Prince’s Trust graduates good for society, says Senator

By Randy Bennett

The most recent graduates of the Prince’s Trust International Programme have been told they are the type of young people Barbados needs right now.

The words of encouragement came from Senator Lorenzo Harewood, who hailed the 11 graduates for working to become model citizens at a time when many young people were getting involved in crime.

Delivering the feature address at the recent graduation ceremony at Sweetfield Manor, Senator Harewood urged them to continue to put their best foot forward.

“You guys represent something that comes at a critical time in Barbados. There is a lot of discussion not only in Barbados but across the region in terms of the level of crime that we are seeing, particularly from the young men, but from the youth nonetheless.

“Today, I come with a message of hope and a message of reciprocity. We expect these young people to become citizens of excellence. We expect that when they move on from here that they will be focused on what they want to do not only the rest of this year, the rest of next year, but perhaps the next five or 10 years down the line. Focus on what you are going to do next year, take your time, don’t rush it, but if you see an opportunity you can rush and benefit from without disenfranchising someone else, please rush it,” he advised.

“The truth of the matter is when we talk about crime in Barbados, when we talk about the lack of intuition in terms of young people, anytime I see a story on TV I feel as though I have failed. Even if I don’t know the person and I live in Christ Church and the person is from St Lucy, I feel as though I have failed and I’m certain that many of us collectively feel the same way as well. It is something we don’t want as a Government, that we don’t want as a society, but I will focus on something more positive; you are something we want as a Government and that we want as a society.”

Prince’s Trust International is a 12-week self-development programme that caters to 16 to 25-year-olds who are either out of school or unemployed.

Eight skills are targeted in the programme: communication, managing feelings, working with others, reliability, leadership, confidence, job search skill settings and achieving goals.

The programme has a 70 per cent success rate in helping participants either find meaningful employment or go back to school. 

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)