Mission Youth, Jammu and Kashmir, organised consultative conference on establishment of District Youth Centres and Psycho-Social Counselling Centres in all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir with active involvement of youth from planning stage to management of these state-of-the-art institutions.Chief Executive Officer, Mission Youth and Secretary, Tribal Affairs Department, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, chaired the conference on concept design and operational ecosystem of District Youth Centres.Chief Engineer, PWD Kashmir, Showkat Geelani, dwelled on the design options and youth expectations while OSD Mission Youth, Tabish Saleem and Deputy Director, Maqbool Ahmed organised stakeholder discussion on various contours of District Youth Centres.Pertinently, the District Youth Centres are being envisaged as Centres of Excellence to provide a platform for constructive engagement of youth. These DYCs are aimed at to provide opportunities to young people to explore and recognize intellectual and professional potentials besides extending them professional counseling and systematic assistance. DYCs will also focus on opportunities of skill development, social interaction and recreation.The DYCs will provide systematic professional support for drug de-addiction and other social issues.
The endeavour is to make available quality facilities for sports and other recreational activities. Mission Youth through theses DYCs endeavours to make the systematic hand-holding accessible to all young people including those with physical disabilities.Dr Shahid informed that a month-long programme has been chalked out for a massive consultative process with youth under the “Ideas Conclave” series being organised at district level and to be later rolled out at block and panchayat level where youth will present their ideas, suggestions, issues and concerns which will be a roadmap for Youth Policy and offer participatory planning for various schemes related to self-employment, entrepreneurship, skill development, sports, jobs, counselling and so on.Apart from DYCs in 10 districts in Phase-I, the Psycho-Social Counselling Centres are being established in 8 districts, 4 each in Jammu and Kashmir provinces. These centres will focus on Therapy and Subsequent Rehabilitation, De-addiction and Post Integration Support, Basic Safety Training for Young Women, Gender Specific Counseling to deal with Gender Specific Stress; Stress Management Trainings/ Programmes and Basic Disaster Management Trainings.The components of DYCs include Professional Psycho-Social Counselling, Digital Libraries, Recreational Facilities, Discussion Spaces, Skill Labs, Value Based Movie Screening and Individual/ Group Guidance Sessions.Dr. Muzaffar Khan and Dr. Yasir Hussain delivered address on psycho-social support mechanism while Mohammad Rafiq, Assistant Director DECC Budgam discussed the contribution of livelihood schemes to be tailored for such centres.Syeed Tabassum Geelani conducted the proceedings of workshop.