Former minister calls for all hands on deck to save the youth – EyeWitness News

NASSAU, BAHAMAS If society would look at youth through a positive lens, and invest heavily in their development, they stand to become national assets that will bode well for the future of the Bahamas, according to Neville Wisdom, former Minister of Youth, Sports & Culture.

We need to challenge and assist our youth to greatness as opposed to a reliance on punishment and incarceration as a response to the antisocial behaviour which currently challenges all levels of the Bahamian experience, he said.

Our youth are equipped with the technology, the energy and the exuberance to bring about a paradigm shift towards a positive future.

In light of recent reports related to young people and violence and misconduct, Wisdom decided to speak out with the hope of providing guidance for government, civil society, schools, and all stakeholders involved with the youth.

By the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Cultures definition, this includes young people ages 13 to 25.

Young people are good people, he continued.

They just are victims of the circumstances and the communities from which they have come from.

Wisdom said: A part of the solution lies in confronting the solutions with statistical data, as opposed to making decisions based on emotions. He pointed to initiatives such as Youth 2030: the UN Youth Strategy, built on three pillars peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development in all contexts. It seeks to significantly strengthen the UNs capacity to engage young people and benefit from their views, insights and ideas, ensuring that any work on youth issues is pursued in a coordinated, coherent and holistic manner. The Bahamas, he advised could benefit from UN assistance in collecting and providing the data needed to get a true sense of what the youth need and want to succeed. Meanwhile, there are national and international agencies with the skills and resources to assist in providing tangible solutions.

In 2003/ 2004, the Inter-American Development Bank, at the request of my ministry, conducted a study and produced a report, he said.

It was entitled The Situation of Youth in the Bahamas. A copy of it can be obtained from the Ministry of Youth. It spoke specifically to some of the challenges, and gave some recommendations as to what could be done to meet those challenges based on data and statistics. I would put it to you that today, we are working on emotion and not on data and statistics.

We should know how many young people are in this country. What are their names? What do they do? Where are they, in terms of their physical location? What are their ambitions? We need a proper collection of statistical information so that we do not operate on emotion after some incident would have already happened.

Wisdom said that every young person in the country should be attached to a youth club or organization.

The history of our country is replete with examples of young people who, when given a chance, will rise to the occasion, he said.

We only need recognize the fact that most of the people we call national heroes today came from very humbling experiences. Because they were provided with positive opportunities, they succeeded.

Young people can be categorized into three groups, he continued.

The first category is what we call high flyers those who excel over and above. They are naturally exceptional. They include our Rhodes Scholars and Olympic athletes. Those are the people who show tremendous promise, even from an early age. Then you have the standard Bahamian young person who may be involved in some youth organization; they are doing well in school and will have a successful life.

The third category is the at-risk youth. Those are the young people who would have would have fallen through the cracks, and are in need some assistance to get them back to where they need to be. Programs like the National Youth Service the Boys and Girl Scouts, the Boys and Gi Brigade, and so many of the other youth programs can be mobilized. We need encourage at-risk youth to participate and be involved in something meaningful.

Wisdom called for the National Youth Program that was a cooperative effort between the Government of the Bahamas and the Catholic church to be reinstated.

The program, which was based in North Andros, was a very successful program, he said.

Yes, it was expensive, but the results were amazing. It promoted the concepts of discipline, skills, and training for young men, as well as attendance at church and spirituality. It let young men know that there were consequences for their actions, both positive and negative. The program demonstrated that one of the main problem they faced was simply that they did not know what manhood was all about. You see, young men are the products of old men. I dont think any man would want to think the future of his son or daughter to be one of incarceration. In this program, civil society, the courts, the Police and the Defence Forces were all involved.

Wisdom added: We need to challenge our sons and our daughters to goodness and to greatness. Lets take a chance with our youth. Let us invest in our youth.

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Former minister calls for all hands on deck to save the youth - EyeWitness News