Building Resilience
www.govt.lc
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Helping You Find Your Pathway
Minister Flood-Beaubrun with SYNERGY Team at launch
F
riday, June 15 marked the launch of an unconventional 18-month pilot program targeting residents of Castries Central. At the program’s launch, Prime Minister Hon. Allen Chastanet noted that Synergy, the program which hoped to create opportunities for people around the community to empower their lives, was part of efforts to reduce the dependency of citizens on the largess of governments, or politicians in general.
The Synergy program focuses on personal development, training, and recruiting through the Synergy Pathway – a personal development component targeting constituents that emphasizes the importance of ‘knowing, accepting and improving oneself.’ Participants of Synergy Pathway are eligible for enrolment in other programs and services including UrbanGrow (agriculture), the Great Gardeners project, Joy HomeMakers (hospitality for the home sector), Trade Tech, Wash N Browse and Become! (performing arts, craft, and music). The programs are designed to meet the diverse needs of constituents, starting with Castries Central, building on their skills and talents, as well as aspirations and career goals. “It’s about instilling in people a sense of independence and a level of empowerment,” PM Chastanet noted. “It’s about changing people’s lives, and one thing I know for sure, when people have something to lose, they get more involved. People have to have skin in the game, something at risk in order for them to change their overall attitude.” Hon. Sarah Flood Beaubrun, Minister with responsibility for External Affairs, and Parliamentary Representative for Castries Central received the prime minister’s praises for conceptualizing the initiative which would target the often side-lined community. Chastanet empathized especially with young men from the area who were commonly disregarded for jobs and other opportunities due to sweeping generalizations based upon where they resided. He said it was necessary for people in Saint Lucia to ‘create the ability of critical thinking, to judge every single individual as themselves, and not fall into the trap of branding people generally.’ Synergy would paint a fresh picture and develop the constituency’s human resource. The program also sought to take manual labour, which was often frowned upon, to a new level with revamped branding, and training opportunities.
