And onto other news, the Ministry of Youth and Sports is revamping the Department of Youth Services to better cater to the needs of the youths they serve. Today, they launched a Youth Needs Assessment Survey, which will gather information from young people between the ages of 14 to 29. This survey aims to better assess what young people require from the department, so that DYS can then plan their next steps.
The Minister of Youth and Sport, Kevin Bernard was at the launch today and he explained the genesis of the survey.
Hon. Kevin Bernard, Minister of Youth and Sports
"We want to ensure that whatever policy we're putting forward comes from the information that young people are giving us. So this youth needs assessment, we have our young people going out, we are starting here in the Belize District, where we have done the northside so far, we believe we have targeted at least 1% of the young population in Belize City so we can get a feel of what really the young people think and would want to say to us that we must addressed as a ministry. Some of the things you see coming out is employment - we focus on employment, sports, COVID 19 livelihood, and services. In terms of services, they're saying, one of the high thing that came out was counseling. So far the young people are saying that is one of the high priority for them."
"I believe that as we continue into the southside and then the rural areas, Belize rural north, center and south, and get a more holistic approach to what is really the needs and this way when we do our strategic plan, when we gather the priorities then we say, this may be the first priority we have to target."
"We want to ensure that the first preliminary report comes out by the end of next week and then that strategy will be fully developed, we're going to be meeting with stakeholders, so we're looking at between two to three months to have a comprehensive plan that we're going to lay out and that's why I said to one of the young lady who asked the question, what is your target, what is your timeline, I believe that by the ending of September, October, we're able to go to the Belizean people and be like, you know what, this is what the ministry of youth will carry out over the next few years and this is what we'll achieve and the resources we will need to do so, whether we need to also tap in to grant funding or utilize volunteerism at the same time to do some of these you work but we want to ensure that we have a sound plan within the next few weeks."
The surveys for the northside of Belize City indicated that youths were interested in counselling services, education grants, assistance with poverty stricken homes, agriculture, and more.
