Barbadian youth received a new financial boost on International Youth Day as the Barbados Youth Development Council (BYDC) launched the island’s first National Youth Discounts Day and announced plans for a permanent digital youth discount card that would allow young people to access savings year-round.
The announcement was made during a ministerial press briefing at Beyond Sushi in Pelican Village, as part of an International Youth Day Road Show, which highlighted youth-owned businesses and partnerships with the private sector under the theme Supporting Wi Own!
More than 100 businesses signed on to offer discounts to people between the ages of 16 and 35, said BYDC president Caleb Brathwaite, describing the initiative as the beginning of a long-term programme to ease the financial burden on young people.
“Today is about ‘supporting wi own’, supporting small businesses, supporting businesses and businesses supporting young people in exchange.”
Among the participating organisations, the Barbados Public Workers Cooperative Credit Union had provided 50 young people with free membership and a line of credit, while other businesses offered discounts on food, drinks and retail items.
Brathwaite said the inaugural National Youth Digital Discount Card is the result of a memorandum of understanding signed with the Small Business Association (SBA), expressing hopes of expanding the partnership across the private sector.
The card will be “an application on your phone to access discounts at small businesses… and other businesses across Barbados so that young people could also get benefits”, he said.
According to Brathwaite, the initiative recognises the financial realities many young adults face as they begin independent lives: “Young people are now starting careers; they’re now starting families, and any savings they can get… would be welcome. We at the Barbados Youth Development Council… are so excited to be able to relieve any burden a young person may be going through financially.”
Although the digital platform is still to be developed, he said the BYDC intends to broaden the range of participating businesses and discounts available.
“Corporate Barbados turned out in their numbers,” he observed. “I actually have an email in my inbox that other businesses are actually looking to come on board and we welcome every single business in Barbados.”
The long-term vision extends well beyond food and retail discounts to a permanent digital youth discounts card, Brathwaite said. “If with the establishment of that card we can be able to offer discounts on house and land, every single thing that touch[es] and concern[s] young people… we will do that with the support of Corporate Barbados.”
The SBA said the partnership also creates new opportunities to encourage entrepreneurship among youth. Member services officer Kasha Glasgow explained that SBA members readily embraced the initiative and were eager to showcase their businesses during the road show.
“We believe in our young people, and we always try to lend a hand with regards to their growth, whether it be entrepreneurship or personal development,” she said.
She added that the organisation already works with students through its Enterprise in Action and career planning programmes and expects the new partnership to strengthen those efforts.
“I believe now with this partnership with the Barbados Youth Development Council, where they’re actually the representative body of the youth, we’ll be able to get more young persons or more youth involved in different sectors, or becoming entrepreneurs.”
BYDC and SBA members purchasing meals from Beyond Sushi (Photo credit: Lauryn Escamilla / Barbados TODAY)
Following the briefing at Beyond Sushi, a participating member of the discount plan, the International Youth Day Road Show participants patronised the store and continued with visits to Mind & Body Massage & Counselling Services among other participating businesses before wrapping up at the Division of Youth Affairs at Sky Mall.
(LE)
The post Youth discount drive launched with plan for permanent digital card appeared first on Barbados Today.
