Famed US author and teacher Margaret Wheatley once said, “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” This sentiment embodies the vision of the Bucknor Concerned Citizens Benevolent Society (BCCBS) that has been seeking change through youth empowerment and digital literacy.

Bucknor is a small community in Clarendon with ambitious youths but faces harsh realities of sporadic violence and limited resources. To help combat this, the BCCBS established a community centre in 2014 to improve the literacy skills of the youths and their chances of gaining employment.

Michael Thomas has been a Bucknor resident for 23 years and is a member of the BCCBS. Along with his son David, both men have committed to empowering the community and its young people for the common good.

“My motivation is the youths and the contribution that they can make to the development of their community, parish and the wider society that will help change the image of Bucknor,” said the elder Thomas.

In July 2022, the Flow Foundation provided free Wi-Fi to the community centre to support its educational and development goals. Bucknor is one of many communities across the island to receive free Wi-Fi as the Foundation supports national development through digital access and digital literacy.

“The service provided by the Flow Foundation for the community centre is a game changer as it provides a guaranteed source of internet access for research and assessment that was otherwise not available,” stated Michael.

According to David, the big goal is to transform the community one child at a time and to create an environment of possibilities for the residents. David is an I Believe Ambassador, an initiative under the Governor-General’s Programme for Excellence, where he leverages the Bucknor Community Centre to inspire and instil belief with educational and personal development activities for the youths.

“My vision for the community is equal opportunity for all through skills training that will make them employable and to improve literacy skills,” David stated.

“We also want a community that has a good relationship with the security forces for the safety of its citizens and we want to partner with agencies and other stakeholders to create positive opportunities for the youths.”

In addition to the Flow Foundation, the BCCBS is in talks with other partners such as HEART Trust to introduce training in small business entrepreneurship, food preparation and mixology.

Michael added that they will also be focusing on children with learning disabilities and are seeking more partners to help equip the community centre with computers to support children who do not have their own devices.

Thanks to the free Wi-Fi provided by the Flow Foundation, Michael noted that all future programmes will be enabled by internet access, providing further growth and development to transform the community and its residents.