You reap what you sow.
Two former members of the Beetham Youth Club have bloomed from the seeds sown by retired inspector Sheila Prince and the Beetham Police Youth Club.
WPC Lauren Fraser-Churche and Isaiah Phillip, 26, last week credited the institution and its founder with the positive direction their lives have taken.
Prince started the Beetham Police Youth Club in 1996.
As a member of the Community Policing Secretariat at the time, she was asked by a fellow officer to give a lecture to children and parents at the primary school in Beetham. She said the children had no discipline and they were unkempt. She did not like what she saw so she took it upon herself to return every Saturday to help them improve themselves and their lives.
Eventually, the club was made official and she approached the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) about an abandoned building it owned in Beetham. The HDC had it renovated and gave it to them and the home of the club was officially opened in 2005.
“I love to teach children capacity building. I feel it’s important that children must be taught building character, about integrity, about honesty, knowing who they are, their appearance, consequences for their actions and so on.
“We had a structured programme. I always say it’s not only about outings and concerts and cinema but what comes after. You must prepare them for adulthood, prepare them for the world. You must strike a balance,” Prince said during an interview at Newsday's Pembroke Street, Port of Spain office on April 18.
She recalled people, including police officers, would tell her she was wasting her time with the children and that they were “little criminals” but she did not see them that way. She said she saw young people trying to survive and crying out for help. She wanted to raise them up.
“That was why I had the place done up in a way that it was a home away from home. They must see life as more than just what they see in their environment. They must be able to aspire to be somebody, to rise above.”
She taught them etiquette, music to help with math and discipline, chess to help them learn how to think and strategise, spirituality including respect for others’ religions and they performed at elderly homes and hospitals at Christmas to show they should show love to others.
They also participated in the National Music Festivals and various essay writing competitions. During the July/August vacation, Ishmael M Khan Bookstore in Port of Spain would hire six of the older members, helping them learn about responsibility.
In 2011, Prince received a Public Service Medal of Merit Silver and continued running the club without pay after her retirement in 2009 until she had to shut its doors in 2020 during the pandemic.
She said there were many youth programmes available but the children could not leave their community for fear of stepping into another gang’s territory. Also young people in general were not listening to the radio or watching local TV so the information on those media was not reaching the
