National footballer aims to be a role model
NATIONAL FOOTBALLER, Chad Haynes, wants to use his personal circumstances, tenacity and perseverance, to help others.
Specifically, Haynes, a resident of Redemption Sharpes endeavours to be a role model to others in that community.
Haynes made these aspirations public, when he gave remarks at the launch of Project Motion SVG, last Monday, July 28, 2025, at the conference room of the La Vue Hotel.
Project Motion SVG, an undertaking of the National Commission on Crime Prevention (NCCP), aims to prevent crime through holistic development of youths in sports, TVET, and literature, with a focus on resilience, knowledge and empowerment.
Haynes candidly reminded the audience that he grew up in an area that has produced law abiding citizens and others who have deviated from acceptable standards.
“I want (to) show them that it is not violence as a youth. Not because you are from the ghetto, you have to be a ghetto youth.
You can be a smart ghetto youth”, Haynes pointed out.
Haynes, 23, who began a college career last year in the USA when he obtained a football scholarship, lauded the virtues of the sport.
“Football has molded me into the person that I am today- what has taught me everything about life. It was, and still is my life saver, prevent me from crime, prevent me from doing a lot of things, getting into trouble, following company”, Haynes passionately related.
Revealing that he has lost family members and relatives through acts of violence, Haynes praised several persons, as well as his own resistance to steer away from crime.
Referring to the Sharpes Playing Field as his early “sanctuary”, Haynes said that space was his lifesaver.
“I would come home hear this happening, that happening, if I was not playing soccer (Football) I would have been there”, he said.
Given his pathway of resilience in his teenage and young adult life, Haynes is endorsing the Project Motion initiative, led by the National Commission on Crime Prevention in the Ministry of National Security.
Haynes, who is one of Projection Motion SVG’s ambassadors, in giving credence to the initiative, noted, “I fully support the project, because the initiative is likely to contribute to overall well being including mental health and foster social development”.
He said through Project Motion SVG’s vision, that young people can use the programmes offered to rise from their circumstances.
Timora Peters, Director at the NCCP, who is the lead in Project Motion SVG, in her remarks at the launch stated: “We believe that building safer communities doesn’t begin at the prison gate. It begins in our homes, our schools, our playing fields, and in the hearts and minds of our young people. “Crime prevention must be proactive, not reactive. That’s exactly what Project Motion SVG is all about prevention with purpose”.