Sporting organisations in Trinidad and Tobago are outlining how grassroots programmes are being used to steer vulnerable youth away from crime and delinquency.
This came during a sitting of the Joint Select Committee examining the effectiveness of sport as a social intervention.
Responding on behalf of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, Third Vice President Jameson Rígues said the TTFA has expanded its reach nationwide.
“The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, we have been able over our tenure, this is a new executive, to spread our wings across Trinidad and Tobago, so to speak, and many of the rural and at-risk communities have been able to benefit from our involvement and intervention. We have been able to introduce the TTFA High Performance Youth Programme in communities as far as Mayaro, Moruga and so on, Point Fortin, and this would have given us an opportunity to look at players and talent that may have not been given the opportunity before.”
The focus on grassroots development extends beyond football. The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board’s First Vice-President Altaf Baksh also detailed its outreach efforts.
“As far as our outreach programme, we are also partnering with the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago with resumption of grassroots cricket, where there have earmarked two centres in each of the seven zones.”
National cricketer Cephas Cooper shared how sport has helped transform lives in his own community.
“We try to help the kids to just not become cricketers but become good citizens. So we don’t only teach cricket, we teach like life skills, reaching on time, being well-dressed, even though some of those, some of them don’t have shoes and stuff like that, we don’t push them away, like we encourage them to come and just learn like life skills and thus enjoy, enjoy cricket and make friends and stuff like that. So I think that is very beneficial to our community and if these things could happen in other communities, I think Trinidad on a whole will be a much better place.”
The Committee continues its inquiry as sporting bodies stress that early intervention through sport can help build safer communities.