The man who has become a rallying point for a group of young men and women seeking to revive a community youth club in the West End — has explained what drives him.

Gerald Fubler ran the former youth club in Sandys from 1994 until it closed in 1999.

The former Regiment man feels a sense of responsibility for the youth of today who now have no place to hang out where they can take part in positive activities and gain support from their peers and adults.

The prospect of a new youth community club moved a step closer when Premier Ewart Brown pledged to meet the West End Youth Community Club committee halfway in their bid to restore a youth club to the parish.

At the public meeting, attended by around 80 people, Mr. Fubler spoke of his vision and what has driven him to take on a guiding role with the young committee.

“I have a vision but I’m not an expert. If I see a problem in my country and I think I can be of service then I am going to be of service,” he explained. “I do it because of one person — that’s my mother. My mother stays in her house day in and day out.

“At times she puts a fridge or a stove behind the door because she is scared. In the bedroom, there is luggage that she puts behind the door because she is afraid.

“We have young people out there who do not care. They have no respect for me, you or adults or anyone in authority.

“I have put together a group of men who do not want ‘The Wall’ anymore, and there are a lot more who do not want the wall.”

He continued: “Those young men are sitting on the wall because they lost the leadership and guidance. “There are walls throughout this country, no parish is missed out. And those on the walls are becoming younger and younger.

“A lot of people are afraid to go out there and address the men on the wall. It is going to take young men like these (gesturing to the youth community club committee) to go and do that.

“They are their peers, they can get inside of these guys and can turn them on to positive things. Our plan was to go into the middle schools because they are getting younger and younger. Today we are faced with junior gangs, 12 years and up.

“I’ve only experienced this over the past 15 years, maybe less than that. I’m trying to help every community.”

Education Minister Randy Horton said he applauded the efforts of the group and what they had achieved so far.

He said: “The whole idea of young people deciding that you are going to have a meeting and invite the adults and tell them what you are thinking is great.

“We as adults have to listen to what the young people have to say, even if we do not like what they say we have to listen and be able to have dialogue with the people. One of the problems that we have had have been because we have not reached out to one another.”

While Senator Wayne Caines related to the efforts of the group because he had gone through a similar experience when he returned to Bermuda in 1998 after attending law school overseas.

He had grown up in the Parsons Road area of Pembroke and found many of his contemporaries to be “sitting on the wall” and down-spirited.

A meeting of minds took place and action was taken to create a playground for the neighbourhood to give young people somewhere to go.

Likewise, a community football tournament was started and encompassed teams such as The 4-2 Team (St. Monica’s Road or “42nd Street”) and The White Wall Team for Curving Avenue and Middletown. Sen. Caines said: “A unique thing happened on the way to a football game, the football game became secondary, everyone came and represented the community.

“The community came alive, it became bigger than football. It became about the Central Pembroke community.”

Addressing the West End Community Youth Club committee, he said: “We young men took a stake in our community.

“You men and women are the antidote to what is going on in your community. People will be drawn to you.”

While indicating support for the concept of a youth community club, Premier Dr. Brown had also pointed out that it was not concrete buildings that made a difference but people. And this was reflected in the comments of African Methodist Episcopal Rev. Betty Furbert-Woolridge, of Allen Temple Church, Sandys, where the meeting was held.

It already has a type of youth club, but one thing that is lacking is support from adults in the community to provide all the different aspects of help for the young people that are needed.

She explained: “We have over 50 people from the ages of five to 17 who come here on Friday nights. Most of the time it’s only the women who come to help and it’s mostly boys who come here.

“We need help here to mould these young lives. We are doing as much as we can, but more help is needed.”

She said that in one room the church had a row of computers donated by the Bank of Bermuda which could be used to teach youngsters computing skills to lead them into jobs, but what is needed first is for computer-conversant adults to volunteer some time to help tutor the youngsters.

Rev. Furbert-Woolridge said: “We need tutors to teach the young people how to use them. Everything is here we just need the people. If we can really come together we can make a difference in these young people.

“There might be people out there who are quick on computers who can help out.”