From left (foreground): Trustee of the Counselling Addiction Support Alternatives (CASA), John Wilson; his wife, Deborah Jones-Wilson and Chief Probation Officer at The Probation Department, Dorita Lovell in attendance at the church service to mark the18th anniversary of CASA at the Sanctuary Empowerment Centre yesterday.
Troubling statistics on youth
Twenty-three per cent of local youth are likely to end up in Dodds Prison.
This is according to Director of the Counselling Addiction Support Alternatives (CASA), Orlando Jones, who quoted from an article which appeared in a newspaper recently.
Furthermore, about 43 per cent of these people will be young persons between the ages of 20 to 30-years-old.
Jones said that these are indeed troubling statistics, which seem to escalate despite the fact that there are groups going into the schools to talk to young people about the dangers of drug use and the need to stay away from them, for instance.
“We are well aware of the many agencies and organisations that go into schools to work with children and young people, but in spite of this there is evidence that things in this island appear to be getting worse with the breakdown of family life. It is difficult to measure the success of school-based programmes in view of the statistics.”
This calls for an even greater effort to be played by the relevant public, private and civil society stakeholders and even the members of the communities in which the youth lived such as was done in years gone by, he believes.
“It seems clear that the concept of the village raising a child is no longer feasible as education has taken persons from the village community to the heights, terraces and gated communities. We seem no longer to be our brothers keeper,” he stated.
He also called on parents of young people to fulfill their obligations in raising their children with morals and values and not depend on the church, the school and other organisations to do it for them.
“I believe it is the responsibility of parents and grandparents to provide a safe haven for our children and other vulnerable members of our society. But is this happening? It seems as though we are having children but expect others – the Church, social workers, psychologists, counsellors, teachers, etc. to bring up our children.”
At the time Jones was delivering brief remarks at a church service to mark that organisation’s 18th anniversary, at the Sanctuary Empowerment Centre yesterday.