~~During the 2013/2014 financial year the Clarendon Parish Council made significant strides in improving the delivery of social welfare services to all categories of beneficiaries.
On Tuesday, February 18, 2014 the Council handed over a brand-new Poor Relief Office to its outdoor clients in Rock River while residents of the Clarendon Infirmary received an early Valentine’s Day gift a week earlier. The residents now enjoy an Activity Room where they participate in a number of recreational activities during the daytime .
Much was said
While Councillors said the new poor relief office was long overdue, they lauded Secretary/Manager, Mr. Rowhan Blake, for prioritising the improvement of Poor Relief in 2013/2014. The most ambitious product of his commitment to date is the replacement of the almost fifty year-old Rock River Poor Relief Office, which had been derelict for some time.
“Today I am proud to know that it is completed,” he remarked.
“It is not a dream anymore,” a jubilant Florette Stewart, Councillor for the Chapelton Division declared, “It is a reality. It has happened.”
Mayor of May Pen, Cllr. Scean Barnswell, asked beneficiaries to consider the striking difference between the new office and the original building, which is adjacent.
“Compare where it was and where it is now,” he said “This is one of the many initiatives that the Clarendon Parish Council has undertaken to facilitate our poor relief staff to carry out their functions more effectively.”
The Secretary-Manager agreed and charged officers to make the new facilities reflect in their service, “Now you should be more comfortable and more motivated and as such this should reflect in the service you provide.”
Clarendon’s the best
According to Treka Lewis, Area Supervisor for Poor Relief, Clarendon’s poor relief officers are among the very best. Miss Lewis singled out the Parish Council’s Inspector of the Poor, Mrs. Patricia Anderson as being at the very top of her field. She said the Board of Supervision recognises from the initiatives taken to improve poor relief services in Clarendon, that the parish council and Secretary-Manager Blake has a vision for social welfare in the parish.
The division’s Councillor, Mr. Uriah Mitchell urged residents to take good care of the facility.
“Take care of the building to ensure that whatever funds is available can be used to improve the network of poor relief offices,” Councillor Mitchell told the small gathering of mostly outdoor poor relief beneficiaries.
The Rock River Poor Relief office serves some 122 clients from several communities in North-Central Clarendon including Diamond, Simon, Moores, Coxwain, Bellas Gate and Boyes Content.
