NPSC to Host Information Fair April 27

The National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC) will host an information fair on Wednesday, April 27 at Mandela Park in Half Way Tree.

The event, which is scheduled to start at noon, will have over 14 exhibitors including the National Family Planning Board; the National Council on Drug Abuse; Office of the Children Registry; the Child Development Agency; and National Integrity Action on hand to interact with members of the public.

Speaking in an interview with JIS News, Director of Communications and Public Relations at the NPSC, Mikhale Edwards, said the fair is aimed at providing information on parenting with special focus on males.

The day’s event will culminate with a town hall meeting to be held under the theme ‘Raising Ordinary Males to Become Extraordinary Gentlemen’. This is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m.

According to Mr. Edwards the town hall meeting is geared towards engaging stakeholders and members of the public in discussions “as we try to prepare our males to become extraordinary parents by practising the effective elements of parenting.”

“We at the NPSC are convinced that the way for a better society is empowering our parents, but we have noticed that a number of our households are headed by females and we need to get to the bottom of what is the main contributor to this,” he noted.
“We will be inviting our Parent-Teacher Associations in and around the Kingston Metropolitan Region, we will also be mobilising parents, and children to come out and participate in the meeting,” Mr. Edwards said.

The panel will be headed by Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, and Executive Director of the NPSC, Dr. Patrece Charles.

Other facilitators include former Principal of Camperdown, Cynthia Cooke, who have written extensively on the marginalisation of males; representatives from Unite for Change mentorship programme; Fathers’ Incorporate; school administrators; community-based groups; religious-based institutions; and members of academia.

The information fair and town hall meeting will be the first of three planned for 2016 by the NPSC. The others will be held in St. Thomas and St. James in July and November, respectively.