Gov’t Investing in Intervention Programmes for At-risk Youth

Minister of National Security, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, says that the Government is investing heavily in social intervention programmes targeting the youth population, particularly young men, to create opportunities for them to achieve their goals.

He noted that the objective is to positively engage the youth as a critical element in reducing crime and violence in Jamaica.

The Minister said that through the Caribbean Military Academy, which is the academic institutional arm of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), and the Jamaica National Service Corps (JNSC), the Government is providing training opportunities of the highest quality, aimed at giving young men an alternative to joining gangs.

“We are losing generations of young men. Young ladies are going on to all kinds of schooling – hotel schools, universities, teachers’ colleges, and nursing schools. The young men are the ones left on the corner and they are the ones who end up killing each other and giving us problems by creating the gangs,” Dr. Chang argued.

“What we are doing is using youth investment in this direction where we have identified a cohort of people as set targets. If we engage 20,000 young people, that’s half the population of high-school graduates. There is no question that we would have made a significant transformative effect in the communities,” he added.

Dr. Chang informed that, so far, the JNSC has trained 4,800 young people, and expressed confidence that those “coming out of the JNSC programme will have significant changes to their approach to life”.

The Minister was speaking during a visit to the Caribbean Military Academy in Flanker, St. James, on Thursday (October 14) where at-risk young men from vulnerable communities in the parish are being trained to operate trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles.

The training is being offered under the Ministry’s Articulated Truck Driving Programme in partnership with the JDF and the HEART/NSTA Trust.

Thursday’s visit was aimed at providing an update on the training programme and to seek job opportunities for the 30 participants enrolled in part-time and full-time training.

The first cohort commenced training in January 2021 and is slated to complete the programme in December.

Upon successful completion, participants will be awarded levels two and three National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET) certificates, and for those who do not have a driver’s licence, they will receive a general driver’s licence.

Meanwhile, members of the Montego Bay business community, who joined the Minister on his visit to the Caribbean Military Academy, endorsed the initiative and committed to recruiting the candidates upon successful completion of the course.

Vice President of Sandals Resorts International, Don Smith, said that the hotel chain has vacancies that can accommodate the 30 young men enrolled.