A total of 36 members of the the St James Police Youth Club/Project Excel will travel to the United States from August 19 to 29 to participate in an International cultural exchange programme in Los Angeles. They were invited by an organisation called Citizens and Friends of Trinidad and Tobago, an incorporated body operating out of California, USA.
In November 2009, members of the US group visited the police youth club at Sierra Leone Road, Petit Valley, and were entertained by the club. Impressed with the quality of work being done by the club, the foreign team recently extended an official invitation to 36 members of the club to participate at the international cultural exchange programme. The St James Police Youth Club/Project Excel is a registered non-profit organisation, which caters to the needs of young people between the ages of eight and 25 years.
It was established in November 1992 as a crime-fighting mechanism and is one of the 36 police youth clubs now functioning in T&T, with a registered membership of 126 members. Its main focus is to expose young people to productive activities in education, sport, culture, spirituality and community service as an alternative to a life of drugs, crime and juvenile delinquency.