52 young men and women have been fully certified in life skills and other training, as they graduated from the FLY (Fostering Level-headed Youth) project.
The graduation was held at St Andrew’s Anglican Secondary School on Thursday, 21 February 2020, and was fully funded by the Government of Grenada. This project seeks to provide training in soft and direct skills areas to ‘at-risk youth’ within various communities throughout Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
“Graduates, your dedication, your time, your sacrifice, has paid off, several months of hard work, though we had many challenges yet we have yielded good results,” said Kate Lewis, Minister with responsible for Youth Development within the Ministry of Youth Development, Sports, Culture and the Arts, as she addressed graduates.
The joint graduation ceremony for participants of Mama Cannes and Pearls, St Andrew, who participated in the project. They were presented with their certificates of accomplishment following three months of intense life skills training in Numeracy, Literacy, Small Business, and three months of CVQ certification in General Construction and Commercial Food Preparation. All participants will also receive CVQ certificates from the National Training Agency.
Hon. Kate Lewis in addressing the participants commended their efforts and implored upon them to be agents of change, despite the many challenges of the project.
Most outstanding participant, Michael Noel said, “It was a good experience, I will encourage other youth to participate in the project, as it would help them out, it had a big impact on me, as I would often get myself into trouble but since I became involved, my life has improved.”
Project FLY (Fostering Level-Headed Youth) is an integrated one-year community-based training programme targeting 25 at-risk youths, ages 18-30 years old.
In 2019, two cohorts of Project FLY were introduced in the communities of Mama Cannes and Pearls, St Andrew. Previous cohorts of Project FLY were implemented in the communities of Rose Hill, St Patrick; Mont Tout, St George; Black Bay, St John; Carriacou, and Victoria, St Mark, and St David.
The 2020 cohort of Project FLY is planned to engage the communities of Windward in Carriacou and Willis in St George.
Ministry of Youth Development
