JWNF gets high mark for 'Focus on Boys' series

The J. Wray and Nephew Foundation (JWNF) 'Spotlight Sessions' - Focus on Boys workshops for parents, teachers, principals and educators received strong endorsement from participants, who noted that the conversations were long overdue.

"I think that it was excellent. I think it's a conversation that needs to happen and it needs to continue. I think we're losing our boys and we don't want to have a lost generation. We need to have our men and we need to find alternate solutions," said Lezanne Azan, who participated at the Parent and Educators' workshops, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

Troy Kemp and Calvin Hadley, experts from the United States with a long association of dealing with boys, were the presenters.

Overdue initiative

At the parents' workshop, Hadley's topic was 'Teach the Parents, Teach the Boys', while Kemp advised on 'Raising Boys'. For the Teacher's forum, Hadley lectured on 'Teaching Boys', while Hadley leveraged ideas on the topic 'Teach the Teachers, Get the Boys'.

"This is a conversation I'm very passionate about and I think that this is an excellent move in the right direction by the JWN Foundation and I'm happy to be a part. I think for everybody who attended, this is a long-awaited conversation that needed to take place.," Azan reflected.

...Education can change circumstances

The J. Wray and Nephew Foundation (JWNF), which operates under the mantra 'Transforming lives and communities for a better Jamaica', recently hosted workshops to raise the awareness and special needs of boys regarding education. With those special needs met, the JWNF said the boys and those entrusted with shaping their character can change their circumstances, given that their school drop-out rate and gang involvement places them among society's most at-risk.

Camille Johnson of the Joy Town Community Development Foundation, which delivers a programme for at-risk boys who are struggling with academic and behavioural issues, was 'fully' supportive.

"I fully support what the Foundation is doing in terms of transforming communities and in terms of reaching our boys and placing importance on their education," said Johnson.

Shift focus

"And so they've recognised that we've to shift focus in terms of reaching them and using our teachers to recognise that there is a difference in how they learn and just a difference in how they process and use information and arming us with that information."

Paul Glenroy Messam, the principal of Red Hills Primary, found the sessions enlightening.

Messam said: "This seminar is such a wonderful thing because the way how the boys are socialised in Jamaica they've been left out, you don't have much boy-friendly training activities.

"So this is a very enlightening, educational, motivating and a well-organised forum to help educators on how they can make boys move forward or be better engaged so that their literary development can be enhanced," he continued.

"They need all the help they can, so we need more of this kind of forum. This kind of forum can only do good with enlightenment, motivation, enriching, educating and tapping the minds of these young boys. Boys are always left behind, so we need to pull them up, and up, and up. And they can only go up," he added.