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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