A Juvenile Justice Officer from the United States will be spending three months in Guyana to do a rapid assessment of the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) and make recommendations on the way forward.
According to a GINA press release, this is part of the Ministry of Education, Department of Youth’s efforts to professionalise the NOC. The NOC has faced a series of serious challenges in recent years including a mass breakout, a fire and allegations of abuse.
Assistant Director of Youth, Leslyn Boyce, in an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA) said that the services of the officer were acquired through collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
According to the release, Boyce said that the Ministry of Education is taking steps to integrate the psychologist who was attached to the Skills and Knowledge for Youth Employment programme to work along with the juvenile officer.
“We want to professionalise NOC and in doing that, we need to have the right group of persons with the right skill set who understand the system, who understand how to more or less manage these young people,” the release quoted Boyce as saying.
