Social Intervention Programme Continues in Western Kingston

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Alvin McIntosh, has said that the Ministry will continue its social intervention programme in the Western Kingston communities, on July 28.
In an interview with JIS News, the Permanent Secretary said that this initiative would be a multi-agency approach, undertaken over two weeks in the communities of Fletchers Land, Hannah Town, Denham Town and Tivoli Gardens.
“We have scheduled sessions for Hannah Town, Fletchers Land and Tivoli Gardens, but we are starting out in Denham Town. The Ministry of Labour’s PATH programme will be in these sessions along with the National Insurance Scheme, National Council for Senior Citizens and the Taxpayer Registration Number (TRN) office ,” he noted.
Mr. McIntosh pointed out that this intervention was as a result of findings obtained from the first initiative carried out by the Ministry in the Western Kingston communities, in June.
“This two-week session will be used to register persons who are eligible for assistance under PATH, National Insurance and other programmes offered by agencies that will be in attendance. Some persons’ circumstances have become worse since the operation and this is what we are trying to address. So, it will be a social intervention, not just by the Ministry of Labour, but other Government agencies will be there to provide assistance,” the Permanent Secretary explained.
The main activity will be the staging of workshops at the community level, designed to bring beneficiaries and prospective applicants into direct one-on-one contact with their service providers.
He said that the exercise was expected to result in an appreciable increase in the number of applicants and to positively impact the compliance rate of the beneficiaries in the targeted communities.
On June 1, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security did a house-to-house assessment, aimed at determining the level of dislocation to families and to gather information that will assist the Government in providing appropriate support to the residents.
During that process, approximately 2,000 households in Tivoli Gardens were visited over a three day period, days after they were affected by operations carried out by the security forces.