By Michron Robinson
Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith believes sports can play a pivotal role in getting deviant youth back on track.
Speaking to Barbados TODAY on Wednesday at the Wildey Gymnasium, on the sidelines of the EcoActive Youth programme which was led by the Ashley Lashley Foundation, he pointed to a link between involvement in sport and steering young people from a life of crime.
“Sports is a critical factor in terms of having our youngsters involved in structured activity. Government is actively working as much as possible to do exactly that. We are pushing sports at the grassroots level. There is definitely a link between having our youngsters involved in structured activity and guiding them away from deviant behaviour,” he said.
“We will continue as a government to ensure that we can place as many programmes at the community level to attract those guys who may be on the blocks, those guys who may not be involved in sporting disciplines.”
Minister Griffith was supported by psychologist Dr Anthony Cummins, founder of the Centre for Solutions and Influence.
“We have a fight on our hands but we will win. We have to create positive activities to help these younger persons. Not only cricket and football, but we need to get these younger persons into the field and [structured environments]. Sports is going to be the main thing – highly positive and competitive activities will be the main thing to capture the interest of these young men,” he told Barbados TODAY, adding that his organisation, which was created to empower males, will implement programmes to assist deviant youth.
“A lot of these children are raised with mothers and their daddies are not there and they need dads to be a part of their lives. We need mothers to understand how talking to that child from the embryonic stage can help that child. We need mothers to understand that talking to children from the womb is important because when it’s born it’s almost a year old,” Dr Cummins posited.
He said that while it will take time, he believes the crime situation in Barbados will turn around.
“We promise Barbados that we are not going to see an immediate change but we promise Barbados change is coming. I can guarantee that change is coming, especially within the next 15 to 20 years. We will work together on our parenting programmes,” the psychologist said. (MR)
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