BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - WITH the evidence of crime ever before us, Operation Future, which has seen success in steering children in the right direction, is bringing a new challenge to the students of schools across the Federation.
The challenge comes in the form of its newly-implemented programme called ‘Fast Forward’.
During this activity, as explained by founder Officer Lauston Percival, a mirror is erected before which children are asked to stand. While standing and observing their reflection, the children are asked to think of what their lives would be 25 or 30 years into the future.
SKNVibes understands that only on Monday (Feb. 15) Operation Future visited the Cayon Primary School and this exercise was introduced to the students.
It is no surprise that all responses were positive when they were asked what career path they see themselves taking.
“You never ever hear one of the students say I want to become a criminal or I want to be a prisoner, because people don’t plan to be these things. But because of their misguidedness or because of decisions that they make that are not good decisions, that is how they become these things. So we want to focus their attention on positive things. And once we continue doing that we would have a very good society.”
Officer Percival admitted that the change would not take place overnight but expressed his belief that once there is consistency “we will see a definite different St. Kitts and Nevis”.
This year and month mark the 11th year since Operation Future was conceptualised and established. Since then, it has impacted the lives of thousands of school children on both St. Kitts and Nevis.
The message of the organisation, according to Officer Percival, is a simple one. It is geared to positively influence the lives of individuals at an early age and encourage them to be right-thinking, upstanding members of society.
Operation Future offers a wide range of services, including visits to schools to speak to students about the effects of crime, homework assistance programmes, counselling and recreational activities.
In a recent interview with the media, Officer Percival said there are ways in which the effectiveness of the programme is measured and, from all indicators, it has been successful.
“…Parents do speak to us and tell us they see a difference in their children when they come home from our different programmes, and we always hear the teachers say they are seeing a difference in this child. Their grades are up and their behaviour is much different.”
