Values and Attitudes Committee to Reinforce Message

Members of the Values & Attitudes Committee are preparing to reinforce and spread their message in the coming year, through networking and closer alliances with private sector entities, but starting with public sector Ministries and Agencies, Convenor of the Values & Attitudes Steering Committee, Rev. Marjorie Lewis has said.
“We have to practise what we preach. It’s not just something for the Committee, but it is something that every agency and organisation should embrace and the Government agencies have to lead by example,” she pointed out in an interview with JIS News.
At its last meeting at Jamaica House on October 14, the Committee welcomed several new participants, who are expected to revitalise the committee and its work.The infusion of ‘new blood’ has come through persons co-opted from the various Government ministries and agencies, and representatives of other institutions who are interested in, and supportive of the work being done by the Committee.
“One of the issues for us [on the Committee] was to look at ways in which the different arms of Government can mainstream the objectives of the Values and Attitudes Programme within the day-to-day operations of the respective ministries and agencies,” said Rev. Lewis.
She explained that the attendance of the new persons was in keeping with the original plan for the Values and Attitudes campaign, that “each ministry was expected to identify a representative who had primary responsibility for pushing values and attitudes within the ministry”.
“So the mainstreaming would be within the organisational structure and functioning of the ministry or the agency, as well as looking at the link between the ministry’s work and values and attitudes,” she told JIS News.
The new persons who attended the meeting were Lloyd Robinson, Jamaica 4-H Clubs; Harold Daniel, Ministry of Health; Althea Bartley, Ministry of Labour and Social Security; Cecile Trusty, National Environment and Planning Agency; Meegan Scott, Toastmasters and Trailblazer; Duane Nelson, Tourism Product Development Company; Jossette Chambers, Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Sport; Sheena Johnson-Brown, Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture; Vimin Gayle, National Environment and Planning Agency; Robert Scott, Toastmasters International; and Jennifer Davies-McDonald, who was there in a private capacity.
These persons were identified as representatives of the various ministries and agencies with primary responsibility for the promotion of values and attitudes. As such, they provided the Steering Committee with feedback on the on-going activities and programmes within their respective ministries and agencies, as well as reports on their success to date in promoting values and attitudes within the ministries and through the ministries’ programmes.
While this group of new persons is expected to infuse new blood into the work of the Values & Attitudes Committee and propel it forward, the committee’s work over the past year will be evaluated in November.
“The main evaluation of the year’s programme and the forward planning will actually happen at our November meeting. The reports from the ministries would form a part of what we consider, along with the programmes initiated by the Values & Attitudes Committee itself,” Rev. Lewis pointed out. Meanwhile, the Committee hopes to implement another two programmes by year end.
“We hope to implement a schools’ competition in November, and a mentoring programme in December. What we will be doing is not necessarily setting up a mentoring programme, but we want to promote mentoring to encourage people to consider mentoring as a way of dealing with some of the problems that we have,” Rev. Lewis told JIS News.
The existing members of the established Steering Committee, who were appointed by Parliament are: Dr. Deloris Brissett, Robert Bryan, Rev. Harris Cunningham, Rev. Devon Dick, Donna Duncan-Scott, Fae Ellington, Claudette Wilmot, Claudia Ferguson, Lawrence Fraser, Tony Freckleton, Lysandra Colley, Frankie Campbell, Rev. Kes Lewis, Peter Prendergast, Oral McCook, Claude Robinson, Rev. Dr. Herbert Thompson, Cecile Walden, Dr. Peter Weller, Heather Little-White, Deputy Convenor, and Rev. Lewis.