Play park at St. Silas
For the past two weeks the play park at St. Silas Primary School has undergone major refurbishment and is now fit for use.
This is to the delight of the 143 students, as well as members of that St. James community, who now have a brand new park to relax and play after close to ten years of being out of commission.
Principal Sharon Sealy expressed appreciation to the group of youngsters responsible for the transformation, during the handing over ceremony last Thursday.
The young men and women are participants of the Prince’s Trust International Team Programme, who were given the task to connect with their community through different projects.
“When we first realised that our school was selected for the project we were so excited. Our playpark has been out of commission for about ten years and we have been trying various ways and means to get it back up, but finances was against us. So this opportunity was one we grabbed with both arms. Now, we have a brand new play park by the efforts of the young people, and that makes it even more special,” Sealy expressed.
The Royal Barbados Police Force, in conjunction with the Prince’s Trust International, a registered charitable organisation in England and Wales, embarked on the partnership to deliver this personal development programme in Barbados, designed to assist young people 16 to 25-years-old, who are unemployed, or not engaged in any formal aspects of educational or vocational training, and who may be considered “At-Risk” because of these factors.
Team Coordinator for the Programme, Sergeant Hallam Jemmott said that the four-week community project, entailed two weeks raising the funds and two weeks executing the project.
“The participants would have raised over $1 000. However, through other donations from individuals and businesses they were able to achieve the amount needed to repair the part – over $3 000. So, what we are seeing is the culmination of two weeks of fundraising and two weeks of actual work on the play park so that the children can now enjoy it.”
Having successfully completed this phase of the programme. Sgt. Jemmott said that the participants will now prepare for the world of work, also revealing“For the next two weeks they will go into job placement at various businesses. This is designed to give them an opportunity to see what the world of work is – to look at their attitude and aptitude towards work.”
“They can place that work experience as part of their Curriculum Vitae in week 9 where we do total participation for the work place - building a CV, mock job interviews, job searches, etc.,…The idea is to get them into the world of work, rather than sitting home doing nothing.”
“The best thing about the programme is that our young people are seeing an avenue where they can now get into work and prepare themselves,” he added. (TL)