FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
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for Greater Inclusion’ at the March, 2023 National Poverty Reduction Programme Workshop; and Dr. Orville Beckford gave tremendous energy to the promotion of the Department’s programmes in secondary schools across the country. The Demography sub-unit initiated efforts to re-establish the major in Demography by encouraging student enrollment. Drs. Devonish and Priestley have started the process of forging a collaboration with the Department of Geography and Geology to institute a minor and a major in Geographies of Demography through the com- bination of appropriate courses from the two departments. They also conducted an online data appreciation validation workshop in November, 2022. There were also efforts by staff in alignment and continuous trainings, including attending the international Joint Statistical Meeting 2022 in Washington DC (Dr. Ayesha Facey, August 2022). The Anthropology sub-unit produced a new postgraduate course Caribbean Cul- tures and Heritage: Debating Cultural Curatorship (SOCI6121) , led by Dr Laura-Jan Obermuller in collaboration with the University of St Andrews in Scotland and UWI St Augustine. There were a total of 30 students, with 4 from Mona. Dr. Herbert Gayle did over a dozen (13) public lectures, presented at 22 workshops, and had over 30 media presentations on issues of social violence and parenting, additional to his regular hosting of Power Talk. Among his contributions were the training of person- nel of the Ministry of National Security (MNS), Social Development Commission, the Community Safety and Security Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Planning Institute of Jamaica and the Community Development Committees from targeted high violence communities for two days in understanding social violence; and presenting to eight partners of the Ministry of Education and Youth the findings of the 2022 Diagnostic Study of Character Education and Violence in Jamaica he executed. THE SOCIAL WORK UNIT The Social Work Unit was very active and impactful in the 2022/23 academic year – though it struggled with the loss of one of its colleagues. They proudly placed a student at the Ministry of Human Development, Families and Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs in Belize under their flagship initiative, the Caribbean Internship Pro- gramme (CIP). Students and staff worked with communities to strengthen their capacity to help themselves. Utilizing PLA methodology, they collected data for a community profile. The profile was used to help the Community Development Foundation design programmes identified by the youths. Miss Latibeaudiere, the former Unit Coordinator, assisted with The UWI Diversity and Inclusion Policy. She also attended several professional-altering conferences, including Child/Adult mental protection & safeguarding dementia & Alzheimer’s, hosted by International
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