BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Department of Community Development is looking to provide an enabling environment for those youths in society who are classified as at-risk, through developmental programmes at all levels.
According to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Community Development, Janelle Lewis, the Department believes that there is potential within all youths, but it need to be moulded.
Lewis told SKNVibes that some of the young people in St. Kitts and Nevis are facing challenges and need assistance, and at this juncture “the Ministry aims to provide an enabling environment for them to get the needed support and assistance”.
“What we do in most of our programmes, we try to make it holistic so that persons can get the social assistance and services that they need, and also provide other services like Project Viola and consoling,” she added.
The Permanent Secretary explained that persons are assessed on a case-by-case basis to pinpoint their actual needs and problems so the Department would be better able to place them in the appropriate programme.
She further explained out that after the assessment, they would be referred to Social Assistance where additional services could be rendered.
“What we try to do is work with the parents and not just the young person. This is so because if the parents are not involved it is a practical waste of time for us; everything can basically unravel after we would have finished with the child.”
Lewis noted that partnership with the wider community is important for the Department because it “is they who reach out to us and ask us for assistance”, adding that they are the ones who would need to assist the children on completion of the programmes.
This was highlighted at the recently concluded graduation ceremony, where over 20 teen mothers had completed their secondary education and technical studies.
Several of those teen mothers will now undertake their tertiary level education, according to Lewis, while others have found job placements within the private sector.
