ODPEM Selects Two Youth Ambassadors For 2022
By: , June 1, 2022
Photo: Michael Sloley
Acting Director General at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Richard Thompson (right), congratulates Youth Ambassador for 2022, Lianna Jones (centre) of Ardenne High School in Kingston, while fellow Ambassador Curtis Clennon of Cornwall College in St. James, looks on. Occasion was the Youth Ambassadors’ pinning and sashing ceremony at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston on Tuesday, May 31.
Photo: Michael Sloley
The 2022 Youth Ambassadors of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Curtis Clennon (seated left) of Cornwall College in St. James and Lianna Jones (right) of Ardenne High School in Kingston, sign the code of conduct during a sashing and pinning ceremony at the Courtleigh Hotel on Tuesday, May 31. Facilitating the process is Training Manager, ODPEM, Novia Drummonds Morgan, while Acting Director General, Richard Thompson, looks on.The Full Story
The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) has named Ardenne High School’s Lianna Jones and Curtis Clennon of Cornwall College as its 2022 Youth Ambassadors.
During a year of engagements with the agency, the appointees will be tasked with implementing outreach projects to increase awareness of disaster risk management among youth as well as the wider society, through activities such as training, knowledge sharing, and clean-ups.
They will also participate in ODPEM’s campaigns and initiatives.
Lianna and Curtis take over from Kyla Gaynor of The Queen’s School, who was appointed as the ODPEM’s first ever Youth Ambassador in 2021.
They were pinned and sashed in an official ceremony at the Courtleigh Hotel on Tuesday (May 31).
Acting Director General at ODPEM, Richard Thompson, in his remarks, noted that young people play a pivotal role in the agency’s efforts “to build a disaster-resilient nation” through increasing awareness among their peers and putting forward creative ideas.
He noted that through the Ambassador programme, “we want to not only create new risk management specialists but we want to ensure that we are molding young leaders of this country and persons that can carry on to build our economy”.
Training Manager, Novia Drummonds Morgan, said the selection process for the Ambassadors included an open call for applications from Jamaicans aged 16 to 22.
She told JIS News that persons were required to write an essay about a project that they would want to perform while in the position and they had to get a recommendation from a Justice of the Peace or a Principal as well as a parent’s approval if they were underage.
Applications across nine parishes were received.
Mrs. Morgan said the decision to select both a male and a female Ambassador this year was part of a thrust to promote “a more gender-inclusive approach to our disaster preparedness efforts”.
Meanwhile, Lianna shared that she has long held an interest in the impact of human behaviour on the environment.
“I am deeply humbled and inspired by the privilege to be selected,” she said.
Curtis, in his acceptance speech, noted that ODPEM is “one of the Jamaican Government’s most essential auxiliary bodies,” and he pledged to do his best to “stand firm in this office bestowed upon me as well as to be an embodiment of our vision as an agency”.