KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) is seeking to have 50 wards of the state engaged in meaningful work by March 2020, under its Transition to Work Programme for children in state care.

This was noted by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rosalee Gage-Grey at the agency’s eighth annual educational achievement awards ceremony held at the Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew recently.

“We are encouraging as many of our corporate partners and sponsors to help us in exceeding this target so that together we can help our children prepare for their exit out of the child-protection system,” the CEO said.

A component of the agency’s Transitional Living Programme for Children in State Care (TLP-CSC), the Transition to Work programme equips children in State care with requisite employability and socialisation skills.

The TLP-CSC is designed to equip youth in state care with life and vocational skills, training and mentorship in a safe environment.

Since implementation of the TLP-CSC Programme in 2015, some 780 youngsters have enrolled in vocation skills training, of which 451 have completed the course, while in the life skills category 192 caregivers and 260 children have completed training. 

“Under the programme children are provided with skills training, life skills coaching and mentorship for children transitioning out of State care,” Gage-Grey explained.

“When we reflect on the lives of the children who have come into State care and the outcomes we are seeing, it proves even more that it is essential to give young people opportunities to connect with the world, and help them to seek out the oceans of opportunities that are available,” she added.