Basseterre, St. Kitts (March 29, 2006): The Department of Youth is continuing efforts to educate and empower young people through the field of entrepreneurship.
The latest venture involves the launch of the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative (CYCI), which is a model designed to develop entrepreneurial qualities and provide credit to young people across the Commonwealth. It is fashioned after other micro-credit schemes.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Youth Hon. Sam Condor was instrumental in getting the CYCI implemented in St. Kitts and Nevis. In 2005, he sent a communiqué to the regional director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme outlining government's goal of empowering young people and invited them (CYCI) to conduct micro-credit training here. This is another way government is addressing poverty alleviation, while boosting economic activity.
Dwynette Eversley and Marva Bancroft recently visited the Federation to follow-up on the initial contact made. They conducted a two-day workshop on the philosophy of the CYCI model. Participants included key stakeholders in youth and business from the public and private sector.
Ms. Eversley provided some insight into the model which was developed in 1994 by experts in the field of micro-credit and approved in 1995 by Commonwealth Youth Ministers.
"Micro-credit means you're offering credit to persons who would not normally attract credit from formal lending institutions. That is one subset and then you're dealing with youth. So within those two subsets you have a lot of dynamics that need to be managed, she explained. "That is why we had a very dynamic group of stakeholders going through what the model looks like. We had the stakeholders going through who could be the lead agency for St. Kitts, who could be the implementing agency, based on experience, and who would be the target beneficiaries."
Ms. Bancroft revealed that topics covered during the sessions included an introduction and history of the initiative, benefits of the CYCI and the ingredients of implementation in St. Kitts. She stressed that the model must be adapted to the local environment to ensure it achieves its objectives and has maximum impact.
Workshop interaction was extremely high. Ms. Eversley praised participants and singled out three members from the Advanced Vocational Educational Center (AVEC). The Commonwealth official added that support from all areas was strong.
"When we wound up, I said if this is the caliber of young people & in St. Kitts and Nevis we really need to be very proud and based on what the (deputy prime) minister had already initiated, we really need to support & these young people & and keep their dreams alive," Ms. Eversley stressed.
Dwynette Eversley is the Progamme Manager for the Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Center (CYPCC) while Marva Bankroft is an associate with CYPCC specializing in the CYCI. The CYPCC is based in Georgetown, Guyana.
Director of Youth Geoffrey Hanley explained that CYCI will complement his department's Business Lab initiative which teaches investor and entrepreneurial skills to participants.
