At-risk youths living on the south side of Belize City have a new take for a second chance. Today, the Southside Youth Success Project was introduced at the University of the West Indies campus in Belize City. It comes in the form of a drop-in centre on Belize City’s south side that will deal with the realities that our youths face. The collaborative effort will be carried out by the Youth for the Future with support from Restore Belize, and has the blessings of the US-Government’s Central American Regional Security Initiative, CARSI, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Ministry of Education. Today representatives from the respective agencies, including US Ambassador to Belize, Vinai Thummalapally, explained what the programme aims to do for Belize City’s troubled youths.

Vinai Thummalapally – US Ambassador
“This CARSI sponsored UNDP grant project focuses on mentoring, skills training and job placement for at risk youth in South Side Belize City. What is the key to success of this project? Collaboration and cooperation. The turnout here today is an expression of shared responsibility and a testament to the shared sense of crisis impacting Belize’s youth especially young males in the communities of South Side of Belize City. We are all aware of the statistics about the economics and citizen security difficulties and sufferings affecting our friends and neighbours everyday in Belize City.”

The programme will run for two years in its initial phase.

LOVEFM

Belize Targets “At Risk” Youth with Anti-Gang Program

The Youth For the Future under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Youth in collaboration with the United Nation’s Development Fund launches the “Southside Youth Success Project: Pathways to employment for young men at-risk of joining gangs”.

The project is funded for two years and proposes to reach out to at-risk male youths by establishing a Youth for the Future ‘drop-in’ centre on Southside Belize City; provide youth with mentoring, moral guidance & social values, life-skills and ‘job preparation’ training; placing them in paid apprenticeship or job positions through our business partners; and provide on-going support-services for employed youths – further mentoring, training, and ‘trouble-shooting’ to keep them at work.

Click here to read the rest of the article in the Ambergris Today