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The Tourism Attraction Board (TAB) held a small ceremony on Friday 7th January in appreciation of the Department of Community Rehabilitation (DCR) for its support and dedication over the past two decades.

“We have been working with TAB for at least 20 years and have a very good relationship. They are one of our main partnering agencies as they avail opportunities for our clients,” said Senior Probation Officer, Sonia Wallace.

Ms. Wallace explained her department supports the TAB in scheduling community service workers who assist in maintenance and clean-up projects at its national attractions. While seeking to avoid recidivism the DCR takes on offenders, helping them to manage the change process in their lives.

The initiative is called the Community Pay Back Programme with the relationship being an equal opportunity partnership, shared Ms. Wallace.

“We have the opportunity to have clients not only paying back to the community but learning skills; the TAB in turn not only has the opportunity to save some funds but also to expand and beautify the properties.

Our officers also stay on site to manage its clients during the week and most often on weekends and with approximately 200 clients, finding placement is not always easy. But the TAB has made it so easy for us, as most persons who work can only attend on the weekends,” said Ms. Wallace.

With the extra hands on deck, Pedro St. James, the Cayman Craft Market, and the Hell Geological Site can meet maintenance deadlines, maintain, and beautify the sites, work alongside attraction staff on event monitoring, post event cleanup, assist with minor repairs and painting on a continuous basis.

“We have witnessed how much effort has been put in over the years in caring for our attractions and in turn our community through your daily work. We thank you for your dedication to us and the community on a whole,” said TAB Office Manager Candace Ransome-Grant speaking on behalf of the TAB Director Patrick Thompson.

The most recent large-scale project was the post storm clean-up of Pedro St. James and Cayman Craft Market last August where several DCR workers assisted over the course of a week.