SOLUTION- COOPERATION -John White, Social Development Commission parish manager for St James, has called for a multisectoral approach for youth

SDC parish manager calls for combined effort to save youths
Published: Friday April 17, 2009
Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer

White
WESTERN BUREAU:
John White, Social Development Commission parish manager for St James, has called for a multisectoral approach to youth development in order to successfully manage and curtail the problem of youth delinquency.
White made his comments during a Gleaner Editors' Forum held in Montego Bay, St James, on Wednesday.
He said it was crucial that state-owned youth-oriented entities such as the National Youth Service, the National Centre for Youth Development and others, including his, which have overlapping functions, make efforts to collaborate with each other instead of undertaking solo activities.
"I think collectively we need to come together to find ways of dealing with the problem of young people, and that is why sometimes the young persons will turn to linking with the dons because this is where they find something happening for them," said White.
"And, if we don't come together and try to deal with that, we are going to have a serious problem; we are not going to able to capture and regain the trust and confidence of the young people."
White said that in some cases youths were disillusioned and needed to be channelled into positive activities, but that this could only be accomplished by an inter-agency approach.
"I know each of the agencies has their mandate, but we need to look at what each is going to do for our young people, and we can't wait on directives from our head offices," White said.
"We need to start looking at it now from the local level and how we go about doing some interventions."
He added: "We need to channel them (youth) back into culture, into drama. We need to be working together. We can't be blowing our own trumpets."
White said that, at present, the approach to youth empowerment was disjointed because "everyone is doing their own thing".
claudia.gardner@gleanerjm.com
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