Winners of the anti-violence campaign competition were encouraged to live by the messages of their designs, as they received prizes for their winning submissions.
Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Dwight Sutherland, made this call today, as he commended the winners of the Division of Youth Affairs’ Anti-Violence Campaign Competition for their creative visual and performing arts pieces, which advocated for youth to stop the violence within the Barbadian society.
In his address, Minister Sutherland pointed out that the Anti-Violence Campaign was all about solving problems.
“We are asking our young people to put down the knife and the gun, but not only that, after you have put down the knife and the gun, we are not going to leave you, because we believe the holistic approach is to create the lifestyle change in behaviour,” he stated.
He stressed that providing problem solving techniques and interventions against crime and violence is not the responsibility of the Ministry and the Royal Barbados Police Force alone.
The Minister said a holistic approach to youth issues must be a national effort, which include families, communities, the private sector and NGOs, working together to implement new and innovative programmes aimed at preventing violence and cultivating behaviours that will discourage deviance and violence.
First place in the visual arts competition went to Brittany Jordan, second and third place went to Omar Small and Kai Lovell, respectively.
Shontae Alleyne-Clarke copped the first place in the performing arts competition, while Miguel Hamilton and Omar Small placed second and third, respectively.
A Samsung A71 cellular phone was awarded to first place winners; second place winners received a Lenovo laptop; and a 10-inch Samsung Tablet was awarded to third place winners.
The content submitted by the winners in the anti-violence campaign competition will be utilised by the Ministry as one of the strategies to encourage youth to stay away from deviant behavior; as well as targeted intervention in volatile communities to effectively reduce the level of violence in Barbados.