Braeton Youth Club - A promise in progress

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THEY WERE all shocked awake by the ominous early morning explosions, saw the posse of policemen and mumbled in hushed tones and disbelief that the seven young men killed almost at the Ides of March, were promises they personally knew.

Promises that would never be fulfilled, for their lives had been cut short. The other youngsters of the Braeton Phase 3 community felt at a loss. They had lost their grip on the 'good life', which for many meant, playing mini football tournaments at every holiday, having a raucous, fun-filled Youth Club meeting, shooting hoops in the car parks or just talking about what was happening in the community as they walked home from school or work.

Former Braeton Phase 3 Youth Club founder and president, Gracie-Ann Moss-Solomon, remembers how difficult it was to get the youths focused on the real aims and objectives of the club. She noted that their attention spans were short during the meetings as they usually just used the occasion to 'hang out', but their contributions came in little spurts of distributing a flyer here or helping to paint a garbage drum there.

The former Ms. St Catherine started the club as her pet project during her reign in 1997. By December 1998, however they lost their venue - the Reliance Basic School, which also doubles as the community centre, due to a disagreement among the adults. For two months after, they still had meetings but participation waned and Moss-Solomon decided to let it rest.

It wasn't until the shootings that youth in the community realised how important the club was. Current president, Christopher Brown, remembers that most if not all of the seven killed used to attend the meetings.

Outside of that endeavour and positive influence, however, "the Devil found work for very idle hands." Fearful of a recurrence and determined to bring back the 'good old days', Brown says that his brother 'TC' came up with the idea of re-starting the youth club and with the assistance of the Citizen's Association and the Optimist Club, the Braeton Progressive United Youth Club was established in May of this year.

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