The Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CATT) will be giv­en $9.4 mil­lion for the im­ple­men­ta­tion of var­i­ous ini­tia­tives aimed at en­sur­ing the care and pro­tec­tion of the na­tion’s chil­dren in 2023.

A Drug Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dence will al­so be con­struct­ed in To­ba­go for chil­dren sen­tenced by court for sub­stance abuse.

Ac­cord­ing to the Pub­lic Sec­tor In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (PSIP), the sum of $6 mil­lion will be pro­vid­ed for the re­fur­bish­ment of a fa­cil­i­ty at Pi­paro for the es­tab­lish­ment of a Con­sol­i­dat­ed Child Sup­port Cen­tre.

The project in­volves re­fur­bish­ment and out­fit­ting of the ad­min­is­tra­tive build­ing, kitchen, laun­dry and dor­mi­to­ries.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the fa­cil­i­ty will be se­cured by the in­stal­la­tion fenc­ing around the perime­ter.

The Au­thor­i­ty will al­so seek to es­tab­lish a Re­cep­tion Cen­tre in To­ba­go for chil­dren with be­hav­iour­al chal­lenges and poor men­tal health.

With an al­lo­ca­tion of $1.8 mil­lion, the PSIP said that CATT will re­fur­bish and out­fit a prop­er­ty in Ba­co­let, To­ba­go for the pro­posed Re­cep­tion Cen­tre.

The Re­cep­tion Cen­tre, which will be a fit for pur­pose fa­cil­i­ty, will pro­vide ad­di­tion­al place­ment op­tions for chil­dren in To­ba­go.

The Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter (OPM) will com­mence de­signs and con­struc­tion of a Drug Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dence in To­ba­go with an al­lo­ca­tion of $9 mil­lion.

The cen­tre will pro­vide ac­com­mo­da­tion for 40 boys who have been sen­tenced by the Chil­dren’s Court to a sub­stance abuse pro­gramme for a pe­ri­od of three months.

In or­der to pre­vent in­trud­ers from gain­ing ac­cess to the St Do­minic’s Chil­dren’s Home in Bel­mont, a to­tal of $1.5 mil­lion will be pro­vid­ed for the con­struc­tion of a perime­ter wall to in­crease the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of res­i­dents.

The project will in­volve de­mo­li­tion of the ex­ist­ing wall and re­con­struc­tion of a re­in­forced con­crete perime­ter fence.

The up­grade of St Jude’s Girl’s Home in Bel­mont will al­so con­tin­ue in fis­cal 2023 with an al­lo­ca­tion.