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NASSAU, The Bahamas---Minister of Social Services and Community Development the Hon. Melanie Griffin and Minister of Transport and Aviation the Hon. Glenys Hanna-Martin said recently that the Urban Renewal Project will continue to remain a key focus of the Government’s plan to develop its inner-city communities.

Addressing a function hosted by the Englerston Urban Renewal Project Office in conjunction with the Disability Affairs Division of the Ministry of Social Services and Community Development, Ministers Griffin and Hanna-Martin said there is “no doubt” that the programme, launched in May, 2002, has had a positive impact on the residents and communities where they have been established.

They said that as a result of that success, the Government has decided to allocate more resources to expand the programme into other communities throughout The Bahamas.

“At the end of the day, we only have each other and I am happy to be associated with a programme that recognizes that it is not necessarily only about the wealthy, rich or famous, but that it is about providing opportunities for every single one of us in this country, regardless of where he or she may come from,” said Minister Hanna-Martin.

“This is about people developing their true meaning as human beings. This is so important for us as a nation, (as) every single person born under the sun in this Commonwealth has the right to access everything that is good and necessary to improve themselves and help build the country, and the Urban Renewal Project has done just that by enriching the lives of the persons in those communities where programmes have been established,” Minister Hanna-Martin added.

Minister Griffin said the programme provides the Government with additional opportunities to “reach out to our people in communities throughout the country while simultaneously enhancing their quality of life.”

She said this is done through the establishment of viable community-based programmes, many of which were unavailable to persons living within the inner-city.

Minister Griffin said the establishment of computer classes, after-school classes, senior citizens associations, parenting skills classes, life enrichment programmes, literacy programmes, job-skills training programmes and boys and girls clubs, among others, have all had a dramatic impact on persons living in inner-city communities.

Minister Griffin said the formation of marching bands in a number of the project areas has provided countless Bahamian youth with an opportunity to develop musical skills that may have otherwise gone unnoticed or undeveloped if not for the establishment of the Urban Renewal Project.

“The Urban Renewal programme has been a life-changing and life-enriching programme for many of the residents who have participated in any one of a number of the programmes that fall under the auspices of the project, be they senior citizens, adults, children and persons living with disabilities,” said Minister Griffin.

“The programme has been able to throw open its doors, to throw open its windows and to throw open its arms of love to many of our citizens to let them know that they are special. To let them know that they can make a difference despite their earlier or existing circumstances.

“This is more than a clean-up campaign. This programme is about the Government helping its citizens in the inner-cities to develop the necessary skills they need to make themselves more productive citizens of our society. This is about providing citizens with the opportunity to be whatever they want to be as long as it helps to build a better Bahamas,” Minister Griffin added.

Minister Griffin said the Urban Renewal Project further allows the Government to help transform the mindsets of persons living within the communities to understand that they have to take charge and play vital roles in the development of those communities.

She said the programme allows the Church, State, community and residents to come together to provide solutions to problems individual communities may experience.

“If Urban Renewal had to build a community centre to host programmnes, that course of action could take tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so and we may not be able to do it all on our own,” said Minister Griffin. “But what Urban Renewal has been able to do is to utilize all of the resources in the various communities to bring about the best results.

“Urban Renewal has been able to partnership with community organizations such as churches and businesses that have in turn provided access to facilities to house a number of the programmes. As a result, it has brought these groupings that much closer together.

“This is more than just a party. This is more than just a short-term thing. This is life transforming experience that we believe will and can have a long-term positive impact on this country over the long haul,” Minister Griffin added.



02/24/2006