’ carries with it a kind of acceptance that things are what they are and that there is no way for them to become any different. What we are saying to young people is that if the’ ting is not set’ to motivate or drive you to achieve, then you have to ‘reset di ting’”, he reasoned.

Mr. Bartley noted that ‘reset di ting’ is about young people having the capacity, energy and ability to determine their future. He is urging young people to leverage the platform afforded and choose some of the activities of the Ministry of Youth and Culture to ‘reset di ting’.

“If the thing is not working for the objectives you want it to achieve, then your responsibility is to assume the position of resetting that. If you are at UWI (University of the West Indies) or at UTech (University of Technology) and you want to become a self-employed person, then you reset that thing by doing some entrepreneurial concepts and move the discussion in another dimension,” he emphasised.

Youth Month gets underway on November 3 with an Interfaith Service at the Girl Guides Headquarters in St. Andrew. Other activities include a Shark Tank and a Youth Enterprise Challenge.

Mr. Bartley told JIS News that the activities will not end in November, but will be “part of a yearlong campaign aimed at inspiring and motivating young people.”

He said there will be constant engagement with young people, whether at the Youth Information Centres, through the National Youth Service (NYS) “or any area of activities that we are developing within the youth sector, formal and informal.”