The Civilian Conservation Corps in Trinidad and Tobago was a government adaptation of a United States programme to approach the issues of unemployment and youth development in the nation. It was first introduced to Cabinet by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Wendell Mottley in 1992. The first cycle of the CCC programme began on 14th June, 1993 with 743 trainees in four (4) regions. The programme continued successfully for some years but was discontinued in 1999. In 2002, it was re-engineered and re-implemented under the Ministry of National Security.

Today, The Ministry of National Security’s Civilian Conservation Corps serves as one of the nation’s major youth development programmes focusing on youth mentorship, skills training/career planning and employment. As of 2020, the programme boasts of completing two thousand and one cycles, having created opportunities for over 25’000 participants.

The objectives of CCC are as follows:

To train and develop our nation’s unemployed citizens aged 18 to 25 years for employment;
To curb the rising incidence of crimes committed by citizens within this age group;
To raise the self-esteem of participants;
To foster socially desirable and well-balanced behaviours among those participants;
To foster in them a sense of national pride and improve civic-mindedness;
To provide them with temporary employment;
To develop in them an understanding and sensitivity to the natural environment;
To assist the Forestry Division in its reforestation and environmental conservation efforts.

See: https://ccc.sysptt.org/history.html

Arts-in-Action has been a partner of the Ministry of National Security’s CCC programme from as early as 2003. The unit’s inclusion was part of the redesign of the original 1993 model serving as an applied creative arts vehicle within the programme’s SOCIAL ISSUES segment for Induction Training.

Serving seven (7) operational communities which target approximately 800 trainees per cycle, our Safe Spaces Interactive Performance Workshop attempts to deliver a critical pedagogy to approach issues of youth crime, youth unemployment, Gender-Based Violence (GBV)/Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and the other societal issues impacting youth mental health and development.

This particular developmental gaze took into consideration the need to transform the way youth development was implemented within the programme. Our interaction with inductees over the years, helped us to realise that the traditional framing of ‘at-risk’, needed to be revisited. In each cycle it was discovered that among the approximately 800 trainees, were not just directionless individuals but goal driven young people. Each cycle contained young single mothers, fathers and aspiring craftsmen/ women, budding youth entrepreneurs, potential technicians, future police officers, aspirant medical workers/nurses, early-childhood teachers in training and career military candidates. Given this reality, it was decided that Arts-in-Action’s Educative Theatre should create a ‘safe space’ for the facilitation of open dialogue and a critical, social process towards analysing youth issues, youth/popular culture trends and youth ideas regarding social justice, transformation, education and empowerment.

We see our partnership with CCC as a key project and continue to work with its directors to find innovative approaches to empowering and developing our nation’s youth.