HEART NSTA/Trust Transforming Young Lives

Career development officer at the Human Employment and Resource Training Trust/National Training Agency (HEART NSTA/Trust), Dr. Howard Harvey, says the agency is playing a key role in improving the life chances of young people.

“As a practitioner in the HEART/NSTA Trust for over 27 years, I have seen literal change, transformation in young people. Where I am at the LEAP Centre we ….have created a future, brighter than ever, for these youngsters.

I’m telling you HEART is making a difference. We’re not just managing, we’re executing transformation in our young people,” he tells JIS News.

Dr. Harvey has experienced first-hand, the transformational work of the HEART Trust, having started at the Learning for Earning Activity Programme (LEAP) Centre from 1989-1990 as a student aide to the street corner boys that were in the programme at the time.

The LEAP Centre was originally designed to assist street and other at-risk youth.

Before crossing paths with HEART, Dr. Harvey spent the 1970s and 1980s on the streets wiping windscreens to earn a living for his family, which had 10 children, including himself.

“At the time of the Leap Centre, we had street children actually doing skills to earn a living. I came in as a role model to the boys and I participated in providing recreational activities,” he tells JIS News.

Dr. Harvey says when he initially started his now 34-year association with the HEART/NSTA Trust, he was not familiar with the purpose or goals of the organisation.

“I was given the opportunity to work with the youngsters there, since I was older and I was on the streets, so I just saw it as an opportunity to earn a living,” he tells JIS News.

However, his experience at the LEAP Centre left a huge impact on him, marking a point in his life where he began to see himself and society in a different light, especially because he had come to the realisation that he had several similarities with the youngsters under his watch.

“While I was on the streets, persons injected positivity into me and I wanted to use myself as an example…The HEART Trust and the activities here…it kinda set the stage. I became motivated internally. Later on, I wanted to make sure that the persons I was working with, the young people, that they were getting some skills. I used my life story and my life experience to guide them” he tells JIS News.

“Most of the young men, at the time, they could connect with me because I was in the same situation being from a poor background, living in an inner-city community with no father figure, mother alone, many brothers and sisters, and very little resources,” he points out.

Dr. Harvey says that his young charges motivated him to be a better person so that he could be a positive influence on them, which helped him to decide on his career path.

“I later decided that I wanted to be a counselor or a practitioner in the area of providing intervention and counselling so I started my studies. I did early childhood and child psychology and then moved on to counselling techniques at the certificate level,” he informs.

He later went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Child Development, a Master of Arts in teaching, and a Doctorate in educational leadership and policy development.

Dr. Harvey says he regards HEART/NSTA Trust as being his second chance in life, not only enabling him to grow personally and professionally but also contributing to the development of others.

“Today, I am a sought-after person because of the number of things I have done through the HEART/NSTA Trust Leap Centre. I have gotten a quite a bit of training in-house, so the HEART Trust is really a training agency for persons outside but also for their staff and trainees,” he notes.

“As a member of staff, I was given a number of opportunities to develop my skills in various areas in computer, counselling, career counselling, leadership, programme coordination, and strategic development,” he points out.

As a beneficiary of the HEART/NSTA Trust, both as a trainee and an employee, Dr. Harvey is adamant that the agency has done a lot to impact the lives of young people across the island and continues to do so.