Youth advocate Peter Skeete is encouraging parents to instill their children the importance of community-based organizations and activities.
Skeete was one of the featured speakers at the Eden Lodge Charitable Trust Christmas party for more than 100 recipients held at the Derick Smith Secondary and Vocational School Saturday afternoon.
The panel of featured speakers included Minister of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports, John King; Minister of Elder Affairs and People Empowerment Cynthia Forde; Minister of Environment and National Beautification Trevor Prescod; as well as key stakeholders from charities across the island such as the Amarone Charitable Trust.
The youth commissioner of St James South was alarmed at the rising number of Barbadian youths involved in deviant and criminal behaviors. He suggested that community-based organizations help in keeping young people in at risk communities out of trouble.
“While we continue to share in the Christmas joy we must remember that it is the community’s young that we should be mindful of. You as parents have a valuable responsibility to play in the same way that we are trying to capture the imagination of our young people by engaging them in wholesome activity by providing them with gifts, skills training programmes, providing them with job opportunities; we too must be mindful that within the communities in which we live there are persons who are capturing their attention in a negative way,” Skeete cautioned.
“We want to encourage you as parents to be mindful of the challenges that our young people face, we want you to engage them, we want you to continue to let them be part of community-based organisations,” he added.
Skeete mentioned that within the past year, more than 800 young persons were involved or charged in the judicial system. He warned parents that deviant behaviours were not sudden but manifested over a period of time and urged them to be take control of their children’s futures and put them on the right path.
“We must be able to provide for our young people, we must be able to monitor their behavior and continue to steer them away from deviant and antisocial behavior because at the end of the day a life of criminal activity ends up one place and we are concerned that so many young people are incarcerated,” Skeete said.
Talk is cheap. Bring the programmed or shut up!
Peter Skeete is a true Ambassador for youth involvement in community based organizations. Adults must see themselves as guardians of our youth and adjust their attitudes most of all to be able to function in that capacity. If we are wise we will find ways and means to engage them in activities that will benefit them and our country.
Like electricity what u need Peter is a conductor otherwise u are on a WOT short lived mission. None of what u have said will mean a thing to the persons within the community of this majority. People MUST feel a connection to look out for his BROTHER or SISTER. Now, over the years this connection was lost as more and more so called Barbadians believed that they became higher up and better off that their neighbor. Adding to this plight, many of this people adopted a “don’t tell my child attitude” hence….
Now the only conductor which will bring all of the community spirit back is IDENTITY. As I have said, people must see themselves as one body. And u can believe that or not. Back in the day “post colonial” (or so we think) the people had a sense of togetherness, workmanship and genuine love for each other in the village, but the creation of a faux middle class, migration, repatriation, mis-education (especially of our youth), housing developments, etc has caused much damage to that social network thereby causing much fragmentation and disintegration of communities.
I know the majority in those communities don’t read our comments as such mine were not intend for those persons. The advice offered is for those who are minded to link arms with others and get the work done. It is for those who are wondering what they can do differently to relate to the youth. Oh Yes, identity and miseducation is at the heart of it all but you won’t find yourself in a position to address those things if you possess the wrong attitude. Peter knows what is responsible for his success in the community over the years where he was able to address identity through re-education.
@Tempu – what exactly is a wrong attitude.