- Claudine Housen
Lawrence ... "The vision of this programme is really changing Jamaica."
Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
NEATLY TUCKED away in the corner of the Liberty Building at 26 Church Street in Montego Bay, the Youth Enhancement Service (YES) is quietly working to change Jamaica one person at a time.
"The vision of this programme is really changing Jamaica," said founder and director of the programme, May-Elizabeth Law-rence. "I am seeing a changed Montego Bay, a changed Western Jamaica, and a changed Jamaica. That is what I am seeing. We have had two students that have spent time in jail for drugs and they decided they wanted to make a change. We show them the big picture of nation-building."
The YES Programme is a non-profit organisation that seeks to train youth in job readiness and life skills and aims to make students between the ages of 16-25 rounded individuals by enhan-cing their life through a three-month intensive programme, grounded in the Christian faith but applicable to all walks of life.
UNIQUE PROGRAMME
In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner Mrs. Lawrence explained how she was led to pilot this unique programme.
"I was in corporate Jamaica for 13 years," said Mrs. Lawrence. "I left and I went to Bible school in January 1993. When I left Bible school I offered myself to various organisations to work and I ended up at a ministry at the Team Work School at Torado Heights (St. James).
"I volunteered there for four years and I started weekend youth camps. They would come in on Friday and leave on a Sunday afternoon.
"Students would come in and just flock the place and I wanted more. I said they are coming for a weekend; I need to have them longer than a weekend. My heart started to go out to them because I realised that many of them had leadership skills, many of them who some may consider of having a bad attitude and so on they have a heart of gold but really they are going through this teenage thing that few people take the time to understand. Few people take the time to really say, OK, what it is about these young people that make them tick, why they behave so, why they so feisty, why they have such a bad attitude and they don't realise that they are going through a lot of things.
"During that time something began to stir inside of me to do more and I said well how do I go about it? I said as a Christian I am really going to walk the faith walk. I had no money, because I had been volunteering for 10 years, my husband was the only breadwinner, I have a son in university and how am I going to go about this? And I didn't know what to do or where to start but I kept praying and the door just opened one day."
And so it was that through a lot of 'small miracles', a surprise call that led to her finding a building to rent, help from her church, Fresh Bread Ministries, and other private sponsors, Mrs. Lawrence started the YES programme. The institution opened its doors for the first day of training on April 2, 2002.
"The motto is 'grow and build with excellence'," said Mrs. Lawrence. "That came about because in my heart I really saw the students that come in here as coming into a place where they can learn to grow. When I look at them I think of them as having five folds: spiritual, emotional, mental, social and physical."
CHRISTIAN BASED SCHOOL
A Christian-based school with Christian teachers, the YES programme has had many a student pass through its halls, and the facility enjoys a more than 80 per cent success rate. The school even has a placement programme through which it finds jobs for its graduates.
Twenty-year-old graduate of the programme, Tricia Clarke(name changed to protect identity), has had many challenges in her life, for her age, but despite these hardships she has been able to make a turnaround and she credits her experience in the YES programme for this change.
"I grew up in an inner-city community and I got involved in illegal activities," she said. "One of them was making a decision to smuggle cocaine to the United Kingdom. I got caught and I spent a year and two months in prison.
"When I first went to the YES programme it was because I did not have anything to do but when I went further into the programme Auntie Betty (Mrs. Lawrence), she was so loving and she taught me a lot about character-building and how to deal with problems."
Although not yet successful in getting a permanent job, Tricia sees a lot of admirable improvements in herself as a result of being a part of the YES programme.
HOPING TO ACCEPT GOD SOON
"I used to get upset very easy and I loved to fight," she said. "Even though my mother was a Christian I had no mind on going to church but now everything has changed. I have started going to church now, I pray a lot and I am hoping to accept God soon."
Tricia, having gone through the YES programme, is encouraging anyone needing to make a positive change in his or her life to try the YES programme because it made a great impact on her.
In keeping with its vision of nation-building, the YES creed is: 'I am the best person that God has created at this time to build Jamaica.' Its school colours are black, green and gold and, as part of the programme, the students must learn and recite the National Anthem and pledge every day.
