A group of youngsters participating in a programme run by Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU). YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES Unlimited (Y.O.U) is seeking to provide more support for Jamaican boys by recruiting additional male mentors.
The voluntary organisation which has operated its core programme of one-to-one mentoring for in-school adolescents since 1991, says it has been consistently harder to recruit male mentors.
A press release from the organisation says the current ratio is about one male to five female volunteers for its mentoring programme.
Y.O.U. Founder and Executive Director Betty Ann Blaine notes that providing more male mentors for the adolescents served by Y.O.U. is one of her organisation's highest priorities. "This addresses the crisis of our boys not having positive role models in their lives," she says. "We believe there is a clear connection between lack of positive male role models and the various problems being exhibited by boys in our society - issues such as underachieving, and more boys than girls being involved in criminal activities, for example".
Sheila Nicholson, veteran social worker and Senior Projects Officer with Y.O.U., says this concern is supported by the problems of families that she counsels at Y.O.U.
"The boys who come in for counselling usually only have female parents or guardians in their lives, and these women tend to spoil them because of early attachment," she explains. "Young boys are loving to a female parent but as they start to grow up, the women cannot clarify what roles they should assume. And as the boys look around in the society, they see the negative roles being portrayed. So we need strong, positive males to counter this".
Juliet Johnson-Hutton, Project Officer in charge of the Y.O.U. one-to-one Mentoring Prog-ramme, notes that Jamaican boys are also facing discrimination at another level. "Young boys are not supported in our society, as much as girls are, to make use of opportunities, to do well in life, and to make a contribution.
"Even in the school system, the female teachers (who are in the majority) prefer to assist the girls, to ask them questions in class, and to encourage them. This is understandable, in a way, as the boys mature later and are more difficult to deal with. In addition, most of the male role models the boys see around them are negative and hostile, so their behaviour reflects this."
Mrs. Johnson-Hutton, a social worker, has years of experience in community development with a special focus on young people at risk.
She says she's concerned that there are a number of promising in-school adolescent boys waiting to be matched with male mentors.
In addition to its core programme Y.O.U. operates a network of related support programmes for adolescents, runs a parenting education programme, and trains other organisations to set up youth mentoring projects.
People interested in becoming volunteer mentors can contact Y.O.U. at its Camp Road, Kingston 4.
- Contributed
