CSR Story
YOUTH IN FOCUS
A main tenet of The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited’s (NGC) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programme is Youth Development. Whether through sport, human and social development or arts and culture, the thread of youth is woven into every programme’s fabric. Central to these CSR programmes is also a focus on ‘at-risk youth’ – those who, given their circumstances and considering all variables, may appear to have a future with less-than optimal outcomes. NGC, through its CSR programmes, hopes to create an alternate future for these young people. In this review, NGC’s involvement in the Police Youth Clubs and in pan, will be focused upon as tools for reaching and shaping our nation’s youth.
Police Youth Clubs
Through the support that NGC gives to its sponsored Police Youth Clubs (PYC), the company continues to position itself at the forefront of youth development in partnership with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS). These youth clubs offer programmes in education, sport, personal development, social activities and the preservation of indigenous art forms. Ages of members range from 3 to 25 years old.
In 2013, NGC began its sponsorship of PYCs located in Couva, La Brea, Laventille Road and Penal. By mid-2017, Mayaro had been added.
PYCs fall under the jurisdiction of the Community Policing Secretariat, which is an arm of the TTPS. Each sponsored club is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreed by NGC, TTPS and the respective Police Youth Clubs. The activities which are offered through these PYCs provide the avenues to expose youth to positive and productive development and self-expression.
Intended to engage the youth membership of the clubs and cultivate positive attitudes and relationships, the programmes offered by the PYCs work as anti-crime initiatives, according to the TTPS. The leaders of the clubs are equipped with management skills via leadership and capacity building training programmes. Parents, guardians and senior members of communities are also invited and encouraged to join the PYC management teams. NGC has also introduced systems to promote transparency and accountability and position the PYCs to be managed responsibly.
During the launch of the programme held in 2017 to confirm NGC’s continued support for its PYCs, Ernest Esdelle, NGC’s Senior Manager Engineering and Construction Services, who himself has special interest in youth development, spoke to an audience that consisted of senior members of the TTPS, including the TTPS Acting Commissioner, and 300 children – all members of the five NGC-sponsored PYCs. He noted that the Police Youth Clubs arose out of the conviction that it was easier to build strong children than to fix broken adults. And this was an idea that NGC espoused.
“It is easier to try to positively influence the future of these children and the future of the nation by equipping young people with the tools they will need to thrive. In so doing, we hope they in turn will also be contributing to building our nation,” he noted.
NGC continues to actively collaborate with the administrators, employing new programmes and strategies to increase the impact of the PYCs on their target audiences – children; their families, their community and ultimately, Trinidad and Tobago. This approach, according to NGC’s Manager Corporate Communications Lisa Burkett, “will advance the cause of positive change at the individual, community and national levels.”
One strategy is the assignment of community liaison officers, to strengthen the ties between the youth clubs and the community. NGC is also currently engaged in developing and applying customised measurement systems that will allow the company’s CSR team to track the impact of continuous programmes upon participants and the community at large.
Laventille Road PYC Steel Orchestra – a success
A beacon of the success of NGC-sponsored PYCs reaching at risk-youth is the success of the Laventille Road PYC and its steel orchestra. The Laventille Road PYC was first formed in 2011 and has over 80 active members. The Club has been sponsored by NGC since 2012, an arrangement that remains unbroken into 2018. The support provided by NGC allows the club to facilitate educational and character-building programmes including remedial math, English, karate and music.
The music programme focuses primarily on the steelpan, with the Laventille Road PYC Steel Orchestra becoming “the pride of the community.” The orchestra (and by extension the club) continues to afford young adults within the Laventille community a platform to refine their skills in playing the steelpan and reading music. This group, 40-strong, has participated in numerous competitions and reached the final rounds of the 2018 National Junior Panorama competition in the Queen’s Park Savannah.
The PYC also participated in the 18th Annual Steelband Street Parade in August 2017. This was dedicated to the late soca artiste/radio announcer, Devon Matthews and the event was supported by over 30 steelbands. 2017 marked the sixth year that the Laventille Road PYC participated in the festival. The band entertained the crowd as they moved east along the Eastern Main Road and ended their performance and the night’s proceedings, with a lively performance of the popular tune, “Good Morning”. The performance of Laventille Road PYC is exemplary and representative of the results that the dedication of youth club leaders and members can achieve.
Myles Lewis, Head CSR (Ag.) at NGC, noted that “Providing activities that appeal to these youth, while providing safe spaces and opportunities for teachable moments, is essential to the success of our PYCs. We want the youth who participate to realise their fullest potential, which, for every citizen, means becoming a contributing and productive member of society. From a corporate perspective and as a state entity, building partnerships between agencies and youth development programmes that help reach out to a specific target audience is a responsibility we take seriously.”
Steelbands to steel-based industry
NGC is the title sponsor of NGC Couva Joylanders Steel Orchestra, NGC La Brea Nightingales Steel Orchestra and the Tobago-based NGC Steel Xplosion. The company also provides assistance to Gonzales Sheikers Steel Orchestra. The sponsorship agreement with each band seeks to ensure sustainability. Bands are encouraged to develop businesses to support themselves. A partnership with an accredited educational institute is in an advanced stage of formalisation and will seek to deliver pan manufacturing and tuning skills to NGC-sponsored and assisted steel bands. The aim is to have resident personnel in the bands manufacture and tune their own instruments and in the future supply the market for pan instruments. Part of this programme is music literacy, which has always been a component of NGC’s sponsorship as it allows the band membership to create and score their own music, another avenue for entrepreneurial endeavour.
Propelling youth to success
Over the years, NGC has expanded its programmes to provide opportunities to young people, in many communities across Trinidad and Tobago. Its support of sport runs the gamut of assistance at the primary, secondary, community and national levels. The Company believes as well in the preservation of national identity, and its support to Arts and Culture includes title sponsorship of the annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest as well as the NGC Sanfest within which the company insists on providing opportunities for those dedicated to the indigenous instrument. These initiatives have the potential to propel young persons – athletes, musicians, scholars – to purposeful and fulfilling careers.
NGC is cognisant that the PYCs and other NGC-sponsored programmes engage young people in intentional, productive, and constructive ways while recognising and fostering their strengths. These programmes promote positive outcomes by providing opportunities, nurturing positive relationships and giving the support that is needed to develop the talents of the nation’s youth. Manager Corporate Communications, Lisa Burkett summed up NGC’s focus on youth, a thread consistent in its CSR philosophy and suite of programmes by highlighting that “research indicates that young people who are surrounded by a variety of opportunities for positive encounters engage in less risky behaviours. This is indicated by higher rates of successful transitions into adulthood. Through our PYCs, our sponsored steel bands and other partnerships, we hope to realise this.”
Burkett further highlighted that “making a difference to at- risk youth requires a balance of patience and support of which NGC is aware and that a keen balance of resources, dedicated time and of course, a simple respect for humanity, can bring this hope to fruition.”
