THE Goodwin Park Hostel for street and at risk boys is one step closer to completion, following Tuesday’s signing of a $4-million financing agreement for the fencing and equipping of the premises, located off South Camp Road in Kingston.

The hostel is being constructed in an effort to ease the plight of street children, who are often victims of physical and substance abuse, sexual exploitation, neglect, and other violations.

The financing agreement, meanwhile, sees some $3.5 million in funding being allocated by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and the remainder by the Rotary Club of St Andrew, the Possibility Programme and the Child Development Agency (CDA).

JSIF head, Scarlette Gillings said at the signing ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Tuesday that the entity’s involvement signified its continued efforts to fulfill its mandate to “improve the social and economic infrastructure of the under served”.

In this case, she said it would be through “assisting boys and young men at risk to anti-social behaviours including crime”.

Gillings noted that the provision of the hostel not only provided an “alternative to living on the streets, but also had the potential to change the courses of their lives”.

Chairman of the Possibilities Programme, which will assume responsibility for the training of the youngsters, Dr Jaslin Salmon said, meanwhile, that he was anticipating the completion of the facility.

“Not only will the programme be training youngsters to give them a skill but will also be giving them an opportunity to find somewhere to lay their heads at night, to sleep, to stay,” Salmon said.

He added that the society could not remain comfortable when its youngsters were “exposed to the various dangers” associated with the streets. The facility, he said, would be a welcome haven for youths who have been known to confide that they would “like to go to prison because it gives a place to sleep and something to eat”.

The Rotary Club of St Andrew announced plans to construct the US$250,000 hostel to accommodate street boys in the Corporate Area as the main component of its centennial project in 2004. A new completion date has not been set for the structure, which was to have been ready for occupancy in April, 2005.

When it is completed, however, it will comprise eight bedrooms with a central bathroom area to provide accommodation for 32 boys, aged 10 to 18 years, registered under the Possibility Programme. The Possibility Programme is a national programme aimed at addressing the needs of street children nationwide. In addition to being provided with shelter, the facility will offer training programmes as well as training in social values and guidance in delinquency prevention.