Youth Deptartment to take stronger stance on social ills

DPI, GUYANA, Thursday, January 25, 2018

The Department of Youth will be taking a stronger stance on addressing various social ills that affect Guyana’s youth. These include teenage pregnancy, suicide, drug use and crime and violence.

Director of Youth, Melissa Carmichael-Haynes, during an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), said her office will be taking a very hands-on approach as it relates to reaching out to young people. This will see the Youth Department conducting more workshops and counselling sessions countrywide.

According to the Director of Youth, the initiative is to “ensure that our young people and the communities that we target understand the importance of making young people aware of these things.”

The initiative, the Youth Director said, will not be undertaken singlehandedly but collaboratively with various stakeholders. This is to ensure that the sessions, provided by the department, reach and impact its target group.

It was also highlighted that the department currently has youth officers deployed in every region (with the exception of Region Seven, Nine and Ten) who will be holding counselling sessions.

“The youth officers in the other regions they are social workers, some of them trained, qualified social workers, they will be the ones doing the counselling sessions or mentoring sessions for the young people they work with. There are a number of groups that are registered as well with the Department of Youth, those groups as well will be benefitting from those counselling and mentorship sessions from the department” Carmichael-Haynes explained.

Additionally, the Youth Director reminded that the Youth Department has an open-door policy where young people are free to visit.

Persons seeking training, mentorship or counselling can contact the department on 226-7144, 225-0544, 226-9078 or 225-9152. In the case where a caller resides in a far-flung location, the caller will be directed to a youth officer within their region or community.

 

By: Isaiah Braithwaite

 

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