Last night you heard Chester Williams and Dianne Finnegan plead with the Southside gangs to keep the peace and not fall back into their violent ways. Well, today Williams also asked the southside youth from the mentorship program to hold on to what they learned and carry it with them as they go back into their neighborhoods. And 100 of those youth graduated today from the mentorship program. A ceremony was held for them today at the Radisson. We stopped by to see how impactful this 6 month journey has been for these children.
ACP Chester Williams, OC, Southside Police
“The program saw these kids who were participants go through several disciplines from the classroom session with the UB interns from the Faculty of Social Studies to the Belize Zoo to the place on the highway where they have the floating boat, the air boat, they did trips in Cayo, they did horseback riding and several things which I am sure they will share with you and  most importantly though, is the life skill sessions and the conflict resolution, the anger management and that interaction they had with the mentors.â€
“We have seen the transformation of these kids from when they started the program to today when the program is coming to an end. You were in the room when the program started and you could have seen the tension between them when the program began and looking at them in the room now, 6 months later and that tension you see no more so I commend and congratulate our mentors for the splendid job they have done with these children and the main objective of the program was basically to be able to reach out to these vulnerable kids who are at risk of falling victims to gang recruitment, or crime or so forth and we are hoping that after this program is finished that they will not be that much risk where they are concerned because they would have been equipped with the skills to say no to gangs and no to crime.â€
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Courney Weatherburne
“So just tell we about some of the challenges you would normally go through and how this especially the life skills training help you to deal with your environment and where you come from?â€
Ashton Vernon, West Street Resident -Participant
“Well before I wasn’t ignorant but I had a little anger and the program help me to settle down situation and keep calm and learn how to handled different things and how to react.â€
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Courney Weatherburne
“So it was a great experience for you what are some of the lessons you will take from this experience?â€
Tyler Mckoy, Participant
“My lesson I will take from here is never give trouble and come back again and join the community and all of those.â€
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Anastasia Ferguson, Participant
“The lesson I will carry is to behave myself, how to handle situations and to keep control of my anger.â€
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Jim Scott, Mentor
“These guys who are choking me are probably fed up after 26 weeks of hanging out with me but the experiential and socialization and just hanging a good time in a very safe, comfortable environment.â€
The program officially started in January. Williams hopes that the Mentors can keep in contact with these graduates throughout their lives and also that other kids get an opportunity to participate. There were about 10 mentors in the program. The Rotary Club and Heritage Bank sponsored this program.Â
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