A programme aimed at giving women greater employment opportunities has been praised by Community Minister Wayne Scott.The Community Driven Development Programme (CDD), under the auspices of the Department of Human Affairs and Bermuda Women’s Council, is aimed at helping participants become self-sufficient.Mr Scott said currently the initiative was focusing on developing a day care facility, where the women in the programme would be instrumental in getting the centre operational and given training in the various aspects needed to run the facility.“The proposed day care facility will be run by fully trained and qualified professionals and the intention is that it will be a training ground for persons wishing to get involved in every aspect of a day care facility,” Mr Scott said.“There will also be other entrepreneurial opportunities which could be derived from the day care project, such as transportation for the students, preparation of meals for parents to take home with them when they collect their children and evening and weekend babysitting.”He said the participants recently made their first quarterly presentation and it was obvious the participants had experienced “personal and professional growth”.“Currently two participants have commenced a professional and career education course at Bermuda College and ten participants have embarked on their GED at Care Learning Centre,” Mr Scott said. “Others will continue workshops in administration, bookkeeping and other topics provided by the facilitators.“It is anticipated that there will be other projects and initiatives under the CDD banner being unveiled in the future. These too will be aimed at creating employment opportunities for underemployed and unemployed men and women.“The objective is for the participants of the CDD programme who have completed the programme to ‘feed into’ and be employed into these projects.”He described the programme as a “major plank” in the Ministry’s effort to strengthen the Island’s social fabric and said the Ministry was working with bodies inside and outside of Government to ensure its success.“In these economic times, we must be creative and think outside the box in order to address the many facets of the problem,” Mr Scott said. “There is a mother and daughter team in this programme and two sisters as well, who have expressed their desire to break the generational cycles of dependence in their families.“What these mothers, grandmothers, sisters and daughters take from this programme to their individual homes will not only have a positive effect on the economy, but also a greater effect on our men, boys and girls and hopefully future generations.”