The Island must collectively place more value on family, said Executive Director of the Family Centre Martha Dismont last night.

Ms Dismont spoke during a discussion, hosted by the Sustainable Development Round table (SDRT) aimed at getting people to speak on ways to strengthen families. Attendees were asked to explore how strong family bonds could enhance our quality of life and those recommendations would then be passed on to the Premier and Cabinet.

They determined there was a need for more extended family involvement and stronger leadership in families and communities.

They also said it was important to take the emphasis off materialism and provide more moral and emotional support in the household.

Ms Dismont said: "To address the challenges and strengthen families the community as a whole must be willing to collectively place more value on family.

"As we have talked over the months and the years to these young people in trouble who have become some criminals, the number one thing that most of them feel they have lacked in their life is love.

"And there is nothing like seeing a 35-year-old big burly man say I just need some love. There is nothing like it. So we need to get to a place of placing value not only on family, but placing value on nurturing relationships and caring."

The SDRT say the family structure on the Island has been weakened and this effects social factors, such as academic attainment, participation in the labour market and involvement in anti-social behaviour.

They report that an average of 217 divorces happen on the Island each year and the amounts of 'at risk' children has risen by more than ten percent in the past three years.

In addition 53 percent of those unemployed in Bermuda are males aged 16 to 24 and unprecedented levels of violence continue to plague the Island.

Patrina O'Connor-Paynter of Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Bermuda said she was raised in a single-parent home, but still had a strong sense of family.

Despite not having a father around, her mother encouraged her to go to church. She said: "That is how my mom tried to keep me grounded and tried to give me some kind of values in life.

"Because sometimes I find with young people now is what values do they have, where are they looking for their values, are they looking to the streets?"

Her mother also got her involved with extra-curricular activities, got to know her peers and took time to manifest and promote her talents. All these factors led to her overall success, Ms O'Connor-Paynter said.

And while she maintains it is important for men to be involved in their children's lives, single parents can also give young people a good home life.

Donville Yarde, a Police officer for over thirty years, who for the past six years has been a social service residential care officer working with juvenile offenders, also spoke last night.

He said: "For me I grew up in a family and I thought it was a strong family, but as I got older and I sat back and I looked at it I started to see the only time I really felt family was at Christmas time."

Mr. Yard admitted his father was the disciplinarian, but issued punishment rather than discipline.

He said it was important for there to be a male- female balance in the family, so that one does not stifle the other members.

Seventeen-year-old Samuel Hewitt-Bean, the head-boy at Impact Mentoring Academy, grew up in a two-parent home and said he was taught morals from a young age.

He was taught to be courteous to people on the street, how to take on responsibility, set goals and meet them and communicate with his parents.

Mr. Hewitt-Bean said: "I have a father that comes from a single parent home and he basically broke that chain. His father wasn't there but he took it upon himself to take the responsibility when he had his family, that he was not going to be like that.

"He was going to stop everything in that tract. We all know that you have certain traits you can pick up, but it takes a great man to stop that cycle," he said.

For more information on this or similar discussions by the SDRT, go to www.sdbermuda.bm.