New USAID YES project seeks to lower youth involvement in crime, violence

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday rolled out a new youth empowerment initiative, with the goal of reducing youth involvement in crime and violence through prevention.

The five-year Youth Empowerment Services (YES) project will target countries in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, but will be focusing especially on Guyana, St Vincent and St Lucia, where it was found that the emerging and existing issues there warranted need for intervention, USAID’s Programme Management Specialist Ryssa Brathwaite said at the launch yesterday.

The project will carry an estimated cost of $64 million and consists of