C.Y.D.P. gets high marks
It was created with a dramatic fanfare that promised more than it could ever hope to deliver. But after three and a half sometimes controversial years, the organization which was born at the Bird’s Isle gang truce has evolved into an institution, earning high marks in the process.
It has been one of the rare success stories of recent years, and the results of an independent evaluation of the Conscious Youth Development Program confirm this theory. The details of the assessment, commissioned by the Caribbean Development Bank, were released at today’s public meeting, by consultant Henry Anderson of the University College of Belize. Anderson says that based on information received during the three-month long evaluation process last summer, C.Y.D.P., has been one continuous stream of positives.
Henry Anderson, Consultant
“From what we saw certainly, big time. The crime rate went down, and if you look at it, they have fifty students going to C.E.T. So you’re breaking that whole spiral of, you have jobs, you can’t get work, then you become dependent. It costs ten thousand dollars per year to keep a person in jail and most of the clientele have done prison time, so there is a lot of cost recovery. So in terms of the tourism industry, I don’t think we’re black listed anymore and things like that so it has been great.”
In fact, so great has been the success of the program that those who run C.Y.D.P. say it is time to chart a different course. One which, if the consultants opinions are taken seriously will cost one point one million dollars over a period of five years.
This include two hundred and nine thousand dollars for institutional strengthening, a hundred and eighteen thousand for an employment program, four hundred and forty five thousand dollars for education and two hundred and thirty five thousand dollars for counseling.
National Security Minister Dean Barrow says it was touch and go for a while after the historic Bird’s Isle truce in February of 1995, but that the program has now attracted government’s unwavering support.
Dean Barrow, Minister of National Security
“At the time one thought that it was a very iffy proposition, but I believe listening to the details of the work in progress as well as the evaluation report of the consultants, the success really is remarkable and I certainly am very pleased and very grateful to all those who made the success possible. Apart from an increase in the annual subvention, we’re going to make property available for the construction of a C.Y.D.P. headquarters. We’re reserving as I said one hundred thousand dollars as seed money to fund a micro-enterprise-lending component for C.Y.D.P. We’re providing as well the infrastructure work along the refurbished Faber’s Road and we will be giving employment in the form of the painting of public and school buildings over the summer.”
But while the consultant’s report gives C.Y.D.P. a thumbs up, the program also faces some very real challenges. C.Y.D.P. today announced a restructuring that includes a new administrator and specific portfolio assignments to other members of the coordinating committee. Eleanor Vernon, who takes over from Inspector Edward Broaster, says she is ready to tackle the impending challenges head-on, knowing full well that you can force the beast to the trough, but that getting it to drink is a horse of a different color.
Eleanor Vernon, Administrator, C.Y.D.P.
“The plan we presented today is a very ambitious plan. We have programs that we hope we’ll be able to fulfill. We are able to reach all of the young people who need our services if we can find them, because one of the strategies we are going to use is to go out and find the young people and bring them to the program. We can do that much but once the young people get to the program, then it is their responsibility to be able to absorb what it is we want them to do. We want to assist them with rehabilitation. We cannot rehabilitate them, unless they want to be rehabilitated.”
One woman who went through the process is Ursula Smith who says C.Y.D.P was a savior for her and urges other young people to reach out for help instead of turning to a life of crime and violence.
Ursula Smith, Youth Leader, C.Y.D.P.
“For me, it change a lot for me because I never finish college or nothing like that but dem make a gone back dah school and I get wah degree weh ah could get wah job ina small business and, you know, go do life skills or career development. And they even send me dah beauty school and weh a accomplish and di look fi open mi business.
Dah just, you know, no mek nobody try put nothing ina unu head and will power dah the best thing.”
Although Inspector Broaster is giving up the top position at C.Y.D.P. and will virtually fade out of the spotlight, Minister Barrow believes that his new role as head of the conflict resolution team is a plus for the program in more ways than one.
Dean Barrow
“What is happening is that he was coordinator, overall administrator of the program as well as in charge of conflict resolution, and what was happening was that he is so good at conflict resolution, he is such an authority figure as well as being so very intelligent and understanding, that the demands on his time with respect to conflict resolution made it impossible for him to do as well, administration. So the move is only to have him concentrate full time on conflict resolution, because quite honestly the circumstances oblige that.
Unless you can stop the young people from getting into violence with each other, you’re not going have a chance to have the other aspects of the program work. Edward Broaster’s role therefore is, if anything, in my view, being magnified because that conflict resolution has to be the wellspring of the entire program. And he will now be devoting his time completely to that.”
Barrow says that with the evaluation in hand, he is now better equipped to seek international funding to keep C.Y.D.P.’s doors open. And a positive sign that help might be on the way, says Anderson, is the fact that the C.D.B. requested the evaluation.
Henry Anderson
“I think the reason they have become interested is because Belize is kind of way ahead of everybody else in attacking the gang issue and C.Y.D.P., although it was kinda thrown together in a hard time, you know, when they had all the violence, has made major impacts. That is why they have looked at being interested in lending us money. So, if it is funded, yes.”
And somehow over the years, C.Y.D.P has managed to survive without becoming a political minefield, something which Minister Barrow says will never happen so long as he is in charge.
Dean Barrow
“I’m very glad for that and Patrick, I have deliberately made it clear to all those involved in the process that I will never play politics with the program. There are too many members of the public involved, the welfare, the very lives of young people are at stake and so I think to have attempted to play politics with the program would have been absolutely reprehensive.”
The make-up of the audience at this morning’s public meeting at the Radisson Hotel seems to indicate that there are more than a few people who truly believe that Belize is a much less violent place since the Bird’s Isle truce. In the words of the new administrator, “Good things are happening at C.Y.D.P.,” which should be good news for all of us. Patrick Jones, for News Five.
Other officials of the restructured C.Y.D.P. include Kevin Cadle who will coordinate the after care program, intended to break the “revolving-door” cycle of young people entering and exiting the prison system. Edward Burns is now heading the counseling program, which includes schools, while a suitable candidate to head the education program is being recruited.
