The Island’s sports and social clubs need to be better utilised as they are “home from home” for scores of young men.This is the view of Community Development Minister Michael Weeks who believes the grassroots organisations would benefit from improved facilities.Mr Weeks suggests adding Internet cafes and homework clubs to help keep young men away from lives of crime.He said the young men from troubled areas needed help and direction in their lives rather than being left to their own devices.Mr Weeks, who is vice president of Western Stars Sports Club, said: “Sports clubs and social clubs are a vehicle we need to tap into.“A lot of young children are crazy about football and cricket so this is the place to go to reach out to them.“These clubs are their homes from homes as they spend so much time there. They hang out at these clubs as their moms and dads are so busy working two or three jobs.”Mr Weeks said it was “all about the jobs” with young men repeatedly telling him they were out-of-work or underemployed with fewer hours than usual. He said they were “really suffering” as rents and food prices remained sky-high.Mr Weeks is therefore promising to come up with “creative ways to get children back to work” such as Job Corps, which is a trade-based training scheme for school dropouts.Mr Weeks is continuing to work through the recommendations of The Mincy Report on young black males.The report by Professor Ronald Mincy was published in May 2010 to try to provide out-of-school youth and young adults the opportunity to get technical and vocational training.Mr Weeks said his greatest concerns were young people and the older generation who were “the forgotten sectors of the community.”He said: “That 18-35 age group, all we hear about is the violence, but they are some very hard-working members of the community. We need to nurture these young people so they flourish in the future.“While the old folk are the backbone of Bermuda, but they aren’t getting the attention they deserve.”Mr Weeks also wants to see better community policing with the return of the “parish constable” who knows everyone in the neighbourhood by name.He recalls growing up “in and around the pond” where the parish constable was more like an uncle than a police officer.He said the thought of him telling your mother what you had been up to “kept everyone out of mischief.”Mr Weeks said: “Parish constables knew about the community because they were always in the community.“Back then the police were never seen as the enemy. Those are the days we need to return to. Police need to become more localised.“A lot of the time these are our sons getting into trouble, it would offer a level of comfort to have a parish constable we all know.”Mr Weeks is also in the process of revitalising the National Youth Council to “allow the voices of our youth to be truly heard.”He said he saw the 17 members of the youth council members as Bermuda’s future leaders.There are 11 members aged from 16 to 18 and five executive board members in their 20s who represent a cross demographic of the community. The National Youth Council meets once a month.