by Simon
In an editorial last year lauding Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s call for “a new era of volunteerism” in his National Crime Address, The Nassau Guardian opined:
“National volunteerism may be our biggest and brightest idea to date in this country. The Prime Minister's call for a new era of volunteerism is spot on. Few things have the potential to reignite a sense of unity, purpose and productivity in our community like national volunteerism can.”
Mr. Ingraham also called for a revamping of community service-learning programmes in government-operated secondary schools. He has now extended this vision by proposing the establishment of the Bahamas Youth Development Corps.
Such a corps would enlist Bahamians between the ages of 18 to 25 to volunteer their time to worthy causes and various agencies for a period of time “while earning money towards higher education or entrepreneurial ventures.” In essence, they can then translate what is really a form of national service into greater opportunity for themselves and their families.
The Bahamas Youth Development Corps would be one of the most significant advancements of the idea of national service since independence. It would significantly increase the number of volunteers available for urban outreach, mentoring, peer counselling, sports programmes and a host of volunteer needs and programmes. In effect, such a corps would unleash the energies of scores of young Bahamians to assist in a wide variety of social needs.
VIRTUOUS
The idea of the Corps is a sort of virtuous cycle. Not only would volunteers assist in various areas of need. Volunteers may also gain valuable skills and hone work habits while contributing to community development and civic life. There are even more benefits which may accrue to our national life. It is that over time hundreds or perhaps thousands of young Bahamians will earn the financial means to pursue their educational, vocational and business dreams.
What the Youth Corps would do is link opportunity with personal and social responsibility. The uniqueness of such a corps is that it uses traditional principles like a strong work ethic in pursuit of progressive goals and fostering economic mobility.
The Corps would also communicate a compelling message to young Bahamians. Essentially: The Bahamas is prepared to invest in you, but something is expected in return. What is expected is for one to contribute to the common good through volunteering and to national development by being a productive citizen.
The Youth Corps appears to be an extension of a complex of innovative socio-economic programmes geared towards providing young Bahamians with incentives for economic advancement and opportunities for personal growth.
AMBITIOUS
Some of these already existing programmes include SelfStarters and JumpStart, two ambitious youth entrepreneurial initiatives. There is also the National Job-Readiness and Skills Training Programme. All of these programmes are structured around rewarding hard work and discipline through clear incentives.
The Bahamas Youth Development Corps could further level the playing field by affording lower income and poorer Bahamians with opportunities for social and economic advancement.
Such youth corps programmes exist around the world with greater success in some areas. Essential to the success of a Bahamian model is orientation, training and continuous evaluation of volunteers.
To instill greater citizenship in participants there should some training in life and work skills as well as a civics component teaching participants some key points of Bahamian history, government and national life. The latter component may find some useful ideas in the Bahama Host Programme.
For those young Bahamians who dream of serving their country through volunteering or developing their talents through education or pursuing their ideas for commercial and economic success -- their dreams and ambitions may be closer than they imagined through a programme such as the Bahamas Youth Corps.
Political pandering usually produces nothing more than itself and though early the so called volunteer programme has proven to be little more than this. It has produced a criminal charge, but we all know that can't be lauded if for no other reason than we have no shortage of that. We could have been well on our way to a real national service progeamme but for the neo-colonialists among us who called it Pindling's Army. Everything we have tried to sneak in has proven fruitless because it has been littlemore than political pandering.
Posted by: Ken Clarke | February 14, 2012 at 03:39 AM