US Embassy official: Give youths alternatives to crime

IN order to turn youths away from crime and gangs, they must be given alternative paths to follow.

At the US Embassy and Chaguanas Borough Corporation’s sports caravan at the Esmeralda recreation ground, Chaguanas yesterday, the embassy’s deputy public affairs officer Michael Barrera said outreach programmes must do more than offer interactions for at-risk youth.

“We see a lot of programmes happening from different organisations and it’s a one-off,” Barrera said.

“Our goal is to do what we can to continue the sustainability, public/private partnerships, getting the business community involved, getting the government involved and keep on engaging these kids. We tell them ‘stay away from gangs, violence’ – we slam that door shut, but do we open another door? Do they have another? Because if they don’t, then we are not doing our jobs.”

As part of the day’s events, children were coached on football and cricket and taught American football, frisbee and flag football.

Barrera said the programme had four installments, with Esmeralda being the last.

But he said the embassy plans on continuing its outreach programme and there may be the possibility of expanding outside of Chaguanas.

“We have the equipment, and once we have the support from civil society and the parents, who are key, we can duplicate this programme in Chaguanas again or go to a completely different area in TT. After this we are looking at sports engagement, looking at some professional football players from the US coming, working with NBA for players to come to TT, entrepreneurship, arts, technology and sports. These are the four areas where we focus to try to get the community involved.”

Chaguanas Mayor Gopaul Boodan and several councilors were also on hand to interact and participate in the day’s events.

Speaking with Newsday, Boodan said over a 1,000 youngsters have benefited from the outreach.

He described the outreach as a pilot programme, saying based on its success, a permanent month-to-month programme will be started in all communities in the borough by August.

Boodan sent out a call to business people and non-government organisations to assist in the future programmes.