Over $6m to refurbish Diego community centre

PAULA LINDO

Over $6 million was spent to refurbish the Diego Martin Central Community Centre as an investment in the people of the community, Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said as she re-dedicated the centre last Tuesday.

She said, since 2015, approximately 40 community centres had been opened, with 17 ongoing and another 20 in the pipeline.

"We are always very busy dealing with our communities because we know the importance of these centres to our communities. They are for the young people to have somewhere to call their own, somewhere that they can come together. It is for more people in your community who are invested in the community, who have activities, classes, the community education programme, community mediation, the Best Village programme, among others.

"These are presented free of charge to allow you to enrich and develop yourselves to be better people. Your centre is the hub of these activities that are available to you," she said.

She said her ministry had launched the first ever national policy on Sustainable Community Development.

Its importance, she said, was to see that everything that happened in a community fitted into an overall plan for the community. She said often people carried out programmes in a community in a disjointed way, and the effects were not felt following the period of the programme.

With the implementation of the policy, community members would decide on a community plan, and the ministry would co-ordinate this plan so that the programmes' impact would be greater and measurable.

She said. "We look forward to the human, social, cultural, economic and environmental development in all the communities in TT. The community centres play a central role in development of our communities."

MP for Diego Martin Central Darryl Smith said a major part of the policy would relate to maintenance and sustainability of the community centres, including facilities where the residents will be comfortable and feel safe.

"This facility is one of at least five community centres in the Diego Martin constituency on which work has begun, including Diego Martin West, Bagatelle, Diego Martin North and Petit Valley. These will be at the disposal of the young people for different functions and so on, which is key because with the new local government reform, we want to keep everything within this neck of the woods in TT."

Chairman of the Diego Martin Regional Corporation Symon De Nobriga said, "The community centre is the first step, the first intervention, the first tool in the fight against crime, the diversification of the national economy and the empowerment of the residents, but in particular in the empowerment of our youth."

"This community centre forms a central part of the regional corporation’s thrust towards local economic development, and much of our vision for the region and for the Diego Martin region in particular will centre around this economic development."

The Diego Martin Central Community and Advisory Board of Management recognised those who have contributed to the development of the community: Greta Frank, Kenwin Addison-Parris, Jason Boodan, Alexander-John Criqui-Learmond, Lynette Ward, Arthur Stephen, and Yolande Nicholas-Joseph.

There were presentations by the Diego Martin Central Youth Steel Ensemble, the Diego Martin Government Primary District Scouts, the Diego Martin Footprints Dance Group, 2018 Young King Calypso Monarch Mark Eastman, Diego Martin Central Secondary School Dance Group, and the Diamond Vale Government Primary pan programme.