Officers from the Community Relations Branch (CRB) within the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force are touting the success of an ongoing 1-year social intervention project entitled: King’s Trust International Programme.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Elvis Thomas, Officer in Charge of the Northern Division, spoke about the rudiments of the programme and the economic impact it has created in providing livelihoods and transforming the lives of some young people.
The King’s Trust International Programme is a United Kingdom-based charity founded in 1976 by King Charles. Its mission is to empower young people aged 18 to 30, “to learn, earn and thrive”.
ASP Thomas, who also serves as a Delivery Partner Manager, explained that “the team programme is a full-time 12-week personal development programme for ‘harder-to-reach’ young people. It aims to increase confidence, motivation, and skills, and as a result enables those young people to move/move back into employment, education, training, volunteering or apprenticeship.”
The programme combines outdoor and community challenges with classroom-based learning, instructionally designed to provide for active team building and gradually increasing skills development, including communication, reliability, confidence, motivation, and resilience.
According to ASP Thomas, the participants are provided with “opportunities to develop their skills and confidence to succeed and deliver tangible employment outcomes.”
In January 2023, the programme commenced in Saint Lucia, in the southern community of Vieux Fort. To date, four cohorts have completed the training courses in the south, and the facilitators plan to expand the programme to the north.
The CRB’s southern division has been coordinating the programme, assisted by CRB units from the northern and central divisions.
Fifty-four young persons have graduated and 39 have gained employment.
ASP Thomas acknowledged the support from the Sandals Foundation, and other corporate sponsors “for their continued funding of the programme.”
He asserted: “Let us help to encourage and motivate our young persons to remind them that they all have potential and can contribute something meaningfully to our society.”
Furthermore, the internationally based group states, “We have been supporting young people worldwide since 2015. We were founded by His Majesty King Charles III to tackle the global crisis of youth unemployment.
“We work with local partners around the world to deliver education, employment and enterprise programmes that empower young people to learn, earn and thrive.”