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New National Youth Policy set to catapult youth mainstreaming in Antigua and Barbuda |
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 Commissioner of Police Gary Nelson receives CYP literature on youth empowerment and development from CYP Regional Director Henry Charles.
Regional Director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Centre (CYPCC) Mr Henry Charles recently wrapped up a visit to Antigua and Barbuda aimed at bringing all stakeholders on board in developing an Action Plan for the implementation of a new National Youth Policy.
The National Youth Policy was passed in Parliament in October 2007 and the next step is to put together an Action Plan for its eventual operationalisation.
On Saturday June 7 the CYPCC Regional Director and the Ministry of Youth of Antigua and Barbuda hosted a forum for about 20 young people who represented various local youth groups including the National Youth Ambassador Corps, the Girl Guides and other organizations to discuss issues around the national youth agenda and the way forward with respect to the action plan.
The dynamic discussions yielded several observations such as the negative impact of partisan politics on youth, the need for incentive programmes for non-traditional areas of employment, the mishandling of cultural diversification, the current weakness of parenting and lack of discipline among youth among other things.
The young people also identified the opportunities and threats that lay in the society and the skills needed to move the youth policy forward.
On Monday June 9, a key Youth Mainstreaming Workshop organized by the Ministry of Youth sought to get assessments from ministries of government and private youth agencies on their current programmes for youth and their resources and capabilities to do more.
Participants included inister of Education Bertrand Joseph; Commissioner of Police Gary Nelson among others
The CYPCC Regional Director in his remarks emphasized that it is critical to develop an implementation strategy now to expedite the operationalisation of the youth policy.
"The whole idea is to build a youth mainstreaming exercise so that ministries that may not traditionally be involved with youth work can begin to see that they have a role to play in that process by either giving technical or financial support," he said.
Director of Youth Cleon Athill said the Ministry of Youth is trying to build the strategic policy from the bottom up and gain the organisations' input rather than present them with a finished product. She said the objective was to build a cadre of stakeholders who would move the plan forward when it is finished.
The forum attended by representatives from the Ministries of Education, Sports and Youth, Finance and Justice, the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda, Gender Affairs, the Probation Unit, the Barbuda Council, the Boy's Training School, Citizen's Welfare Division, Gilbert's Agricultural Centre, Girl Guides, the Substance Abuse Prevention Division, Friend's Hotline and the Community Development Department.
Meanwhile, On the Tuesday June 10, Mr. Charles met with Minister of Youth, the Honourable Mr. Winston Williams, staff of the Department of Youth and Acting Permanent Secretary, Mr. John Jarvis with a view to repositioning the department in keeping with the national youth agenda.
Out of that meeting a sub-committee was formed to flesh out the action plan. From here the subcommittee will meet to formulate the draft National Action Plan for Youth Development. Stakeholders will then be invited to participate in a forum on the draft plan.
"We are hoping that again that CYP will facilitate that activity which will be held during the National Youth Week activities billed for around September 26 to October," Ms Athill indicated. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 July 2008 )
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