St. Kitts and Nevis’ CYA Ian Richards said that this study is extremely important and will greatly assist the CYA Programme achieve its mandate of promoting the benefits available to young people under the CSME.
 
He noted that the success of the study is heavily dependent on the cooperation of stakeholders such as community and youth based organizations, public and private sector agencies, non-governmental organizations and unattached youth.
 
Mr Richards also stressed the need for partnerships with the Mass Media in facilitating the dissemination of information.
 
The CCYD comprises seven (7) adult Commissioners and eight (8) youth Commissioners. It is co-chaired by Professor Barry Chevannes of the University of the West Indies and Yldiz Beighle, a former CYA.
 
The CCYD was launched in March 2007, following a mandate of the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Suriname in 2006. It will carry out a series of intense collection, gathering and analysis of data on myriad aspects of youth and youth-related issues such as unemployment, crime, education and migration. From that analysis the CCYD will submit a report with recommendations on how to best tackle the challenges, deal with the difficulties, highlight the opportunities available, and build on the successes of young people.
 
This report is expected to be presented at the next meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government in July 2008.
 
 CYAs also used the opportunity to meet on issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS awareness PANCAP/CARICOM Mini-Grant Programme and discussed several Information and Communication Technology (ICT) driven initiatives that are being planned. Skills training workshops on Media Relations and Gender Mainstreaming were also held.