The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A well-known consultant yesterday said his planned Entrepreneurship programme is the “missing element” in the crime war, as he aims to graduate 200 ex-offenders to become business owners within six months.

Mark Turnquest told Tribune Business he is seeking to launch the Second Chance Entrepreneurship Programme (S. C. E. P.) by April 1, in a bid to overcome the problems ex-offenders have in finding gainful employment because of the ‘blot’ on their police records.

Mr Turnquest has partnered on the Second Chance Entrepreneurship initiative with Denver Pratt, a Transformation Centre director who once served a 10-year US prison sentence - an alliance that he says has illustrated the size of the problem.

He revealed to this newspaper that Mr Pratt had 71 associates and friends who wanted to work, but could not find employment because of their spoiled police records due to past offences.

“He [Mr Pratt] came to me and indicated that a lot of his friends, a lot of his associates can’t find jobs because of their police records,” Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business.

“When I did some research, I found there are a lot of people who can’t find jobs. They want to do something but don’t have no opportunity. These people can’t find a job when they get out”

Unable to find gainful employment, Mr Turnquest said many ex-offenders - and at-risk youth - drifted back into criminal activities to support their families.

This problem was also highlighted last year by Ryan Pinder, the MP for Elizabeth and minister for financial services, who said many Bahamians were making themselves unemployable - and making themselves “scarred for life” - by previous criminal convictions.

Unable to produce a clean police certificate, they were immediately rejected by Bahamian employers, and Mr Pinder said then: “I know of a strapping young man who can’t get a job because he was convicted years ago for forging bank cheques. One error, and he’s scarred for life.”

Emphasising that he was not excusing or condoning such behaviour, Mr Pinder said the inability of young Bahamian men to get a job due to their past mistakes inevitably meant many - proud, yet unable to feed their families legitimately - turned to crime to do so.

Similar concerns have led Messrs Turnquest and Pratt to launch the Second Chance Entrepreneurship programme, as clean police records will be less important when ex-offenders are their own employers.

“This is the missing element,” Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business. “This is a huge problem because businesses in this country are very unforgiving.

“I can’t blame them, but we averaged 11,000 crimes annually over the past three years against property and the person.”

These statistics, Mr Turnquest said, showed that the Government’s crime strategies were not working, and that a different strategy was called for.

“Ex-criminals, people at risk, see no way out of this society to support themselves, and turn to criminal activities,” he added. “This is what the Second Chance Entrepreneurship Programme is trying to prevent.”

Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business that the programme needed an annual $100,000 budget, or just under $500 per participant, to successfully operate.

Apart from interest shown by the Government and its agencies, such as the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) and the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI), Mr Turnquest said he had also presented the programme proposal to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Support has also been received from the likes of Youth Against Violence and BASH, and the Second Chance Entrepreneurship Programme will also be presented to the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC).

Emphasising that the IDB and others had provided “positive feedback”, Mr Turnquest said the training programmes would be run through churches, and be supported by business and other counsellors.

Disclosing that four churches and 21 counsellors were “already on board”, Mr Turnquest said he planned to put participants through six different sessions.

“My goal is to have 200 ex-offenders, at risk people in position to start their own business within six months of the training programme,” he told Tribune Business.

“I’m targeting for the first year 200 who really want to start, manage and grow a business. It’s about quality, not quantity.

“The programme is really getting a lot of steam. This is my alternative to assist in the crime problem in this country, getting people into business so they can add value to society and feel they are contributing to society as productive citizens,” he added.

“If you give an individual a second chance at life, to invest in their own business, be hands on, there’ll be a tremendous reduction in crime as these people will have an investment that benefits society.”

Acknowledging that entrepreneurship was not for everybody, Mr Turnquest said candidates would be vetted by a five-person committee ensure all were serious about owning their own business. The programme will also be overseen by a five-person advisory Board.