Fostering democratic culture through the youth

The project, “Fostering a Democratic Culture in Schools and Local Communities”, was being funded by a grant from the Commonwealth Foundation for three years.

So far, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, the Bahamas and St Lucia are involved in the project.

Speaking during the launch of the second phase at City Hall, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain, on Tuesday, country coordinator, Rubadiri Victor, said the first phase involved activating students councils in all schools in the regions they engaged.

The second phase was to create junior councils at the regional level outside of schools as apprentices of local government councils.

“In each of these countries we go to the regional corporations and target schools inside that area. In the first phase, we are activating students councils in all the schools that we go into where we train them in governance, communications, a whole range of things.

“They have created halls of fame in all of the schools that would be permanent fixtures in the schools, and they conducted model debates based on local government dealing with contemporary issues,” he said.

Victor said with the next phase, they would be creating junior councils at the regional level outside of schools as apprentices of the local government councils.

He added that in a one year cycle, they would conduct inner school debates among other activities, including a youth day where they would exhibit the work of the young people of the various districts.

“One of the main things we are trying to do is to get them to work with the NGOs (non-governmental organisations), as well as private citizens and local councillors to create something called adaptive reuse heritage sites.