WESTERN BUREAU — The National Youth Service (NYS) Saturday launched the Student Development Mentorship programme in Montego Bay — the start of the third and final aspect of the truancy programme that began in Trelawny last September and which benefitted 114 problem boys.

The same group of boys, from Kingston and St James, will benefit from the mentorship programme. They graduated in October last year from Camp Nutshell, the island’s first ever government-run truancy camp.

The camp was geared at curbing the incidents of violence in schools, which was a major concern for Jamaicans, that were expected to address the issue of inappropriate or otherwise violent behaviour. Following their graduation last October, they were involved in mandatory enrichment workshops twice weekly that sought to build their interpersonal and social skills, while reinforcing appropriate behaviour in their home and school environments.

Now, less than six months later, the truancy programme has entered its third phase, which seeks to provide lasting role models for the youngsters, who range in ages from 13 to 18 years.

“Out of the mentor relationship it is envisioned that these boys will become men who exhibit confidence and self awareness, who develop a sense of responsibility to self and country, who make right career and lifestyle choices (and) who are proud to be called Jamaican,” project manager, Andrea Robinson said.

The programme is to run for a year and should see the mentors, who are all male, providing guidance for the boys to wham they are assigned. The mentors were chosen from a cross section of the society, including the church, citizens groups and service clubs.

“Today (the mentors) meet with (the boys) and then they will set the next meeting time and place. We advise them not to take them to public places in the first several meetings because we want to put them at ease,” the project manager told the Observer.

At the same time, she said the NYS would be monitoring the programme to ensure its smooth operation.

“What we (will) do in terms of monitoring is call the mentors at least once every other week to find out how the programme is going… Further down the road we will bring them all together, have an evaluation of how they feel as mentors, what type of challenges they are having and so on,” she said.

Meanwhile, Reverend Adinhair Jones, acting executive director of the NYS, said the programme was coming at a time when Jamaica and its young people were facing a crisis of a lack of good leadership.

“The data that I have in the NYS is that the majority of you (boys) live with your mother. You don’t have a man in your life, a real man and you need that in the process of reorienting yourselves and changing your lives. We give to you a mentor, somebody who has been through a number of stages and phases in life… who can provide guidance and support, who can become a sounding board for your own ideas and concerns and can provide you with some general directions as to how your life can go…” he told the boys at the launch ceremony at Holiday Inn Hotel.

According to Jones, Jamaica’s future will depend on its ability to develop and maintain such programmes.

“The future of Jamaica as a nation is going to require, very seriously, arrangements of mentoring programmes on a larger scale than we are now experiencing in this particular student development programme,” he said.

Marlon Tingling, president of the Kiwanis Club of Montego Bay, that will be mentoring seven of the boys in the group, shared the reverend’s sentiment of the programme’s importance.

“It’s a good programme. Given the problems that we have, that some of these youngsters have we feel it is a part of our duty to actually get involved to try get them back on the right track. The response from members of the club is very good,” he said.

Added Tingling: “We have seven or eight youngsters who we will be taking charge of, so to speak, under the programme. They are from different social backgrounds and our duty now is to ensure that we get them involved in something positive (and) ensure they remain positive. I would recommend the programme to anybody who is a role model and who thinks he can make a contribution in terms of assisting these youngsters.”