At the opening of a key regional social security gathering hosted in Dominica this week, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has revealed a prestigious national honor to be awarded to one of the country’s most respected public service leaders. Janice Jean Jacques Thomas, the decades-long Director of the Dominica Social Security (DSS), will receive a National Day award during the island’s 2026 Independence Day celebrations scheduled for November 3.
The announcement came during Skerrit’s keynote address at the 34th Meeting of Heads of CARICOM Social Security Organisations, which was held at the InterContinental Dominica Cabrits Resort and Spa. The high-profile conference brings together social security leaders from across the Caribbean Community to coordinate policy and share best practices for regional social protection systems.
In his remarks, Skerrit extended warm praise not only to Thomas but also to DSS’s management team, frontline staff, and governing board, highlighting their consistent commitment to serving the Dominican public. He pointed to major progress the institution has achieved in recent years, noting two key advancements in particular: expanded public outreach that has boosted awareness of DSS programs, and broad improvements to service accessibility that have made benefits easier to access for people across the island.
These strategic improvements, Skerrit explained, have dramatically increased the organization’s public profile and built significantly higher levels of trust among Dominican residents. In a personal tribute to the outgoing director, the prime minister affectionately labeled Thomas “the real Social Security lady”, tying the upcoming national award directly to her decades of dedicated work shaping Dominica’s modern social security framework.
While Skerrit acknowledged that all public institutions can continue to refine their services and expand impact, he stressed that under Thomas’s decades-long leadership, DSS has grown into one of the most visible and trusted public institutions supporting the welfare of Dominican people.