BLAKE... estimates that work will be completed by next month

ST MARY -- Young persons in this parish could soon have ready access to information technology and youth-friendly computer services, as a Youth Information Centre (YIC) is scheduled to open a facility here towards the end of September.

It will be the island's second YIC.

Executive director of the National Centre for Youth Development, Ohene Blake, told JIS News that work was proceeding on the centre, which is located on the grounds of the Emmanuel Baptist Church. He estimated that it will be completed by next month.

The first YIC was officially opened in Portmore, St Catherine on July 10. According to Blake, the lessons learnt from the Portmore centre will be used to ensure smoother operations at the St Mary facility.

Like the centre in Portmore, he said, the St Mary YIC "is a youth-friendly space that is geared to (supply) all those elements that will assist in the development of a young person".

The staff complement in the St Mary centre consists of an administrator, who is to be sourced from the National Youth Service (NYS), and two youth empowerment officers who will be assigned to the parish.

Blake said that one of the officers has already been recruited and has started working, even though the centre is not yet up and running.

"We thought it prudent to have some on-the-ground work started," he explained.

The 15 to 24 age groups will be targeted for attendance at the new centre, he said, and like the Portmore facility, the St Mary centre will provide access to information technology and other communication technologies. These will include faxing and photocopying; in addition, the centre will offer career guidance and counselling sessions for young persons.

"Currently, the plan is to have six computers in St Mary," Blake said. "As with Portmore, there will be an information booth where you can pick up information on scholarships and training opportunities, information on human rights and on youth clubs and organisations in the parish."

He told JIS News that the centre would facilitate the free use of information technology, by young persons, to print research material for assignments, course work, or resumes for prospective employers. The empowerment officers would offer help, he said, for those young persons who were not proficient in the utilisation of computer programming, such as Microsoft Word or other pertinent software.

On the issue of the Portmore centre, Blake said plans were being made to expand its cyber centre with the addition of more computers. This, he said, was due to the high demand for computer use by young persons in the parish.

"In Portmore, there are three computers that are currently accessing the Internet, and an additional five are to be added in one month's time," he noted.

Blake pointed out that one of the computer stations in that centre was configured for access by the visually-impaired and for persons with disabilities, so it has the requisite software and upgraded keyboard for disabled youth.

Meanwhile, planning permission was recently received from the St James Parish Council for the construction of another facility in that parish in the near future, Blake said.

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