Lack of ‘links’, address keeps us from getting jobs, say Jones Town residents
IT IS a complaint of inner-city residents from Negril Point to Morant Point. They think they are being blocked from employment opportunities because of their addresses. And residents of Jones Town in south St Andrew have the same cry.
And for Jones Town resident Patrick Goulbourne, it is even more than just where they live.
“Is not even about a wrong address, more time is about the links. A just something you need fi get a work as a youth from the ghetto,” said Goulbourne during the latest Gleaner/RISE Life Management On the Corner with Unattached Youths forum last Thursday.
“Me a tell you say, if you no have links, dog nyam you supper. A suffer you a go suffer,” added Goulbourne.
He argued that it is near impossible for young people in Jones Town to get a job if they include their correct address on the application, despite being close to the major Corporate Area commercial centres of downtown Kingston, Cross Roads, and Half-Way Tree.
According to Goulbourne, he was fortunate to get a job through links he forged because of his brother.
The passionate young man charged that even with the necessary academic requirements, too many youths from inner-city communities are kept out of the world of formal work because they don’t have the right connections. “This is nothing strange to Jones Town. It is something that every ghetto youth can tell you about. Some people would just dismiss it, but, Bossy, me a one living example of it. Use me as a sample in a poll and see,” said Goulbourne.
SCHOOL DROPOUTS
He was supported by Junior Brown, who argued that even with a proper education and the relevant qualifications, youths in the community are oftentimes overlooked on account of who knows who, leaving them prone to be drafted into criminal gangs.
“He is right. You still see that even with qualifications, you find that we are still not getting any work because we don’t have any links. Really and truly, links a do it,” declared Brown.
But fellow Jones Town resident Tremaine Spragg told the forum that too many of the young people in the area face issues with having the necessary qualifications and believe that they should get certain jobs, despite not being properly qualified.
“That is something we don’t want to admit, but the fact is that many of us drop out of school and are not qualified, so it is unreasonable to expect people to hire us,” said Spragg.