Many persons have said that there is no development in Port Maria. While this might be true in part, the St Mary Community Safety and Security Branch (CSSB), through its arm of the St Mary Police Youth Club, is one body that is acting as a beacon of hope by catering to the youths in and around Port Maria. It is seeking to aid in their personal and academic development.
The CSSB is the arm of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) that deals with deep community engagement and integration between the citizens and the police. There are a number of units that fall under this branch, however the police youth club movement is the unit that specifically deals with youth engagement. In an interview with The Times, Rochelle McGibbon, sub-officer in charge of the St. Mary Community Safety and Security Branch explained that the police youth clubs’ work in the parish go back to the 1980s and over 70 clubs have been launched and sensitized over the years. Now, over 53 police youth clubs remain active in the parish.
The Port Maria police districts is comprised of Pagee, Galina, Mason Hall, Albion Mountain, Geddes Town, Bailey’s Vale and Port Maria police youth clubs. “To say that nothing is happening for the youths, I wouldn’t think that is a fair statement in its entirety. I think one of the problems is the high level of unemployment and this leads to those who are now at risk and are now unemployable. So while we have those who are unemployed, there is a bulk of those who are unemployable meaning that they don’t have a skill or are school drop outs. These are the ones who we really target,” officer McGibbon explained.
She continued by saying: “There are two agencies who we work with. These are HEART Trust/NTA. For those who are unemployable and don’t have a skill or a trade or even CXC’s, we refer them to HEART Trust/NTA and even though they may leave HEART with a skill and are unemployed at least we can say that they are employable rather than unemployable… It is just not about coming once weekly and having fun, we ensure that every individual leaving our doors is able to read, write and have a skill by partnering with these agencies.”
Another objective of the youth club is also to let the youth realize the importance of volunteerism. They have volunteered in several ways by feeding the less fortunate, assisting during hurricanes, assisting at the police station, beach clean up activities and others.
Leader for the Port Maria police youth club, Constable Shawna-Gaye Jones, who joined the discussion explained that while one of the problems many of the youth in her club face is difficulties finding a job, some of them have low levels of education. “I try to get them in HEART to acquire a skill, and for those slow learners we try to get them into schools that can cater to their needs. We also send them to a lot of job fairs and try and find work at supermarkets for some of them. I also have a class that was mainly for primary school students, but now I have accommodated everyone,” Constable Jones explained.Woman sergeant Rochelle McGibbon noted several achievements of the police youth club and credited coordinator of the St Mary Police Youth Club, District Constable Charles Wilks, for the work he has been doing in the parish with the clubs. The St Mary Police Youth Club has been champions for the past twelve years of the Area 2 Police Youth Club Athletic championships. Several successful young persons have passed through their doors including, Kenesha Shakespeare who is now a police constable based in Portland. Other notable achievements include student participation in Spelling Bee competitions.Going forward, woman sergeant McGibbon would like to see more partnerships and sponsorship from stakeholders to implement more projects and plans that are catering towards the youth. She noted that L & Y supermarket in Port Maria in particular has consistently assisted several programmes that the youth club has. “We just want to see more companies and business persons coming on board and allowing us to come in and volunteer or get some experience for our youths.”
She is also encouraging many of the young persons in and around Port Maria to explore their options available to them, because opportunities are available through HEART, Social Development Commission (SDC) and National Youth Service (NYS).
