Ambassadors, teams honoured at gala night

Parish pride took centre stage on Saturday night as the teams involved in the Parish Ambassador programmes for 2022 and 2023 were honoured by the Community Independence Celebrations Secretariat.

A dinner and awards ceremony held at Sandals Barbados Resort featured a performance by pannist Hashim Durant, a past representative of St Philip in the competition, to usher in the gala night.

Following a video presentation of the ambassadors’ journey throughout the competition, Jessica Parris, the secretariat’s programme coordinator, provided an additional snapshot of the parish representatives’ activities during their tenures.

“Parish ambassadors, I implore you to continue to effect positive change and make a difference in the lives of those around you,” she said. “Thank you for your sense of patriotism and community-mindedness.”

St Lucy’s Parish Independence Committee won the Committee of the Year Award which was accepted by chairman Anderson Rollock.

The Most Improved Parish Ambassador for 2022 was Tyrell Burnett of St Michael. The three parish ambassadors adjudged Most Improved in 2023 were Jalani Hinds representing St Andrew, Rashida Mascoll of St Thomas, and St Michael’s Klay Stephen.

With St Lucy having secured a three-peat at the Spirit of the Nation show, the Most Outstanding Ambassadors for 2022 Paul Cato and Chloe Collymore presented the ceremonial sash to Ammario Rollock and Destiny Cummins. Receiving special mention for the progress made throughout last year’s competition were the representatives of St Peter, St James, St John, and Christ Church.

Pledging his commitment to growing the Parish Ambassador programme into an even more relevant initiative, Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith revealed a proposal to award scholarships for excellent performance.

“I think we need to move to a stage where the rewards are more than what we would have seen,” he said. “All the resources that I can harness within the ministry will be lavished in this particular direction to strengthen those young people from the 11 parishes who decide on a yearly basis, that they need to participate and give back to our country, give back to community, give back to families; it is absolutely important.”

Griffith called for a strategic succession plan within the Parish Independence Committees (PICs) to maintain continuous development. He encouraged them to groom individuals to achieve longevity for the programme.

“We need to keep it fresh; we need to ensure that we have persons who are knocking on the doors at the PIC to be involved in the process,” said Griffith.

He suggested the inclusion of community-based organisations and reaching out to parish sports clubs to invigorate and diversify participation. Declaring that sport could be a vital tool for empowering young people, the minister added: “Sports is one of the areas we can use and infuse into this programme to ensure that we can make our young people shine.”

While acknowledging the efforts of the Community Independence Celebrations Secretariat, Griffith said he envisioned an expansion in development opportunities for the participants. Boasting that his ministry’s employability programme has achieved a 95 per cent success rate, he said: “I want to see every single ambassador who is not employed involved in that particular programme.”

For would-be entrepreneurs among parish ambassadors, he proposed the establishment of a programme under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme that would be tailored to aspiring self-employed ambassadors.

(STT)