Ac­tive cit­i­zen­ship is a shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

Build­ing a just and eq­ui­table so­ci­ety is not a task re­served sole­ly for gov­ern­ment or in­sti­tu­tion­al lead­ers. It is a col­lec­tive en­ter­prise that de­pends on cit­i­zens us­ing their in­di­vid­ual tal­ents for the com­mon good.

Pope Leo XIV has re­peat­ed­ly warned of the dan­gers of so­ci­etal in­dif­fer­ence and “sit­ting on the side­lines.” Like Pope Leo XI­II, the ar­chi­tect of mod­ern Catholic so­cial teach­ing, he em­pha­sis­es that civic life is an es­sen­tial moral re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, not an op­tion­al hob­by. So­cial progress does not come from pas­sive wait­ing; it is shaped by peo­ple who per­se­vere and chan­nel their en­er­gy in­to prac­ti­cal so­lu­tions.

Ac­tive cit­i­zen­ship and civic par­tic­i­pa­tion can:

• pro­mote uni­ty, em­pa­thy, cross-sec­tor part­ner­ships, tar­get­ed ad­vo­ca­cy and re­spect among di­verse groups, while re­duc­ing so­cial iso­la­tion; and

• em­pow­er cit­i­zens to cre­ate so­lu­tions to­geth­er when re­sources are lim­it­ed or crises arise.

These are among the rea­sons many non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tions con­tin­ue to do im­por­tant work in Trinidad and To­ba­go. One such or­gan­i­sa­tion is the Call to Ac­tion (CTA) for So­cial Change Foun­da­tion, found­ed in 2022 to ad­vo­cate for eq­ui­ty, so­cial jus­tice and in­sti­tu­tion­al re­form in re­sponse to so­ci­etal vi­o­lence and mar­gin­al­i­sa­tion.

CTA is a mul­tire­li­gious, mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary group of peo­ple from Trinidad and To­ba­go. Its vi­sion is: “A na­tion in which eq­ui­ty and so­cial jus­tice are a lived re­al­i­ty.”

CTA Pres­i­dent Shaleeza Khan-Ali is a vi­sion­ary leader who leads with hu­mil­i­ty. I am a di­rec­tor and vice-pres­i­dent of CTA. The oth­er di­rec­tors are Rev. Joy Ab­dul-Mo­han, Az­im Ali, Ar­nal­do Con­liff, Pas­tor Clive Dot­tin, Dionne Ali­cia Guis­chard, Dr Kati­ja Khan and Dr Joanne Shur­land. CTA has more than 50 oth­er mem­bers.

The foun­da­tion’s four com­mit­tees fo­cus on Par­ent­ing and Fam­i­ly Life, chaired by Tahi­rah Ram­sook; Ed­u­ca­tion, chaired by Dr Sarah Sub­han; Ju­di­cia­ry and Law En­force­ment, chaired by Nali­ni Shar­ma; and Cul­ture, chaired by Dr Kati­ja Khan.

On Oc­to­ber 25, the CTA launched its an­i­ma­tion se­ries, Think Be­fore You Act. De­vel­oped in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the three videos ad­dress bul­ly­ing, neg­a­tive peer pres­sure and com­mu­ni­ty vi­o­lence. The launch was well at­tend­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of key na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions, as well as the young peo­ple who helped cre­ate the videos.

Dr Michael Dowlath, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, and the Ho­n­ourable Van­dana Mo­hit, Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, de­liv­ered com­ple­men­tary speech­es. Their pres­ence was more than a for­mal­i­ty: it af­firmed the im­por­tance of the ini­tia­tive and CTA’s wider work, and sig­nalled that the cre­ative sec­tor is val­ued at the high­est lev­els of gov­er­nance.

Min­is­ter Dowlath said his first two pri­or­i­ties are chil­dren and par­ents. He al­so an­nounced that a Par­ent Por­tal is be­ing de­vel­oped—a cen­tralised dig­i­tal ap­pli­ca­tion de­signed to stream­line com­mu­ni­ca­tion, track­ing and ad­mis­sions with­in the pub­lic school sys­tem.

“I want all of us to be re­mind­ed that car­ing for our chil­dren is a shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Each one of us has that moral du­ty to en­sure that we step up and do what is right for the chil­dren of this na­tion,” he said.

I pay trib­ute to the two young peo­ple whose out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions at the launch were great­ly ap­pre­ci­at­ed.

Ten-year-old Ki­dane Elie led us on the steel­pan as we sang the na­tion­al an­them. He lat­er gave a spir­it­ed steel­pan ren­di­tion of Spar­row’s ca­lyp­so Ed­u­ca­tion.

Twelve-year-old Je­leah Charles per­formed her spo­ken-word po­em, The Words We Throw. It re­mind­ed us that words used care­less­ly in anger or ca­su­al cru­el­ty do not sim­ply dis­ap­pear. They land, they bruise and they can cause psy­cho­log­i­cal harm.

CTA takes every op­por­tu­ni­ty to share its views on is­sues of na­tion­al con­cern. On April 30, 2024, for ex­am­ple, the foun­da­tion sub­mit­ted writ­ten rec­om­men­da­tions to the Na­tion­al Ad­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee on Con­sti­tu­tion­al Re­form.

In Sep­tem­ber 2025, CTA’s Par­ent­ing and Fam­i­ly Life Com­mit­tee launched a re­source called The ABCs of Par­ent­ing. The 26 videos are avail­able on CTA’s Tik­Tok, Face­book, YouTube and In­sta­gram plat­forms, and con­tin­ue to air on ma­jor tele­vi­sion sta­tions in Trinidad and To­ba­go. The com­mit­tee has al­so start­ed a project fo­cused on is­sues af­fect­ing men in our so­ci­ety.

CTA thanks the many peo­ple who con­tin­ue to work tire­less­ly with us. We val­ue your un­wa­ver­ing sup­port. A na­tion’s fu­ture is nev­er a fixed des­ti­na­tion; it is con­tin­u­al­ly be­ing built. We need more hands on deck. I en­cour­age you to join us so that, to­geth­er, we can help shape our coun­try’s fu­ture.

Vis­it cta-tt.org or email cta.tt2022@gmail.com.