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Deputy PM Richards Weighs In On CARICOM Youth Development Agenda

Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 02, 2016 (SKNIS): St. Kitts and Nevis Deputy Prime Minister, Honourable Shawn Richards, and CARICOM Youth Ambassador (CYA) Dennis McCall Jr. are in Guyana for a series of meetings that will help to shape the youth development agenda back home and across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

 

The first meeting ran from February 29 to March 01 under the theme “Youth Crime and Violence: Breaking the Cycle – Exploring New Platforms for Transformation.” The forum provided a platform for a coherent examination of the various manifestations of youth crime and violence, its determinants and linkages.

 

Topics covered at the meeting included Violence Against Children, Violence in Schools and Communities, and Policy Imperatives which included subtopics on judiciary reforms and youth entrepreneurship.

 

Deputy Prime Minister Richards moderated the session which focused on youth gangs and violence. Mr. McCall, who is also the Dean of the CYA corps, joined with CARICOM Secretariat’s Programme Manager for Culture and Community Development, Hilary Brown, to moderate the session which shared the same name as the theme.

 

On Wednesday (March 02), Mr. McCall attended and made a presentation at the 8th Meeting of Directors of Youth Affairs from CARICOM member states. His participation was as CYA Dean and as such he touched on a number of related topics such as the selection criteria for CYAs and enhancing their role on the national and regional scale. Deputy PM Richards and Mr. McCall will spend March 03 and 04 in sessions at the 29th Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Youth and Culture.

 

According to information from the CARICOM Secretariat, the COHSOD provides an opportunity for member states to review regional and global frameworks in relation to youth and culture and propose new collaborative ways of addressing ongoing challenges in youth development, such as youth employment, youth crime and violence and sustainable youth governance structures. Priority discussions on cultural issues such as CARIFESTA, Reparations for Native Genocide and Slavery and cultural and creative industries for the economic development of the Community will also take place.

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