ST JAMES, Jamaica (JIS) — Education, Youth and Information State Minister, Floyd Green, says the ministry is exploring the possible revival of dormant youth clubs and establishing these in communities where they do not exist, particularly rural areas.

He says this forms part of a move to create a medium through which young people, particularly tertiary students, can be engaged to participate in or initiate activities contributing to their communities’ development.

Speaking at a guidance services symposium at Bethlehem Moravian College in St Elizabeth on Tuesday, Green noted that a number of rural communities have been affected by urban migration which, in several cases, has led to their declining into stagnation as individuals, particularly the youth, have left and continue to leave to pursue opportunities in towns and cities.

This, he noted, presents challenges for these rural districts as “some of them (that) used to be active… are not active anymore… (and as such) are not growing.”

The state minister argued that, against this background, tertiary students in particular were among the most tangible resources available that could assist in rectifying this scenario.

He further contended that community youth clubs could serve as the catalysts driving this level of intervention and through which resources, such as grant funding from various donor entities, could be accessed.

Green also emphasised that youth clubs are a proven way of keeping young people active and out of undesirable activities.

“I have a youth club in my (South West St Elizabeth) constituency (and) they got $10 million from the Japanese Government to build a community centre (which) they did that on their own (after) they wrote their proposal,” he indicated.

Green further highlighted other sources of funding which he said “that even Members of Parliament can’t tap into… but if you have a well-run youth club, you can get it.”

“So we at the ministry, we are on a drive to get youth clubs back up and running, because we find that once you have a youth club in the community, the community does better,” he added.

Green reminded students at the symposium that by virtue of their training, they and their peers are regarded as leaders in their communities, so they “have a responsibility that goes outside of self.”

“You are part of 19 per cent that gets a tertiary education, and it is not because (others) do not qualify, but a lot of them find it difficult to afford to participate in our tertiary sector. But the fact that you are here, the fact that the Government still puts significant sums into providing education, you have to recognise that you have a responsibility to help us fix some of our communities,” he said.