St. George’s, Grenada November 15th 2011: The Youth Arm of the New National Party continues to call on the Tillman Thomas NDC Administration to find ways and means of ensuring hope and opportunity for the youth of Grenada.  We make this call as the government continues its Youth Month celebration where we have seen little or no engagement of the youth of Grenada who are most in need.

The NNP Youth Arm takes this opportunity to remind the NDC Administration in particular the Minister of Youth that many programs for the benefit of Grenada’s youth remain upended, stalled or abandoned by this administration.  In particular we refer to the Youth Rehabilitation Program which provided direction to hundreds of deviant youth. We call on the present Minister of Youth to ensure that this program involves the youth who remain seated on the street corners of Grenada as these youth are most at risk of becoming involved in negatives.

We make this call on the back drop of several serious crimes involving young men and women. While the NDC Government continues to practice the politics of blame shifting and political grandstanding the youth of Grenada continue to suffer personal, social and economic stresses with no hope of an end in sight and no direction from those in authority.

The NNP Youth Arm also calls on the Prime Minister as Minister of National Security to immediately find a solution to the practice of sending under-aged and un-convicted children to Her Majesty’s Prisons. We call on Prime Minister Thomas to immediately resolve the issues surrounding the Bacolet Youth Facility located in the constituency of the Minister of Youth. In the interim we suggest the immediate creation of a temporary facility for young offenders.

The members of the NNP Youth Arm also call on all Grenadians to become a part of the solution to the many ills which face our nation’s youth.  We call on the media to become more professional in their reporting of youth matters. We call on the churches to focus significant energy on youth development initiatives; we call on the Non-Governmental Agencies to find ways and means of engaging youth with positive activities and programs. We call on parents, teachers, bus drivers ALL Grenadians to be a part of the solution to the malaise facing and engulfing our children.