Sixty students from six high schools across St. Ann are set to benefit from the rebranded St. Ann Justices of the Peace Mentorship Programme. This rebranded programme, ‘Students Take Ownership…’ Mentorship Programme (STOMP) was unveiled at a launch on Tuesday, August 18 at the St. Ann Parish Church Hall.STOMP is a partnership between the St. Ann Justices of the Peace Association and the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Marcus Garvey Information Centre and Peaceful Solution Character Education Programme.According to chairman of the St. Ann Justices of the Peace Association, Pixley Irons, the mentorship programme started in 2009 after a tragic incident at Ferncourt High School and the preponderance of cases before the children’s court. This spawned a great need for mentorship of the youths. However, he explained that there was a need for more mentorship of students who were at risk in society. He said the Ministry of Education was approached with a proposed project that had the goal “to provide intervention and prevention services through mentorship to 60 ‘tier-two’ grade 9 or 10 students as identified by guidance counsellors who are at risk of educational failure, teen pregnancy, truancy or juvenile delinquency.”The programme will be delivered from September 2015 to July 2016 to students in six schools. These schools are Brown’s Town, Ferncourt, York Castle, Aabuthnott Gallimore and Marcus Garvey Technical high schools and Steer Town Academy.The plan is for weekly one-on-one mentorship between students and mentors with the supervision of guidance counselors.Chairman of STOMP and master of ceremonies, Norman Johnson emphasized to the audience of justices of the peace, educators and other stakeholders that the programme was not only for at risk students, but for the parents or guardians of these students who will also benefit from parenting workshops. “It is a total programme for the development of a complete community… Mentors will learn, students will learn and parents will learn in order to create better communities to make Jamaica the place to live, work and raise families,” expressed Mr. Johnson.Several officials gave their commendations for the programme including the Norma Walters, custos of St Ann and senior education officer, Anthony Grey.Guest speaker at the STOMP project launch, Karlene Segree, community relations officer in the Ministry of Education for Region Three, expressed the full support of the Ministry of Education in the work of the St. Ann JP Association. “The Ministry of Education expresses the full support of this partnership… STOMP as it names suggest will stomp out some of the social issues affecting our students and will correct the problems faced by students at this time,” she explained.The STOMP programme also encourages every individual of society to “put your foot down and help our students put their foot down by taking ownership of their lives.”
