In an age when young peo­ple and the pro­tec­tive ser­vices ap­pear to be op­pos­ing forces, it is re­fresh­ing to hear of coali­tions that bring at-risk youths and po­lice of­fi­cers to­geth­er in a pos­i­tive way. Of the St James Po­lice Youth Group, one young man said: "It ben­e­fits me plen­ty be­cause it has giv­en me a fresh start." The teen, no more than 15 years old, got in­to trou­ble with the law and his re­lease was pred­i­cat­ed on him join­ing the club. An­oth­er mem­ber told To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Chief Sec­re­tary Orville Lon­don, as they paid a vis­it to the Calder Hall Ad­min­is­tra­tive Com­plex re­cent­ly, that the club pro­vid­ed ac­tiv­i­ties, rang­ing from the arts and sports to com­put­er sci­ences and wood­work, to keep young peo­ple oc­cu­pied.

She said pri­or to be­com­ing a club mem­ber she would get in­to trou­ble be­cause she had noth­ing to do at home. Not­ing that To­ba­go's young peo­ple have ac­cess to a num­ber of pro­grammes aimed at their de­vel­op­ment, Lon­don told the group the THA was about "em­pow­er­ing young peo­ple to live in a dy­nam­ic and chal­leng­ing en­vi­ron­ment."He not­ed that the THA's De­part­ment of Youth Af­fairs had post­ed "youth aux­il­iaries across the is­land." Lon­don, who said he al­ways has had an open-door pol­i­cy for young peo­ple, told the group al­though the job could be stress­ful, "we do it for the young peo­ple." The St James Po­lice Youth Club, which has a mem­ber­ship of 164, is one of the largest in the coun­try. It has played for spe­cial events, in­clud­ing the 2008 vis­it to Trinidad and To­ba­go of the Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Corn­wall.

Founder of the club, po­lice of­fi­cer Der­rick Shar­bod­ie, said it was start­ed in 1992 so that po­lice of­fi­cers could es­tab­lish a re­la­tion­ship with young peo­ple. At that time, he said, sev­er­al young peo­ple were be­ing held for crimes each day be­tween noon and 4 pm.