THE snail’s pace at which the Ministry of Youth and Culture, headed by Minister Lisa Hanna, has been moving to establish youth information centres (YICs), which are said to be critical to engaging at-risk youth across the island, did not go down well with some members of parliament on Tuesday.

The MPs, at a meeting of the Human Resource and Social Development Committee of the House, also expressed frustration over the slow pace at which the Government is moving to finalise the National Youth Policy, and well as the lack of access to information for those who the ministry’s programmes are supposed to target.

Opposition MP for Trelawny Southern, Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert, accused the ministry of not being committed to urgently addressing the plight of unattached youth, arguing that while the policy languishes, an increasing number of youth were falling by the wayside.

She took particular issue with the explanation by ministry representatives, led by Acting Permanent Secretary Sherrill O’Reggio Angus that the ministry had not been able to find a suitable location for a YIC in the parish of Trelawny

“You are way behind. [Are] you telling me that for four years you’re looking for a location in Trelawny for an information centre and can’t find a location? Either you’re not interested in the youth or you’re just not committed to the task. We are committed to doing papers and preparing presentations. After four years we are hearing about a policy on paper. Right now we are at crisis proportions, and what we need is for some action, some creative ways of reaching out to the youth now, not waiting until four years when this generation of young people are down the drain,” she said

There was further outrage when Youth Programme Director Tasheika Barnes revealed that a YIC was to be built in Trelawny four years ago, but the ministry had to return money that was donated by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) because of the lengthy delay with approvals from the National Environment and Planning Agency.

Philibert described that development as “shameful” and urged the youth ministry to take a page out of the education ministry’s book for its creative use of scare resources. She pointed out that the education ministry, too, was operating under the same budget constraints as all other Government entities, but was still able to successfully carry out its programmes.

She, along with other members, MP for St Catherine Eastern Denise Daley and MP for St Ann North Eastern, Shahinie Robinson, argued that the youth, particularly in rural communities, were not aware of the programmes that are available to them, and that the ministry needed to address that void. In fact, the MPs said not even they were aware of any YICs in their communities.

“We are speaking about persons who don’t even know we are talking about them because they have no access to information. When I speak to the youth in my community, they don’t know what is available. It makes no sense we have all of these things and the young people who need to access them don’t have even a clue that these things are happening for them,” Daley lamented.

Meanwhile, Robinson said the centres were not operating as they should as, often, the programmes that are said to be offered are not available at some centres, or are mired in so much red tape that the youth get turned off from participating.

At present, there are 10 functioning YICs across the island, but of them in Kingston and St Andrew. These centres are operated under the National Centre for Youth Development.

“We are not impressed with the work of the ministry. It’s not answering the problems of unattached youth,” said St Catherine Central MP and Opposition spokesperson on youth, Olivia Grange.

The permanent secretary, who was at a loss for words at frequent intervals during the meeting, tried to assure the members that the ministry was in fact committed to the process and gave the undertaking to provide the committee with a status report of the various programmes and their impact on the youth. The committee is to consider 11 submissions on the revised National Youth Policy (2015-2030) which was tabled in the House in May of this year.

— Alphea Saunders