Youth Livelihoods and Poverty in the Beetham Neighbourhood, East Port of Spain, Trinidad

Abstract

This article seeks to answer the questions as to what poverty means for the livelihoods of young people living in the Beetham Gardens, and how they deal with this phenomenon. The framework along which the author analyses the lives of the youths in the Beetham, the livelihood approach, is briefly discussed in the first section. Subsequently describes how poverty interrelates with the opportunities and constraints of the youths with respect to their access to different resources or 'capitals', a vital concept in the livelihood approach. The article illustrates the young people's views on their situation, in the section their perceptions on their own poverty. The article concludes by a final discussion concerning the impact of poverty on the livelihoods of the youthful population and their different strategies towards dealing with different aspects of it. To demonstrate how poverty can affect the lives of young people in poor urban areas, presents two interviews with respondents.