Conference confronts key issues affecting youth
Youth at Risk: that’s the theme of a three-day Student Assistance Conference that began this morning at the House of Culture. National Kriol Council President and conference coordinator, Myrna Manzanares, says the annual seminar was actually the brainchild of the now defunct Pride Belize, but after talking to some of her colleagues in the field, it was time to end the decade-long hiatus. News Five caught up with Manzanares this afternoon, who told us that the topics chosen for discussion are critical for the development of Belize’s young adults and the people who work with them.
Myrna Manzanares, Conference Coordinator
?What we did was we looked at what was happening in the society, I spoke with the counsellor, Ms. Elizabeth Goff from Wesley and she kinda touched base with other people, also talked with Drug Council and with Quality Assurance to look at what are some things that may be prevalent today, and also we had that in conjunction with our primary facilitators, what their area of expertise.?
?This morning we have when misuse becomes dependence, this is with drug use and abuse. And we know this is very prevalent today. We also have bullying, this is a very hot topic because there are all sorts of bullying. We think of bullying as just people who go around a beat up others, but there?re very subtle forms of bullying and we have bullying in the workplace with children, all over.?
?We also have facing the empty chair, which is suicide. We know that the society we have experienced a number of suicides over the last few years and a lot of times the suicide we see are mostly young men or women. So we?re gonna look at suicide prevention.?
?The conference is geared towards working with young people whether in schools or whether out of school. But it is looking at social workers, policemen, nurses, teachers, anybody. If its the media, anybody that is involved with the development of the child.?
If you are interested in attending the next two days of the Student Assistance Conference, call the Kriol Council at 207-0329 or Myrna Manzanares at 223-5551. Registration is forty dollars per day.
