NOC needs major reform – Presidential Youth Advisor

Georgetown: Presidential Advisor on Youth Empowerment, Aubrey Norton, believes that a complete reform in the system is needed in order for the New Opportunity Corp (NOC) to actually make a difference in the lives of the children who attend the institution.
During a stakeholders meeting to discuss ways to improve the NOC, Norton told the gathering that there needs to be a complete revamp in the mindset of employees and the entire approach taken to train the students.
Firstly, he said a reformative justice approach is needed rather a penal approach, noting that the later will only make the students there feel isolated from society.
On that note, he explained that programmes need to be implemented and administered to help the students there be reintegrated into society.
Moreover, he said the system needs to work along with families and communities in order to help the students feel confident to re-enter society.
He reflected on an interaction he had with one of the students, where she preferred to stay at the Corp rather than return to her family due to her firm belief that her family will not accept that she has changed. This concept and mindset, Norton affirmed, needs to be changed. Norton reminded that the Corp’s objective is to transform juvenile delinquents into acceptable members of society and, therefore, all approaches taken by the administrative level need to keep this target in mind.
“Work has to be done to transform the thinking of the family, the thinking of the community and the thinking of the wider society. If you reform somebody and put them in the same situation, then axiomatically, you’re in trouble,” he said.
“We must begin to see young people as assets, rather than as problems,” he reiterated. Therefore, he said the institution needs to employ persons with quality leadership to take charge of the operations there and motivate the students to strive for betterment.
Additionally, he said the entire curriculum at the institution needs to be adjusted so as to allow the students to gain the requisite skills to re-enter into society.
“There is little or no sense having young people there and they are not trained to lead. So what is critical to the process to me, is training these young people to be leaders in their own right,” he said. Norton pointed out that the illiterate students need to be taught how to read and write; those with anger control problems need to be taught anger management’ those who lack life skills need to be taught life skills; those with low self-esteem need to develop higher self-esteem. This way, he said, will make students upon graduation more attractive to employers.
More importantly, Norton admitted that these changes can only be done if the necessary resources are provided. On that note, Norton urged the Government to commit itself to reforming the NOC and provide the resources needed to help in that regard.
“If the Government is serious, it will have to give the resources to deal with the NOC as needed,” he said.