A CALL has been made for greater collaboration and networking among the public agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Clarendon, in a bid to realise a faster pace of community development.
CALL FOR NETWORKING
The call was made by Mrs. Ethel Brown, the field services manager for the Clarendon operations of the Social Development Commission (SDC). She was addressing last week's monthly general meeting of the Clarendon Parish Council. She said that while resources were relatively scarce in terms of each agency or NGO, ideas and talent were not in short supply and agencies like the SDC, the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), the parish council and NGOs were all keen to make greater contributions towards community development, but were sometimes hampered by inadequate inter-agency networking.
She said, for example, the Parish Development Committee (PCD), the 'umbrella body' for the community-based organisations across the parish, was currently without a secretariat and all the persons who served the organisation were volunteers. That situation, she said, had left the PDC chairman, William 'Billy' Shagoury, "disgruntled, because for the body to be effective, it really needs to have a secretariat."
Mrs Brown said as field services manager with the SDC, she has had to support the PDC in its planning and secretarial functions, "but I must say that cuts deeply into the time I have for the other things which I have to do." On the positive side, however, she noted that advances had been made through the parish council for funding to be identified to help to establish a secretariat for the PDC.
Mrs. Brown also indicated that improvements in training were on the agenda for the next three months, as while the voluntary membership of the PDC had much interest in serving the community, "they need more training in the processes involved in effecting community development." She said the SDC would be providing the training.
