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  • 11 months ago
The Ministry of Youth Development and National Service has partnered with the East Port of Spain Development Company, to bring training and development programmes directly to the communities of East Port of Spain. The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding today. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00Come January 2025, a suite of MyDNS programs will be offered in 19 East Port of Spain communities
00:08as the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service and the East Port of Spain Development
00:13Company seek to bring opportunities to at-risk youth.
00:17One of the greatest lies I believe ever told in Trinidad and Tobago is that the people
00:22of East Port of Spain, the collective, are not worthy, they are not worthwhile, but one
00:27of the saddest truths is that many of them, or some of them, seem to have believed it
00:33and they continue to perpetrate that negative stereotype in some of their actions.
00:40And this minority of people, sadly, seems to affect the wider community.
00:48Minister of Youth Development Foster Cummings stressed the importance of this targeted intervention.
00:54There are border issues and sometimes persons from one community may not be able to leave
00:59to go to another community or to go to where we traditionally roll out these programs.
01:05We don't want those issues to prevent young people from those communities from experiencing
01:09the opportunities that all other young people throughout Trinidad and Tobago experience.
01:14So our intention is to take those training programs into those communities, so for instance
01:18into the B-Time Gardens or into Morva or into St. Paul Street.
01:23At this time, a number of facilities are being refurbished in preparation for the rollout
01:28of the programs, which are simultaneously providing opportunities for temporary employment.
01:33We have a success story of the Baselaw Street Youth Development Center, which in record
01:39time we have been able to repurpose and refurbish without any incident whatsoever, utilizing
01:46skills from within the community to conduct that refurbishment without any incident whatsoever.
01:53The contractor who is on site there, we visited some time ago, was able to tell us that the
01:57young men in the community are anxious to work and we are anxious to make sure that
02:01they have the opportunities to do so.
02:03Persons between the ages of 16 and 35 are eligible for enrollment.
02:08As well as the MILAT program and the MIPART program, we will also utilize those programs
02:14as well.
02:15In terms of training for heavy equipment operation, training in terms of the construction sector,
02:21masons, carpenters, other tradesmen, electricians, auto mechanic areas, air conditioning, refrigeration,
02:30you know the wide range of programs we have.
02:32We intend as much as possible to introduce those to these communities.
02:35Roughly how many young persons you would say have benefited from these programs since you've
02:39been rolling out these initiatives?
02:40I would say about 15,000 so far and as we expand in 2025, we expect in collaboration
02:47with other ministries who are also doing new development programs but it may not be
02:51branded in that way to double that figure in the year 2025.
02:56Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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