ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Chief Welfare Officer in the Citizen’s Welfare Division Cindy Price said partnership with the community and corporate society will be critical to the upcoming summer camp, which opens on July 16.

She said the economic downturn, coupled with insufficient resources, had forced the government to offer less places to participants than usual.

Residents from the Boys’ Training School are among those who have registered thus far.

The camp is part of the annual work programme of the Citizens Welfare Division.

In the past the Magistrates’ court has sent probationers and other youths to the camp as a means of monitoring. It also provides an opportunity for social workers to monitor their clients in an alternative setting.

At the camp’s inception it was recognised that the units’ clients, many of whom were unsupervised during the summer vacation, needed positive activities to be engaged-in during this long vacation but their parents could not afford to pay for the existing camps.

Several activities are planned for attendees, including cooking, swimming, craft, martial arts, computers, sports, hiking, field trips, fishing, movies and motivational presentations.