MINISTER within the ministry of sports, Steven Jacobs, along with Labour Minister Keoma Griffith, was part of a team evaluating community grounds in Linden over the weekend.
This comes after an outreach last week in the mining town by Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
The VP instructed the cabinet ministers to make a thorough check of the sports facilities and community grounds with a view to having appropriate remedies to ensure full utilisation by youths and surrounding communities after concerns raised.
Minister Jacobs says the goal is to bring the grounds to the necessary acceptable standard for the betterment of the people in the areas where grounds are located.
“It must be said that we have invested significantly in Region 10; we already have Bayroc Stadium, and then you’ll have pretty soon in October, you will have the McKenzie Stadium, which will be for cricket, football and other activities, but we are going to continue our assessments. So, VP wants the assessments so we would know what to do. We visited a number of them, and actually the interest in making sure that these community facilities there is strong.”
Minister Griffith says there is a direct correlation between sports and skills development among young people.
He said the goal is to help persons in these areas access opportunities.
“We also want to let them know about the opportunities, being made available, of course, through the Board of Industrial Training and the Ministries of Labour, of course, and the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, but also to advise them that their skill can become a passion and that passion can fuel many, many opportunities.”
The minister says once properly outfitted, these facilities could even be used as an area to provide training for youth through the Board of Industrial Training and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.