{"id":1687,"date":"2018-08-15T18:46:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T18:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=1687"},"modified":"2018-08-15T18:46:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T18:46:15","slug":"st-james-custos-takes-400-youths-off-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=1687","title":{"rendered":"St. James Custos takes 400 youths off streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clinton Pickering – Freelance Writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Custos of St. James, Bishop Conrad Pitkin, has been putting words into action in fulfilment of his pledge to engage young people in an effort to turn around the lives of what he has classified as \u201cdeserving youths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Committed to the belief that \u201cif we can engage our young people in positive activities, we will be able to minimize and cauterize the violence and crime we\u2019ve been experiencing on our country,\u201d Bishop Pitkin has spearheaded a \u2018youth enrichment programme\u2019 for hundreds of young people.<\/p>\n

Supported by the Ministry of Education, over the past five weeks, the programme has kept over 400 young people off the streets of Montego Bay. Having actively engaged them, at 10:00 o\u2019clock this morning, they will be presented with certificates of participation at a graduation ceremony at Faith Temple Assemblies of God Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will be assessed also and given certification from HEART in various skills which will equip them for the job market. Some will have an opportunity to go back to school to complete their education,\u201d said Bishop Pitkin.<\/p>\n

The initiative was disclosed at the 24th<\/sup> Annual General Meeting of the Association of Past Members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force Benevolent Society (Chapter One) at the Verney House Resort last Thursday. Bishop Pitkin, who was guest speaker, said, \u201cEven though we\u2019re at the fifth week, persons are still calling, knocking at our door because they have recognized that they didn\u2019t make the best of the time they had before but now they want to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the ex-cops that opportunity was not just a once in a lifetime thing, but presented itself every day and \u201cthey could be a tremendous impact on our young people and our country today.\u201d<\/p>\n

ENRICH COMMUNITIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having commended the retired JCF officers for their service to country, Bishop Pitkin, called on them to continue serving as volunteers. \u201cLadies and gentlemen, your country needs you more than any other time in your service. I say that today because when you look around and you see what is happening, you have the prerequisite in your skills and your experience that can be used to enrich communities, not just in St James but across Jamaica,\u201d he implored them.<\/p>\n

He challenged them to plan activities among youth groups in their respective communities \u201cso as to avoid or lessen crime and violence in these areas,\u201d and they would experience immense satisfaction from knowing that they still could contribute to the safety and stability of their country.<\/p>\n

Custos Pitkin suggested to them that, \u201cYou can be linked with persons and other particular organizations like HEART Trust NTA, National Youth Service, Jamaica Social Investment Fund, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, ministries of government and other specific community organizations which can enhance the lives of our youths. Our young people need fathers and mothers who they may not have on the home that they can look up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clinton Pickering – Freelance Writer   Custos of St. James, Bishop Conrad Pitkin, has been putting words into action in fulfilment of his pledge to engage young people in an effort to turn around the lives of what he has classified as \u201cdeserving youths.\u201d Committed to the belief that \u201cif we can engage our young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[775,30,776],"class_list":["post-1687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-custos-of-st-james","tag-western-jamaica","tag-youths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}