Beetham Police Youth Club

IT IS a small building but for many it is a symbol of hope, located as it is near the squalor and poverty of Beetham Gardens. The building houses the Beetham Police Youth Club (BPYC), one of 28 such clubs located throughout the country operated by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.

Through these clubs, police officers are reaching out to underprivileged children in the country’s most depressed, crime-infested communities, including Mor-vant/Laventille, St James, Biche, Fyzabad, Bethel and San Juan.

The officer in charge of the BPYC is Sergeant Sheila Prince, who told Sunday Newsday she uses a combination of love, compassion, discipline and faith to reach out to young people in the depressed community, offering them opportunities and resources that would have otherwise been beyond their reach.

“The face of Beetham has changed because of the Beetham Police Youth Club. We work so well because we can instill values and morals where the parents have failed. The children take pride in going to school and now they have an environment that is cleaner than before because I decided that if I was going to help these kids it had to be in an environment that I was comfortable in,” Prince said in an interview at the BPYC well-furnished clubhouse, located just off the Beetham Highway.

“This Club has given Beetham Gardens a positive outlook on living. Beetham can now be highlighted for positivity as opposed to the negativity of before.”

Evidence of the club’s success can be seen around the building. On the walls are several laminated newspaper articles highlighting the club’s many successes over the past five years.

Their most recent achievement was at the recently concluded 27th Biennial National Music Festival where the Chariot Singers Beetham Police Youth Club placed third in the religious large choir category with their rendition of “Lean on Me.”

Last Christmas the group also went to Nazareth House on Duncan Street and performed parang for the facility’s elderly residents.

“By doing that performance, they showed that they could give love. Also, music is a form of discipline that also brings calmness and soothing to an area that is accustomed to wine and jam,” Sgt Prince noted proudly.

Members of the club are exposed to a range of activities, including etiquette lessons. They have access to a library, internet-ready computers, a sound system and board games.

The clubhouse is air-conditioned and comfortable, painted in bright and cheerful colours. Lauren Fraser, 17, one of BPYC’s earliest members said the welcoming environment at the club makes it attractive to young people in the area who see it as offering them some hope in an area accustomed to crime and poverty.

“The club helps to keep us young people off the streets,” she said.

“It’s a place where we can come and do our homework and that helps me especially because I can come and use the computers and type up my SBAs and other stuff.”

Parent Belinda Williams, whose four children — Shaundel, Shaquille, Moriba and Jhermel — are BPYC members said: “I’ve been wanting to send my kids here for quite a while. I heard about it from my neighbour and she said it was a good place.

“The reason I wanted to send my kids here is because it’s an activity. The kind of place we’re living in, you need to find activities for your children to do besides staying home. I definitely see this as productive because they do everything here. They went to Music Festival, Tobago and everything.”

According to Sgt Prince it is not all fun and games at the club. The emphasis is placed on discipline and building self-esteem.

“There is no point in having a club called a Police Club, if there is no discipline and order,” she explained. “If you don’t instill discipline, they will do what they want to.”

Pointing to a list identifying acts of misconduct and their corresponding punishments which has been placed prominently on one of the walls, she added: “If you want to break the cycle of indiscipline, this is what you must do.”

“They made the rules themselves. However, even with the punishments, you must realise that there needs to be a balance - punishments along with rewards. This is why they also have different chores and responsibilities in the clubhouse. You must give children responsibility because if you want them to be leaders, you must help to build their self-esteem by giving them jobs where they feel important.”

Prince is satisfied that the police youth clubs have been making a positive impact in the communities where they are located, particularly as it relates to respect for the law. She proudly points out that no members of the BGYC, past or present, have ever been in trouble with the law.

“We need to continue to form clubs - this is the way to go . . . we can cause a reduction in crime and deviant behaviour in young people.

“We need to let the kids know that they live in an environment of crime but that they don’t have to be a part of it. There is a future that is ahead for them still,” said Sgt Prince.