The cries of our youth

Lisa Hanna, Guest Columnist

An edited version of Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna's presentation to the Sectoral Debate in Parliament delivered Tuesday, July 3.

TODAY, MANY of our young people with whom I speak are not excited about Jamaica. They see crime and violence and, often, they are the victims. They feel the pain and frustration of unemployment and they are distrustful of, and cynical about, their national leaders.

Recently, a qualitative survey on the situation of at-risk youth in Jamaica was completed under the aegis of the Ministry of Youth and Culture. We went into all parishes, interviewing young people and conducting focus groups. Some had this to say:

"We are all distorted and trying to find out who we are. Most of us are trying to find ourselves. We have no jobs. We are lost. We have no skills to deal with certain things and no forums to express ourselves. We are in a box."

Seventy per cent of the young people who came to the focus groups were either suicidal or wanted to kill someone.

As a government, we are here to help young Jamaicans fashion the vision and develop the conviction to chart a course for their personal empowerment. Today, content and intellectual property are the most valuable assets in the world. It is no longer only the phone manufacturer that makes the money, but more so the person who develops the software and content for the phone to work. We are focusing on the creation of economic opportunities for the youth, which must target those areas of the economy that are youth driven.

Virtual economy

Within five months of coming to office, and with the World Bank's assistance, we have been able to implement a major virtual economy opportunity for the youth - the Digital Jam 2.0, which was held over three days in Kingston June 28-30.

The objectives of Digital Jam 2.0 were to:

1. Identify employment opportunities in ICT.

2. Establish training and micro work centres in virtual economy opportunities.

3. Create incubating centres and promote entrepreneurship.

4. Build technical capacity in software applications through what are called hackathon competitions.

5. Bring industry leaders and experts from Silicon Valley and other jurisdictions to speak to and recruit young people.

This was an ICT youth activity to connect Jamaican youth with real opportunities in the global virtual economy.

A 24-hour 'Sports Hackathon' design and coding competition was a key feature to help some 150 participating youth take full advantage of opportunities offered by the sports industry in Jamaica. There was also a major focus on the creative industries.

In the short to medium term, we intend to establish a set of pilot projects to provide young Jamaicans with employment opportunities in the global virtual economy via micro work, e-lancing and crowdsourcing, with IT centres that will act as both training locations and micro-work aggregators. The pilot projects will also include the creation of incubation centres for entrepreneurship and business development.

Not only did we register more than 2,000 young people, we created jobs, internships and gave young people new possibilities for their future. We are already in discussions for Digital Jam 3.0 and the establishment of a fund for young people to access capital to develop businesses in these areas and software applications.

Here, I share a small part of the response to me from the World Bank: "Seeing the quality of the apps being developed in the app contest and the hackathon showed that there are real young and Jamaican Steve Jobs(es) out there."

The task of getting positive messages to our young people to motivate them, and get them involved in developmental opportunities is best done by their peers. The National Centre for Youth Development in the Ministry of Youth and Culture will be engaging a cadre of young people - Community Youth Empowerment Aides (CYEAs). The CYEAs will be trained by the NYS in business administration and life skills as well as in key principles of youth development, youth advocacy and leadership.

We have started a concerted effort to be in a position to measure the service we offer to every young person in Jamaica and, therefore, determine the effectiveness of youth intervention programmes. To do so, we need empirical data and several initiatives are being undertaken to achieve this.

Jamaica has been selected by the Commonwealth Youth Programme as one of the first countries to pilot the Youth Development Index. The index will measure youth development over time, identify areas that need further attention, compare progress between countries, advocate development policies for youth and encourage the collection of youth-related data.

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