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Acting Principal of the school Major Andrew Skeete.

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New chairman of the Grantley Adams Memorial Board of Management, George Griffith.

Curbing a worrying trend

In its efforts to further assist and mentor young students on the island who are more prone to fall into delinquency, the Faith Marshall Harris Sandy Lane Charitable Trust Help Line has recently partnered with the Grantley Adams Memorial School for a new initiative.

“The Help Line”, which was first conceived earlier in the year, has been in talks with the secondary school for some time, and out of these discussions, a summer camp called Camp Inspire, has become a reality. 50 students from the school will take part in the camp which will run from August 12 to 23, and during that time, students will be introduced to a variety of sessions which will target topics such as anger management, conflict resolution, drug awareness and health and nutrition, just to name a few.

During a brief press conference held recently at her office in Belleville, founder of the Help Line, Faith Marshall Harris, expressed the importance for all of those who are concerned about the recent state of crime, perpetrated by younger persons, to find ways to intervene when possible to help curb the worrying trend.

“We have noted that there is an important role that we’ve got to play in terms of the concerns we have expressed about the deviance among young persons. Not all young persons, of course, but a number sufficient enough to cause fear and alarm. From my own experience having been on the bench and dealing with young people, I understand where we can fill in, in that where we can intervene, we can cause a diversion at a crucial age, then we may be able to see a reduction in the tendency towards deviancy.”

Marshall-Harris was careful to point out the camp was not intended to just preach practices to the students, but instead to interact with them and show them real examples and situations, which will be the way forward to help bridge the divide.

“The way we will present our topics will be more a narrative style that is through people interactions. We have a large resource of persons who will come to Grantley Adams and tell their life story and in a narrative way, relate to the children rather than say ‘now this morning I will give you a lecture on anger management.’ We plan for it to be a personal approach”, she said.

The Acting Principal of the school, Major Andrew Skeete, relayed his great interest in aiding the development of the young school students he interacts with on a daily basis.

“I look forward in anticipation to a very successful and fruitful partnership with the Trust as we look to do what we think is necessary and beneficial, and something that we have to do is assist our children, in this instance at the Grantley Adams Memorial School.”

New chairman of the school’s board of management, George Griffith expressed his thanks with the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust’s adoption of his school, stating strongly he believes the new programme will be a great benefit to the students.

“Children in our society, really are in need of support and guidance. This support must not be in terms of words, but deeds. I am happy that The Help Line is willing to adopt this school. We are willing to do all in our power to insure that this investment is justified.”

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