By Latrishka Thomas
In commemorating International Men’s Day, which was celebrated yesterday, a group of young men who recently started a non-profit organisation called Initiate Spark, are doing their part towards making a difference in the lives of men and boys.
A few days ago, the all-male team visited three schools as a part of their Gender roles, Mental health and Substance abuse (GEMS) campaign.
Secretary of Initiate Spark Jamie Saunders told OBSERVER media that that campaign was correlated to the theme of International Men’s Day, “Making a Difference for Men and Boys”.
“If you are talking specifically as it comes to men and boys, it kind of ties into what our first campaign was — looking at issues of substance abuse and just the kind of expectations that society places on men and boys that can be detrimental to their health and general well-being.
“And, just in general, we think that men and boys don’t really have the awareness of what some positive outlets and coping mechanisms are for the general stressors in life, so those are some of the issues that we want to kind of provide them with resources [for] and create an environment more conducive to them being able to positively contribute to society,” Saunders stated.
The Initiate Spark team launched the school outreach segment of their 2019 GEMS Campaign at Ottos Comprehensive School with a discussion which featured Sydney Retymyer, Addiction Specialist at the Crossroads Centre Antigua.
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