Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Stephen Lashley; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Ruth Blackman; Director of Youth Affairs, Cleviston Hunte; and Manager of Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES), Selman Greene-Husbands; conversing at the launch of the 2017 National Summer Camp Programme.
The National Summer Camp Programme continues to work with a budget of $700 000.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Stephen Lashley, said that there has been no further reduction or increase in the funds to host the government’s summer initiative for youth across Barbados.
In 2014 the National Summer Camp Programme had taken a 90 per cent cut, being allocated only $700 000, compared to the $3.5 million in 2013. As a result, the number of locations and the duration of the camp were reduced. Also, they are no longer able to provide the campers with meals. However, despite these changes the Ministry’s Youth Development Department has successfully executed the programme.
“Since 2008 to 2015, approximately 57 443 campers have actually benefitted from this programme. It has also provided short-term employment for an average of 1 000 persons that period,” Lashley revealed to the press during the launch of the 2017 National Summer Camp Programme.
The Camp will run from July 17 to August 18 under the theme, “Creativity Achieving Meaningful Progress (CAMP)” across 45 venues.
The Minister remarked, “We believe that the programme is necessary for our young people, ensuring that they are in an environment that is safe and conducive to productivity during the long summer holiday”.
“We have set out in our National Youth Policy, the importance of the National Summer Camp Programme. We believe that the expenditure is critical because it ensures that our young people can develop holistically within a structured environment and therefore we take this programme very seriously,” he stressed.
“We believe that the programme is working and that is seen in our evaluation of the programme every year – feedback not only from the campers but from the directors, assistant directors as well as parents. We use that evaluation to plan ahead for the following year.”
The Youth Minister said that a number of specialised camps will be offered – The Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) Camp Enterprise; Special Needs Camp; Science & Technology Camp; Digital Media Programme; Agriculture Camp and Cultural Camp.
“We have also introduced a number of core values into the curriculum such as HIV awareness, conflict resolution, drug use and drug abuse awareness and disciplinary training,” Lashley added.
Registration begins June 22 until July 7 and forms will be available from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Ministry of Education and Primary and Secondary Schools. (TL)