The youth wing of the Progressive Labour Party is hoping to swell its ranks after losing most of its executive and being reduced to just five active members.

Progressive Minds co-chairmen Davida Morris and Shawn Brown have both stepped down, along with secretary Jonathan Starling. All three are returning to education.

Recruitment and public relations officer Makai Dickerson told The Royal Gazette yesterday that the youth wing's treasurer had also resigned for undisclosed reasons, leaving just a handful of people involved.

"Certain members of the youth wing are going off to college," said Mr. Dickerson. "It's not the same people in the youth wing as it was prior to them leaving but it's still fully functioning. Currently we have five members."

Mr. Dickerson added: "I'm going to continue my role as recruitment officer and PR to recruit younger members into the youth wing. We won't select a chairman or co-chairman before we do that.

"Instead of electing older members as the chairman, as the executive, we have decided to recruit younger members into the youth wing and elect them as the officers. I'll be stepping down shortly to be more active in my branch."

He said ideally Progressive Minds wanted to recruit 14- to 21-year-olds to lead the organisation, with older members acting as mentors.

The 26-year-old said the youth wing was on its summer break but weekly Monday night meetings at Alaska Hall would resume in September.

New members would be expected to attend the 6 p.m. meetings as well as take part in community service, educate themselves politically and socialise with other members of the community.

Zayne Bean, one of the five active members, told this newspaper: "The former executive officers resigned in order to focus their time to prepare for going to school overseas.

"We are still in existence and working on a plan to attract younger people to get involved. Like in any young organisation you have people who phase out due to other commitments or age etc. We are building a succession plan for younger members."

Another member, Katura Horton-Perinchief, said making sure young people's voices were heard was critical in light of the weekend murder of Kellon Hill.

"We are really hoping to reel them in and get them thinking bigger," said the 25-year-old. "We are trying to get a positive word out there to the youth to let them know that they do matter and what they think matters."

A source told this newspaper that Progressive Minds had disbanded and we asked former PLP Senator Ms Morris and Mr. Starling whether that was the case.

Ms Morris said on Tuesday that she was leaving for the London School of Economics on September 18. "I had to step down; my focus had changed," she said. "As to what anyone does after that, that's their decision.

"I'd rather not comment on the inner workings of the party. That's party business. Everything that happened after I stepped down is between those members."

Mr. Starling, who is heading to the University of Edinburgh, said: "I won't speak on them disbanding but I will encourage any youth interested in politics to get involved.

"I would recommend that they go to both parties, the UBP and the PLP, and ask if they can attend meetings. I would ask any youth to speak to representatives of any party and find out which party they feel they would be best in."

To contact Progressive Minds visit the website at www.progressiveminds.bm or email info@progressiveminds.bm.