Lighting another flambeau

FORMER Young King Bevon St Clair was signed to the Universal Music Group in May 2018 and before that he performed in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, North America, Czech Republic, Australia and around the Caribbean.

St Clair’s first trip to London was funded by the Rose Foundation’s Beyond Borders programme. Sterling Belgrove, the foundation’s co-founder and chairman, told Newsday, “Bevan as a youth grew up around the Rose Foundation. He had a talent. He was searching for a place, for mentorship, for someone to support him when he developed that talent.

“His first trip to London was provided for by our programme Beyond Borders and this is what began his international exposure. It really began with the Beyond Borders programme.” Marcia Mc Clashie-Belgrove is the other co-founder of the Rose Foundation.

Now St Clair has also been named the first of the Beyond Borders programme’s goodwill ambassadors. These ambassadors, Belgrove told Newsday, are intended to be icons for residents and particularly youth in the high-risk communities the programme serves.

“Beyond Borders is a social intervention programme which focuses on the reduction of crime, violence and social inequities in some of TT’s most at-risk communities. The strategic objective of the programme is to build human capabilities for the future to help children and young people lead productive, meaningful lives with an intensive focus on self-sustaining initiatives for human capital development,” a release from the foundation said.

The programme began in 2011 and was developed through a partnership between the foundation, BPTT, and the Ministry of National Security, though the Inter-Agency Task Force Hearts and Minds unit. Beyond Borders, the release said, provides “organisational and community development skills: to residents of communities such as Beetham Gardens; Laventille; Farm Road (St Joseph); Mt D’Or; Covigne; Mayaro; La Brea; Embacadere, San Fernando; and Tobago.

The programme, the foundation said, was also developed because “it was recognised if there has to be any reduction in crime and the involvement of those of who are involved, other legal opportunities for learning have to be provided.”

The programme has influenced approximately 5,500 lives since its start and has several mechanisms to achieve its goal. They include sending people on scholarships at the MBA level; special programmes at the bachelor’s level, on specialised training in governance, community marketing and planning, project and facilities management; OSHA training and agriculture and construction.

In addition, through the programme over 17,000 pounds of food is delivered to the communities.

In the 53 Laventille communities, the foundation said, community ambassadors have been appointed. These are different from the goodwill ambassadors. The community ambassadors are people “who have proven to portray the characteristics of the ideal citizen as promoted by the Caricom Ideal Citizen model.” Through these ambassadors 87 NGOs have been formed and 20 for-profit companies have been incorporated, reportedly generating approximately $15 million in revenue. Expanding on this concept, the foundation, implemented the goodwill ambassadors this year. Its release said the intention is to “bring awareness to the Beyond Borders initiative globally and to build the efficacy of participation by local artistes to contribute to the development of their country and society as role models.”

Asked why St Clair was chosen, Belgrove said although St Clair grew up in Manzanilla, he spent a lot of time in the East/West Corridor “to be closer to opportunities.”

“When he did performances, he could not go back to Manzanilla, because he would not get transportation. So he was always bunking by someone within the corridor.”

St Clair was an appropriate choice, the foundation believes, because his 2014 Young King song, Another Flambeau, was “a lamentation to the crime situation at the time and when he presented it, he himself, had intimate knowledge of the impact of crime on families.

“He also has children of his own and this song had that personal meaning for him because everyone in the community was really distressed by the spiralling crime rate then. It really had that appeal.”

Belgrove sees initiatives like Beyond Borders as “triggering new activity in the economy of hope.”

He said the economy of hope was the first economic depression that took place in TT.

“People have lost hope, so the intervention restores or triggers new activity in the economy of hope.

“With the economy of hope comes the economy of belief in possibilities. And that leads to community thrift, community dedication.”

He has also seen impact of the programme’s work though a Beetham beautification project “where all the residents of the Beetham participated voluntarily.”

Beyond Borders “allows people to dream, to hope, to know that there is a better tomorrow. They apply themselves toward those goals. Every day they awake, they awake with a purpose.”

Belgrove also believes the programme will bear even greater fruit of change because “more and more people want peace. Even some who got into the gang culture, they understand that is not the way to go – but the question is about the alternative.

“So it is about how do you provide a mechanism for the transition so that they can begin to enjoy a quality of life that is not based on the proceeds of crime or illegal activities but at the same time engage them in legitimate activities and they feel there is a level of dignity.”

St Clair, in his role as Beyond Borders goodwill ambassador, is required to exemplify in his life and his opportunity what the potential of the programme is all about: going beyond borders.

“It is beyond social borders, economic borders, beyond cultural borders, beyond cultural and regional borders,” said the foundation.

Taking the programme even further, four youths from John John, Laventille, Belgrove added, will be representing TT in July at the World Championships of Performing Arts. They will be going to Hollywood to compete in singing and dancing. If successful, they will be awarded contracts and scholarships.

It’s important to Belgrove and the Rose Foundation that the Beyond Borders programme aims to break any type of border formed by gang activity.

“When you go back to the gang culture, when you talk about turfs and blocks, it is defined by borders,” he said. “So the programme is about the demarcation beyond any of those borders and the full human potential can be recognised.”