The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched its new $64 million Youth Empowerment Services (YES) project in St. Lucia on Thursday, November 17, at the Bay Gardens Hotel & Bay Gardens Inn.

The initiative is part of the United States Government’s continuing efforts to reduce youth involvement in crime and violence in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, while creating alternative pathways for at-risk youth and those in conflict with the law.

In addressing the launch, United States Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Linda Taglialatela said St. Lucia will be a significant beneficiary under the four-year initiative, which builds upon previous gains made in promoting workforce development under the Caribbean Youth Entrepreneurship Program and the Juvenile Justice Reform project. “Under the YES Project, youth considered at-risk will receive support through new approaches that identify factors facing communities with high rates of crime,” Ambassador Taglialatela said. “YES will emphasize community involvement at all levels, matching services to needs, ensuring continuity of care, and institutionalizing data collection, analysis, and the use for policy, programming, and evaluation.”

Today’s launch, which was the second in a series to kick-off the regional initiative, attracted the participation of high-level dignitaries from the Government of St. Lucia and the U.S. Government; NGO partners; three implementing organizations: the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Commission, the United Nations Development Program, and Creative Associates International.

The YES project is based on the public health model for crime prevention, which identifies and targets risk and resilience factors facing crime affected communities, at-risk youth, and youth in the juvenile justice system. It emphasizes community involvement at all levels – matching services to needs; ensuring continuity of care; and institutionalizing data collection, analysis, and use for policy, programming, and evaluation. The project targets the 10 countries included in USAID’s Eastern and Southern Caribbean coverage area - Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago - with a focus on St. Kitts, St. Lucia and Guyana.

The project is being implemented through three mechanisms: the US$14 million CARISECURE (Strengthened Evidence-Based Decision-Making) initiative which seeks to improve youth crime and violence policy-making and programming through the use of quality, comparable, and reliable national citizen security information; the US$ 38 million Community, Family, and Youth Resilience (CFYR) initiative which will support focused interventions in 15 communities across the three target countries (St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and Guyana) to create alternative pathways away from crime for youth aged 10-29; and the US$6.4 million JJRP II initiative that will introduce and implement various reform measures to modernize systems of youth justice in the region.

As part of a larger goal of creating a safer, more prosperous Caribbean Community, the YES Project will emphasize broader and deeper community engagement and positive youth development, while supporting a continuum of services to respond to a variety of social development needs to benefit communities, Caribbean countries and ultimately the region as a whole.

The YES project was first launched in St. Kitts on Tuesday, November 15, and the final launch is slated to take place in Guyana on Tuesday, November 29.