Community Inclusion Programme targets youth

THE University of the West Indies (The UWI) Faculty of Sport has partnered with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and Project Gold to pilot a project known as the Community Inclusion Programme (CIP).

At yesterday’s launch at Cane Farm Kandahar Community Centre, Crown Street, Tacarigua, the stakeholders elaborated on this year’s inaugural theme, “Sport as a Tool for Development and Peace.” The initiative will run for the Easter vacation until April 17 in the constituency and will involve 11 to 16-year- olds.

The youths will partake in several physical activities, including training in various disciplines such as football, cricket, basketball and a new venture called footgolf. The developmental project will also focus on the off-the-field aspects of sport including team-building, social awareness, education on family life and also, self-development and career sustainability for the future.

As part of the overall mission, the CDB and Project Gold want to ensure students understand that academics can indeed be integrated into those interested in the industry in order to create a more holistic and versatile individual.

“The aim is to encourage young people to develop an interest in sport and to recognise that with a focus on sport, you can go places and get as far as anybody else. You can even have careers outside of the field as an athlete, and even be an intellectual, doctor or professor in sport,” explained head of the Academy of Sport at the UWI St Augustine Campus, Funso Aiyejina.

As for the message of unity and peace the programme is trying to inculcate, he added, “In TT, where there are several cultures and ethnic groups, the one place you are going to find collaboration is when you are on the playing field. So sport is very important to any society that takes itself seriously. It helps build character from now.”

The project is also taking place in August Town, Jamaica, as the second venue selected by the UWI, with the ambition of creating awareness on topics such as improved gender relations, selflessness, camaraderie and equality in general; all tenets Aiyejina believes are key to a peaceful society. He offered the students a lesson as well on the famous Christmas Truce during World War I where football was actually played between warring factions during an armistice.

Aiyejina highlighted such a peacetime as a true testament to the power of sport, which is why the programme has enlisted the experienced Clayton Morris, former titan of the “Strike Squad”, and West Indian cricketer Lendl Simmons, a community member, to help the children absorb these principles which will be spread across the ensuing two week period.