FAIRFIELD, St James — National coordinator for the Housing, Opportunities, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme, Colonel Martin Rickman, is calling on the private sector and government entities to partner with the State-run programme in an effort to create more opportunities for vulnerable youths across the island.
There is an estimated 200,000 vulnerable and unattached youths islandwide; however, the HOPE programme launched by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in May last year, which is aimed at providing educational and job opportunities for young people, currently has some 3,000 youth engaged.
Colonel Rickman, who was speaking at a partnership agreement-signing ceremony between Phillip and Christine Gore Family Foundation and the HEART Trust/NTA to establish the St James National Youth Service Corp Programme, said “a far way is left to go”.
He emphasised that with more entities coming aboard, like the Gore Family Foundation, the programme is capable of putting a meaningful dent into the massive population of unattached youth.
“The reason why we only have 3,000 is because that is the space which we can place persons in. In truth, we have another 5,000 that have been trained and are waiting placements. And so I am calling on more organisations to come on board with us and open your doors to a partnership like this one so that we can meaningfully impact the population’s unattached youths across Jamaica,” Colonel Rickman argued.