THE National Youth Service wants to recruit at least 1,000 volunteers from the island’s 14 parishes by January of next year.

Rev Adinhair Jones, NYS director, said the $1 million recruitment drive would be the launch pad for an islandwide promotion of the culture of volunteerism while addressing critical manpower needs in the NYS and affiliate organisations.

Newspaper ads, which began appearing last Friday — which was International Volunteers Day — appealed to Jamaicans who want to assist the NYS in its training and mentorship programmes. Interested persons were advised to contact any of its 13 parish offices by phone, to make arrangements to pick up application forms.

Rev Jones told JIS News that volunteers would be trained, monitored and deployed to various projects in the areas of literacy, homework support, mentoring, peace development, health promotion and information technology.

“We are hoping our initial intake will get us at least 1,000 persons, beyond that we will have ongoing registration and deployment,” he explained.