Kingston and St Andrew Festival Queen to empower young men

When it comes to empowering youth, Miss Kingston and St Andrew Festival Queen, Daina Dyer, decided to shy away from the usual with her parish project.

Instead of focusing on female empowerment, Dyer has decided to centre her project on grooming the nation's young men. Her project, 'Young Men Empowered', launches today.

In an interview with The Gleaner, Dyer explained that she initially wanted to focus on young women for her project, but opted to do the opposite, as she felt young men were in need of the help as much as their female counterparts.

"It came about just because I thought to myself, 'We're always looking at empowering young women, but who are we empowering them for?' When we empower our young women, they are going to need young men who are equally driven, and that is what this project is about," she said. "This project is for young men between the ages of 15-19 years old, so that's high-school boys from third to sixth form. I want to give young men someone or something to emulate. I want them to feel empowered enough to understand that they are the future and they are the ones we will need to build Jamaica. We want them to be as strong as our women in terms of reaching their goals, and we want them to work along with women in achieving the goals of Vision 2030."

WORKSHOPS

There will be three workshops at Kingston College, Vauxhall High and Shortwood Practising Infant Primary and Junior High. The workshops will run from April 10-13 at 2 p.m. for every school except Shortwood- for them, the workshop will begin at 1 p.m.

"The workshops will focus on exactly what is needed from the young man in 21st-century Jamaica. We will also have rÈsumÈ writing, just because we want our young men to be employable. I know young men in this specific age group will be going off and seeking summer jobs soon, and we want them to know how to present themselves to their employers in every way," Dyer explained. "We will also have vision board settings and goal identifying, so that they can see what exactly it is they want to achieve and how they go about achieving it."

While this project is her brainchild, Dyer will be calling on some other young professionals to help her with the sessions.

"I will be presenting on goal settings, so maybe two of the workshops will be spearheaded by me; the others will be done by Placement and Career Services for the rÈsumÈ writing, and three speakers for each of the workshops focused on grooming."

Young Men Empowered will be launched today at the Heart College of Beauty Services at 3 p.m.