YUTE Benefit Increases from Flow Champion Cup

May 3, 2011

The Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) Programme has amassed a donation to date of $114,000 from Flow, Jamaica’s triple play digital provider. The figure, which will be matched by SportsMax, could increase by the end of Sunday’s game, as the two companies have committed $2,000.00 each for each goal scored throughout the course of the competition.

Denise Williams Public Relations Manager at Flow expressed support for the YUTE initiative, saying “Flow is truly proud to be a part of such a positive initiative. With the joint incentives of ourselves and Sportsmax not only are we encouraging excellence in athletic performance, but through YUTE we get the opportunity to give aid to young people across the island.”

Over 50 goals have already been scored in the Flow Champions Cup, and with the final set for Sunday May 8 between St Georges Sports Club and Tivoli Gardens; the charity could be in for more bounty when the final whistle is blown.

Already the donations have been put to good use as all eight inner city communities in phase one of the project have begun their pre skills training programme involving some eight hundred young persons.
The Mentorship programme, which is part of the YUTE Works Employment programme, is also in its advanced stage with some 62 mentors trained and deployed to their respective communities.

Melissa Johnson general consultant at Development Options, the company in charge of overseeing the YUTE programme, says the donations have impacted the mandate of the programme significantly; “Flow and SportsMax have led the way in goals for charity project. With their kind assistance, the programme has begun in earnest. Now underway are the Employment Workshops as well as our re-socialization exercise YUTE U-turn.”

Johnson added that mentors and volunteers are still needed for the programme and pointed to a need for male volunteers, “Presently we have about forty seven percent male and fifty three percent females as mentors, and we want to even things out because a lot of our participants are young men who need the guidance.”

Despite challenges the YUTE initiative continues to gain momentum. The latest venture to come on stream is a five week residential Youth Camp , where youngster from the inner city communities will undergo mentorship and training.

The finals in the Flow Champion Cup 2011 season will see St Georges and Tivoli battle for the championship at the Tony Spaulding Sports Complex at 6:00pm.