NHT BUILDS THE NATION WITH YUTE
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,” words of Winston Churchill, could summarize the Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) programme, which continues to make a positive impact in the Jamaican society.
As a charitable organisation, YUTE’s continued success cannot be achieved without strategic partners, who guide and provide critical support to this path-breaking initiative.
The National Housing Trust (NHT) is one such organisation, which has contributed generously and tangibly to the YUTE initiative.
“NHT as an organisation, is invested in building Jamaica, and that is not limited solely to our mandate to provide affordable solutions to the housing sector,” says Donald Moore, Senior General Manager of Since 2012, through their joint programme, YUTE Build, more than 150 youth between the ages of 18 and 29 who reside in vulnerable communities across Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine, have benefitted from vocational and life skills training, certification and work experience in General Construction. The programme is implemented in collaboration with HEART NTA and the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP).
This association has not looked back since, as NHT, to date, remains one of YUTE’s major benefactors. The agency provided $32 million in financial support for phase two of the YUTE Build programme, launched by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in February in 2014. That phase is scheduled to be completed in December 2015.
“The NHT is incredibly proud of its many successes over the last few years,” Mr. Moore continued. “It is a most coherent mix, to build the capacity of the youth of this country, who deserve a chance to prove their worth, and then witness the same youth contribute in the most meaningful way to the development of Jamaica.”
Over 18-months YUTE Build II is providing opportunities for 100 young persons to enter the workforce as skilled and certified individuals, and preparing participants to take advantage of self-employment opportunities available in the field.
“By imparting new skills to our youth, we are seeking to engage them in the national productivity drive. Equally important, we want them to develop and maintain a sense of self-worth which is essential to their physical, mental and social well-being,” Mrs. Simpson Miller said, at the signing of the YUTE Build Memorandum of Understanding, last year.
NHT has a multipronged engagement with YUTE – from identifying deserving youth from inner city communities, aiding in their screening and recruitment process, to providing placement of participants in work opportunities that are identified in collaboration with NHT’s contractors and builders.
Additionally, YUTE participants have assisted the NHT’s team with a number of special projects, including its Annual Labour Day Project at the Mobile Reserve of the Jamaica Constabulary Force in 2014. “We are beyond grateful for the unwavering support and encouragement provided to the YUTE Build programme by the Prime Minister and the leadership, management and staff of the NHT,” said Joseph Matalon, Chairman of YUTE. “It has achieved noticeable and measurable impact created in part, by all of the heart, team work and multi-stakeholder commitment that is required to effectively create change and sustainable impact at the community level.”
“Critically,” he added, “The strategic partnership with the NHT, has given the much needed impetus to strive to achieve higher goals, to reach out to more communities and contribute tangibly in building Jamaica, one youth, and one building block at a time.”