AWARD-WINNING YOUTH advocate Kevin Brown has been selected to participate in an international visitor programme on 'Youth Leadership' sponsored by the United States State Department through the U.S. Embassy's Office of Public Affairs.
The programme in the United States began yesterday and will run until September 1.
Mr. Brown, who works at the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology as a web programmer, is a youth activist in the Kingston community of McIntyre Villa. He is president of the community's youth club.
Mr. Brown is committed to community development, serving as a role model for the young people that he works with. During the three-week programme, he is interested in learning more about ways in which youth in the United States present their agenda and influence public policy. He hopes to translate this into his work with Jamaican youth. While recognizing the need for education and community-based skills training, Mr. Brown also aims to "get the youth together" to find and lobby for solutions to issues affecting them directly in their community.
YOUNGEST JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
Mr. Brown was sworn in as Justice of the Peace at age 25, making him the youngest JP in Jamaica. He won the Governor-General's Achievement Award in 2004, and the Musgrave Youth Award (Silver Medal) for Community Development in 2003. He is also a volunteer with the Jamaica Red Cross HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme, and was Jamaica's youth representative to the United Nations Special Session on HIV/AIDS in New York in 2001.
