A plus that can multiply many fold

The hosting of phase one of the Certificate Leadership Course, June 3 to 6, 2026, by the St Vincent and the Grenadines Olympic Committee in conjunction with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Community Empowerment, Ecclesiastical Affairs and National Heritage was welcomed.

Utilising the ‘Sport for All’ mode, the course, held at Frenches House, Kingstown, sought to encourage leadership within the various communities across St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Hence, forty- two persons, drawn from five communities, the National Paralympic Committee of SVG, as well as the Community Empowerment Division, were exposed to four days of insight, all geared towards enhancing their leadership skills and embarking on specific needs via projects for their respective locales.

The realization of the course was timely as there has been regular outcries for the return to events that engendered the engagement of persons within the communities.

More so, there is that dire need to birth another generation of leaders to promote social cohesion within their spaces of operation.

A highlight of the four days of the CLC, was the framing of projects that provide practical solutions to the needs of the various communities.

The well crafted, deliverable projects if given the rightful approval from the funding agencies, and are indeed are embarked on, will all make for better communities and by extension, a better St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The varied concepts are pitched at the levels that can have appreciable dents in the structures and improvement in life for many who the projects target.

There are many positive derivatives that can accrue from the proposed projects. Given that the projects cut across the demographics augurs well for social integration and inter- generational issues. Similarly, and relatedly, with sports embedded in the projects, promotion of healthy lifestyles is foremost as it is ‘Sport For All’.

Extrapolating, such involvement would likely reduce healthcare costs, and assure a healthier St Vincent and the Grenadines. From the surface, the tentative proposals are well thought out and well-intended. The table has been set, as the course offers the tools that create social cohesion and resilience among our people.

Despite all the glow,however, there are the under currents of part- politics getting in the way of the projects- thus eroding the overarching objectives of the Certificate Leadership Course.

The fact that the focal point is on leadership dictates the pathways that are best for the communities, rather than ensuring that supporters benefit and are at the front of the queue.

Unfortunately, such has been a recurring decimal that forever the wheel has to be reinvented with the usual restarts, hype, and inevitable lows before everything comes crashing and we are back to square one.

Optimistically though one hopes that the personnel who are the leads in the identified communities be non- partisan and use the projects for their worth.