Res­i­dents of La Brea, Egypt Vil­lage, Ves­signy, Point Fortin and en­vi­rons are all in­vit­ed to the Egypt In­door Fa­cil­i­ty this Fri­day – Sep­tem­ber 20, 2019 as the Com­mu­ni­ty Out­reach and Im­pact Car­a­van, which is be­ing host­ed by the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices moves in­to the Point Fortin com­mu­ni­ty from 10:00 am on Fri­day.

Since it was launched on Au­gust 30, 2019 at the Pa­lo Seco Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, the of­fer­ings of this Com­mu­ni­ty Car­a­van con­tin­ues to in­crease, as more and more stake­hold­ers are com­ing on board to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion and of­fer Gov­ern­ment ser­vices to per­sons with­in var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties.

The Car­a­van stopped at the Na­pari­ma Boys' Col­lege last Sat­ur­day and was well pa­tro­n­ised as hun­dreds vis­it­ed the venue to ac­cess Gov­ern­ment Ser­vices which in­clud­ed, among oth­er things, op­por­tu­ni­ties for job place­ment, train­ing and re­train­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties, fi­nan­cial man­age­ment, ap­pli­ca­tions for mi­nor house re­pairs and elec­tri­fi­ca­tion; as well as tem­po­rary food sup­port and free health and coun­selling ser­vices.

The Com­mu­ni­ty Out­reach and Im­pact Car­a­van al­lows for a one-stop mech­a­nism where Gov­ern­ment Ser­vices are com­bined at one lo­ca­tion, bring­ing ac­cess to and in­for­ma­tion on such ser­vices, at the doorsteps of many cit­i­zens who would nor­mal­ly have to com­mute to var­i­ous lo­ca­tions for same.

Un­der the theme: Build­ing Re­silience to Se­cure our Na­tion, the ini­tia­tive seeks to of­fer cop­ing strate­gies and well as ad­vice on how per­sons could im­prove their liv­ing con­di­tions and cir­cum­stances, de­spite chal­lenges to every­day liv­ing and try to ‘make ends meet’ by re-in­vent­ing them­selves and mak­ing sim­ple ad­just­ments.

The ap­proach in­volves ex­pos­ing cit­i­zens to sev­er­al train­ing and re­train­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties where they can be­come em­ploy­able, ei­ther through new skills de­vel­op­ment or through en­tre­pre­neur­ial de­vel­op­ment and/or the ex­pan­sion of an ex­ist­ing small busi­ness.

In par­tic­u­lar, the SEED grant which is pro­vid­ed by the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices pro­vides fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to per­sons in dif­fi­cult so­cial and eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances to es­tab­lish a small busi­ness. Qual­i­fy­ing ap­pli­cants can ac­cess up to a max­i­mum of $15,000.00 for this pur­pose.

Among some of the key stake­hold­ers of the Car­a­van, in­clude the Min­istry of Labour and Small En­ter­prise De­vel­op­ment where NED­CO, the OJT Pro­gramme and the Na­tion­al Em­ploy­ment Reg­is­ter are all avail­able for per­sons to reg­is­ter for new op­por­tu­ni­ties.

The Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs is al­so on board with pro­grammes and op­por­tu­ni­ties for vul­ner­a­ble youths; while the Min­istry of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment has part­nered to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion on hous­ing and land set­tle­ment is­sues.

Through the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, MIC In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy, the Na­tion­al Train­ing Agency and YTEPP Lim­it­ed are on hand to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion on free train­ing and re­train­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties that are now avail­able; while the Min­istry of Health through the RHA is pro­vid­ing free blood sug­ar, blood pres­sure and BMI Test­ing. There is al­so coun­selling avail­able on site from the Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices and the Di­vi­sion of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs, un­der the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

Sev­er­al Non-Gov­ern­men­tal Or­gan­i­sa­tions, like AL­TA, Red Cross, Sup­port Autism TT and the Trinidad and To­ba­go As­so­ci­a­tion for the Hear­ing Im­paired are al­so part of the Car­a­van.

The Car­a­van will vis­it the com­mu­ni­ty of Ce­dros on Sep­tem­ber 27 from 10 am.

Per­sons are en­cour­aged to walk with their Na­tion­al Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Card and Birth Cer­tifi­cate to ac­cess ser­vices. In­ter­est­ed per­sons may vis­it the web­site for the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices for fur­ther de­tails and to find out when the Car­a­van will be com­ing to your com­mu­ni­ty, at www.so­cial.gov.tt