Concerned with the growing number of unemployed and unemployable youngsters in their community, a group of residents in Islington, St Mary, have formed the Islington Development Foundation (IDF) with the aim of preparing youth to identify and access job opportunities.

Formed more than a year ago, the foundation has been registering young people in the area with the long-term aim of developing a skills bank, identifying persons with different levels of training and competency in various areas.

For those unable to read or write well enough, the group is looking to provide the requisite training, having a number of trained teachers and other professionals in its ranks.

The plan is that working in tandem with government agencies such as the Social Development Commission (SDC) and HEART Trust/NTA, as well as private companies, the foundation will provide training in the areas of food handling/processing, driving/auto mechanics, catering, computer literacy and fashion designing. Given the wide variety of fresh fruits cultivated in the area, a juice-line production facility is also on the drawing board.

However, the group's effort is being stymied by a lack of funding to get its plans off the ground and money raised from a dinner/dance to be held at the Belretiro Inn, Galina, St Mary, will be used to jump start the project. Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey was guest speaker at the event.

organising committee

Dudley Champagnie, a member of the organising committee, explained that while some local businesses have come on board to support the foundation's efforts, more publicity is needed to get a wider buy-in from the community, in general, with many people seemingly unaware of just how serious the unemployment problem is.

Once a thriving farm community, Islington, which ranks as one of, if not the largest community in St Mary, has seen a continuous brain drain with most of its educated residents moving to urban areas or going overseas. It is believed that most of the youngsters who opt to stay in the community have no choice, since they are mostly uneducated (school dropouts), unskilled or unemployable.

Secretary Gloria Burton is cognisant of the need to move with urgency to address these potential ills at the grassroots level.

raise the education level

She told THE STAR: "Jobs represent the number-one need for our target group and it is important that we identify those who are trainable, while seeking to raise the education level of those are deficient in that area. Those (residents) with jobs, or some amount of security, cannot afford to take comfort in their own status without looking to the welfare of others, and we believe that skills training is the way to go."