YOUTH Development and National Service Minister Foster Cummings has said over 15,000 people have participated in the ministry’s programmes for young people.
He said the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the ministry and the East Port of Spain Development Company means the programmes will be delivered in communities in the area in a targeted manner.
The signing of the MoU took place at the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service (MYDNS) in St Clair on December 13. Cummings said the collaboration meant the ministry did not need to reinvent the wheel when it came to delivering its programmes to communities in East Port of Spain (EPoS).
“The EPoS Development Company Ltd has been doing some very significant work in EPoS and they are familiar with the territory, and the terrain and therefore, in an effort for us to roll out some of the MYDNS programmes, in discussions with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, which has responsibility for the EPoS Development Company Ltd, we have agreed that the company will be one of the executing agencies for our programmes, hence the reason for this MOU today.
“It would be the same programmes we have rolled out throughout Trinidad and Tobago, but with a more laser and targeted focus on some of these communities that are commonly referred to as at-risk areas where there are border issues, and sometimes people from one community may not be able to leave to go to another community, or to go to where we've traditionally rolled out these programmes.”
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Cummings said the ministry did not want those issues to prevent young people from those communities from experiencing the opportunities that all other young people throughout TT experience. He said the programmes were for people aged 18-35.
“Our intention is to take those training programmes into those communities, for instance into Beetham Gardens, Morvant, Sea Lots, Beetham Gardens, Belmont, Laventille, Malick, East Dry River, St Paul’s Street and other areas. We will take the programmes to source, where they live.
"The EPoS Development Company Ltd is established within those communities. They have relationships that they have already built over the years that we don't need to go and rebuild or try to forge.
“We don’t bury our head in the sand. We acknowledge that we have particular circumstances in EPoS that require the government to take particular interventions to make sure that we can have a better life for the young people in particular, but certainly for all citizens of TT, and on this occasion, for the citizens of East Port of Spain.”
Cummings said government had recently agreed to expand the retiree adolescent partnership (RAP) programme and five additional centres had been rolled out, at least three of which were in EPoS. He said all the national service programmes would also be rolled out in the area, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
“The government has already agreed to expand that programme intake by 200 annually and some of that 200 will go into East Port of Spain as well as the Military-Led Academic Training Programme (Milat) and the Military Led Youth Programme of Apprenticeship and Reorientation Training (Mypart).
"In terms of training for heavy equipment operation, training in terms of the construction sector, masons, carpenters, other tradesmen, electricians, auto mechanic areas, air conditioning, refrigeration, you know, the wide range of programmes we have, we intend as much as possible to introduce those to these communities in EPoS.”
MYDNS permanent secretary Narine Charran said the initiative would serve as a catalyst to the growth and development of youth in EPoS and environs.
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“The MYDNS is responsible for providing the platform for the youth of TT to access quality programmes and services to achieve their full potential and become productive, civic-minded citizens of TT as well as members of our society.
“The EPoS Development Company is responsible for, among other things, the development of the economic, social, and physical environments of the communities constituting EPoS and its evirons.”
He said the two entities would be working to provide services, exchange data and experiences which will allow them to develop and implement critical policies which would support the youth in the area.
EPoS Development Company Ltd chairman Hillan Morean said the collaboration happened because of discussions on how state agencies could work together efficiently to target the people who need assistance the most.
“One of the greatest lies ever told in TT was that the people of EPoS, the collective, are not worthy, not worthwhile, but one of the saddest truths is that some of them seemed to have believed it, and they continue to perpetrate that negative stereotype in some of their actions. This minority fo people seems to affect the wider community in terms of how people describe it.
“I see this MoU as an opportunity to provide quality targeted access to a key catchment of people in the 19 communities in EPoS who really need these type of investment in themselves, so they could stop believing that lie perpetrated against them and fight back against those few who make it seem the entire EPoS is a bad place.”
Morean said he was grateful that Cummings saw EPoS as a place of hope.
“EPoS is a place like anywhere else in this country where you have young men and women, different races, who all want the same thing, betterment, so we see this opportunity as providing that and we are grateful for it.”
