{"id":8125,"date":"2021-10-20T14:25:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T14:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/40.117.174.162\/?p=8125"},"modified":"2024-11-21T14:26:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T14:26:04","slug":"dia-lab-trinidad-and-tobago-graduates-first-cohort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/dia-lab-trinidad-and-tobago-graduates-first-cohort\/","title":{"rendered":"DIA LAB TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO GRADUATES FIRST COHORT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2021\/10\/20<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Port of Spain,&nbsp;Trinidad and Tobago&nbsp;\u2013 October.&nbsp;<\/strong>The&nbsp;<strong>DIA Lab in Trinidad and Tobago&nbsp;<\/strong>celebrated&nbsp;its&nbsp;<strong>first graduation ceremony<\/strong>, in which&nbsp;<strong>46&nbsp;young&nbsp;Trinbagonians<\/strong>&nbsp;were recognized for completing the&nbsp;DIA&nbsp;training program, focused on digital and entrepreneurial&nbsp;courses.&nbsp;This innovation lab&nbsp;is developed by The Trust for the Americas, through its Democratizing Innovation in the Americas (DIA) Program, with the financial support of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citigroup.com\/citi\/foundation\/\">Citi Foundation<\/a>, and implemented by&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cariri.com\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=featured&amp;Itemid=435\">The Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI).&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This&nbsp;virtual&nbsp;event&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/iYTKxqHl52s\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">(link)<\/a>&nbsp;was attended by&nbsp;The Honorable Foster Cummings, Minister&nbsp;of Youth Development and National Services, Trinidad and Tobago;&nbsp;Mrs. Linda Eddleman,&nbsp;CEO&nbsp;of&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas;&nbsp;Mr.&nbsp;Rodrigo&nbsp;Iriani, Senior Program Manager DIA&nbsp;at&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas;&nbsp;Mr. Quimey del Rio, Senior Program Officer&nbsp;DIA&nbsp;at&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas,&nbsp;Mr. Meghnath&nbsp;Gosein, Executive Manager &#8211; Corporate Services&nbsp;at&nbsp;CARIRI;&nbsp;Ms. Lynette Akong, Senior ICT Business Coordinator&nbsp;at CARIRI, and Mr.&nbsp;Hayden Charles,&nbsp;Program Leader, ICT at CARIRI, who&nbsp;served as master of ceremony.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Inter-American Development Bank, approximately one in five youth, between the ages of 15 to 24 in the Caribbean, are not in school nor part of the workforce. The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrustfortheamericas.org\/programs\/dia\/dia-urban-lab-youth-innovation-trinidad-and-tobago\">DIA Lab in Trinidad and Tobago<\/a>, launched in June 2021,&nbsp;is promoting&nbsp;empowerment and innovation&nbsp;by providing participants&nbsp;with&nbsp;training sessions, designed to inspire the development of creative projects&nbsp;with the potential to become economic ventures.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s&nbsp;Youth Development and National Services Minister, The Honorable Foster Cummings,&nbsp;stated:&nbsp;\u201cIt is often said that the sustainability of an economy lies within the grasp of a nation\u2019s youth.&nbsp;It can be attested that the dedication and hard work of the&nbsp;people&nbsp;celebrated today, coupled with the&nbsp;guidance&nbsp;of the lab staff and facilitators&nbsp;from CARIRI, is&nbsp;undeniably a remedy for success.&nbsp;This&nbsp;Innovation&nbsp;Lab&nbsp;advances&nbsp;the youth agenda in our country, and it motivates us at the Ministry to work even harder to create and seek opportunities that benefit all youth, no matter the age, race, or social background.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DIA Lab specialized curricula&nbsp;aim&nbsp;to benefit participants with skills in:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>New\u00a0and emerging\u00a0Technologies\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Business Model Canvas\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Data Science\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Intellectual Property\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Financial Literacy\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Computer Science\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Innovation\u00a0&amp;\u00a0Entrepreneurship\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Digital Literacy\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Life Skills &amp; Coaching\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Mrs. Linda Eddleman,&nbsp;CEO&nbsp;of&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas&nbsp;added:&nbsp;\u201cThe gained skills will&nbsp;allow participants to unlock their creativity and identify their business idea, no matter the field. With this&nbsp;new knowledge, they will be able to give back to the community and make a difference in the life of its people.&nbsp;And that\u2019s what we\u2019re celebrating today, their effort and commitment, and the promise of the important things they will do for themselves and their country.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For The&nbsp;Trust of the Americas, this group of&nbsp;graduates&nbsp;is a very special one,&nbsp;since&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;not only&nbsp;the first cohort of DIA Lab beneficiaries from Trinidad and Tobago, but also the first people positively impacted by the organization in this country.&nbsp;Amongst them, we can find&nbsp;Joshua Jackson,&nbsp;who shared that:&nbsp;\u201cThe key to&nbsp;truly creating something spectacular lies in channeling your creativity. Through this program, I\u2019ve become emboldened to take that leap outside the box and leave limitations behind.&nbsp;You must know the basics before you can build,&nbsp;and this is where the amazing team at CARIRI plays a part in my journey. CARIRI has given me the tools necessary to start solving problems and producing a profit.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its first year, the&nbsp;DIA&nbsp;Innovation&nbsp;Lab in Trinidad and Tobago&nbsp;seeks to train&nbsp;and empower at least 200 young innovators\/entrepreneurs&nbsp;and&nbsp;grant USD&nbsp;15,000.00 in seed-funding to support disruptive projects&nbsp;through Pitch Tanks and Hackathons.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrustfortheamericas.org\/programs\/dia\"><strong>Democratizing the Innovation in the Americas<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;initiative&nbsp;has been active since 2016 and, thanks to the&nbsp;partnership with&nbsp;the Citi Foundation,&nbsp;it&nbsp;will continue to expand&nbsp;the&nbsp;DIA Labs network in the Caribbean with operations in the Dominican Republic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About\u202fThe\u202fTrust for the Americas:\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trust for the Americas is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS). It was established in 1997 to promote public and private sector participation in social and economic development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our initiatives, implemented through local partner organizations, seek to improve access to economic opportunities as well as to foster innovation in vulnerable communities in the hemisphere. To this end, The Trust also promotes social inclusion and good governance. The Trust has offices in Washington, D.C.,&nbsp;Colombia, and Canada.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More information:\u202f<a href=\"http:\/\/www.trustfortheamericas.org\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.trustfortheamericas.org<\/a>\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facebook:\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheTrustfortheAmericas\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Trust for the Americas<\/a>\u202f Twitter:\u202f\u202f\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Trust4Americas\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Trust4Americas<\/a>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trustfortheamericas.org\/static\/webpage_app\/insumos\/projects\/icon-map-marker.svg\"> Trinidad &amp; Tobago<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2021\/10\/20 Port of Spain,&nbsp;Trinidad and Tobago&nbsp;\u2013 October.&nbsp;The&nbsp;DIA Lab in Trinidad and Tobago&nbsp;celebrated&nbsp;its&nbsp;first graduation ceremony, in which&nbsp;46&nbsp;young&nbsp;Trinbagonians&nbsp;were recognized for completing the&nbsp;DIA&nbsp;training program, focused on digital and entrepreneurial&nbsp;courses.&nbsp;This innovation lab&nbsp;is developed by The Trust for the Americas, through its Democratizing Innovation in the Americas (DIA) Program, with the financial support of&nbsp;Citi Foundation, and implemented by&nbsp;The Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI).&nbsp; This&nbsp;virtual&nbsp;event&nbsp;(link)&nbsp;was attended by&nbsp;The Honorable Foster Cummings, Minister&nbsp;of Youth Development and National Services, Trinidad and Tobago;&nbsp;Mrs. Linda Eddleman,&nbsp;CEO&nbsp;of&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas;&nbsp;Mr.&nbsp;Rodrigo&nbsp;Iriani, Senior Program Manager DIA&nbsp;at&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas;&nbsp;Mr. Quimey del Rio, Senior Program Officer&nbsp;DIA&nbsp;at&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas,&nbsp;Mr. Meghnath&nbsp;Gosein, Executive Manager &#8211; Corporate Services&nbsp;at&nbsp;CARIRI;&nbsp;Ms. Lynette Akong, Senior ICT Business Coordinator&nbsp;at CARIRI, and Mr.&nbsp;Hayden Charles,&nbsp;Program Leader, ICT at CARIRI, who&nbsp;served as master of ceremony.&nbsp;&nbsp; According to the Inter-American Development Bank, approximately one in five youth, between the ages of 15 to 24 in the Caribbean, are not in school nor part of the workforce. The&nbsp;DIA Lab in Trinidad and Tobago, launched in June 2021,&nbsp;is promoting&nbsp;empowerment and innovation&nbsp;by providing participants&nbsp;with&nbsp;training sessions, designed to inspire the development of creative projects&nbsp;with the potential to become economic ventures.&nbsp;&nbsp; Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s&nbsp;Youth Development and National Services Minister, The Honorable Foster Cummings,&nbsp;stated:&nbsp;\u201cIt is often said that the sustainability of an economy lies within the grasp of a nation\u2019s youth.&nbsp;It can be attested that the dedication and hard work of the&nbsp;people&nbsp;celebrated today, coupled with the&nbsp;guidance&nbsp;of the lab staff and facilitators&nbsp;from CARIRI, is&nbsp;undeniably a remedy for success.&nbsp;This&nbsp;Innovation&nbsp;Lab&nbsp;advances&nbsp;the youth agenda in our country, and it motivates us at the Ministry to work even harder to create and seek opportunities that benefit all youth, no matter the age, race, or social background.\u201d&nbsp; The DIA Lab specialized curricula&nbsp;aim&nbsp;to benefit participants with skills in:&nbsp; Mrs. Linda Eddleman,&nbsp;CEO&nbsp;of&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas&nbsp;added:&nbsp;\u201cThe gained skills will&nbsp;allow participants to unlock their creativity and identify their business idea, no matter the field. With this&nbsp;new knowledge, they will be able to give back to the community and make a difference in the life of its people.&nbsp;And that\u2019s what we\u2019re celebrating today, their effort and commitment, and the promise of the important things they will do for themselves and their country.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp; For The&nbsp;Trust of the Americas, this group of&nbsp;graduates&nbsp;is a very special one,&nbsp;since&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;not only&nbsp;the first cohort of DIA Lab beneficiaries from Trinidad and Tobago, but also the first people positively impacted by the organization in this country.&nbsp;Amongst them, we can find&nbsp;Joshua Jackson,&nbsp;who shared that:&nbsp;\u201cThe key to&nbsp;truly creating something spectacular lies in channeling your creativity. Through this program, I\u2019ve become emboldened to take that leap outside the box and leave limitations behind.&nbsp;You must know the basics before you can build,&nbsp;and this is where the amazing team at CARIRI plays a part in my journey. CARIRI has given me the tools necessary to start solving problems and producing a profit.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp; In its first year, the&nbsp;DIA&nbsp;Innovation&nbsp;Lab in Trinidad and Tobago&nbsp;seeks to train&nbsp;and empower at least 200 young innovators\/entrepreneurs&nbsp;and&nbsp;grant USD&nbsp;15,000.00 in seed-funding to support disruptive projects&nbsp;through Pitch Tanks and Hackathons.&nbsp;&nbsp; The&nbsp;Democratizing the Innovation in the Americas&nbsp;initiative&nbsp;has been active since 2016 and, thanks to the&nbsp;partnership with&nbsp;the Citi Foundation,&nbsp;it&nbsp;will continue to expand&nbsp;the&nbsp;DIA Labs network in the Caribbean with operations in the Dominican Republic.&nbsp; &#8212;&nbsp; About\u202fThe\u202fTrust for the Americas:\u202f&nbsp; The Trust for the Americas is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS). It was established in 1997 to promote public and private sector participation in social and economic development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our initiatives, implemented through local partner organizations, seek to improve access to economic opportunities as well as to foster innovation in vulnerable communities in the hemisphere. To this end, The Trust also promotes social inclusion and good governance. The Trust has offices in Washington, D.C.,&nbsp;Colombia, and Canada.\u202f&nbsp; More information:\u202fwww.trustfortheamericas.org\u202f\u202f&nbsp; Facebook:\u202fThe Trust for the Americas\u202f Twitter:\u202f\u202f\u202f@Trust4Americas\u202f&nbsp; Trinidad &amp; Tobago<\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":8126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8127,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8125\/revisions\/8127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}