Synergy: Helping You Find Your Pathway

Helping You Find Your Pathway

Last week 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.

MP Flood-Beaubrun meets with team and persons signing up for Synergy Project

Irving John-Syner’s welcome address hit home as he shed light on recurring problems in society which were left blatantly to Ifester because too few Saint Lucians cared enough to share a fraction of their skills to contribute to any situation. That was the relevance of the Synergy program, which John-Syner noted was simply about collaboration; ‘working together to achieve an end which may be more elusive, or unachievable if we work alone.’

He honed in on the importance of training, and being trained. If one was not trained he said, they were finished before they even began.

“If you are untrained, you are unfit to do anything, even apply for, or far less hold a job . . . You might as well go live in the jungle and take your chances,” he said. “In our environment, the jungle is the street, just sitting on the roadside, or under a tree. Believe me, you will not last long, however dominant, or tough, or Bad John you think you are. The law of the jungle is very simple, and always has been. It is survival of the fittest, and no matter how fit you are today, how strong, capable and independent you think you are . . . sometime in the future, someone else fitter, tougher, younger, stronger, and more dominant than you will emerge, and push you aside.

In conclusion, he said Synergy was about giving forgotten residents of Castries Central a chance. It was a program that brought together a variety of opportunities to train people in whatever their particular dispositions or strengths, so they could get out of the jungle, and become more productive citizens in society.

When she spoke, Synergy’s Project Manager Nadine Khodra-Jn- Baptiste said she was honoured to work with Minister Flood-Beaubrun, not for the first time, on the project which would serve the people of Central Castries. She highlighted the importance of serving people, no matter their designation, and said the program was designed with the people of the constituency in mind. Synergy was in her words a brand that elicited excitement, liveliness, and sought to address not only current happenings, but the journey to come.

With that in mind, the all-embracing program aimed to empower constituents to become the best versions of themselves.

“We’re still working to tweak it and make it into what it needs to be for everyone . . . meeting the people where they’re at,” the project manager shared, noting it was by no means a ‘one size fits all’ venture.

Considering that as long as a person was alive, they were a work in progress, Synergy hoped to empower people by approaching personal defects not as an end-all, but as a foundation on which to modify and build.

“We’re operating based on the fact that we all have stuff that we can work on in our lives, and we will work on them together,” she said. “How we approach these idiosyncrasies and manage them is the difference between a person being mediocre, or great . . . and if a person can empower as many people to catch the vision they have caught in their own life, then true synergy can take place, so that is what Synergy is all about... people empowering people to be their best selves.”

Khodra-JnBaptiste detailed how the program operated, from the process of signing up, to receiving rewards based on progress. Participation was free, and participants could earn points for participating in training, and in the Synergy Pathway component which was the only mandatory aspect of the program.

Minister Flood-Beaubrun with SYNERGY Team at launch

Considering the uniqueness of the various programs comprising the Synergy initiative, rewards are distributed individually by way of self evaluation, based on a participant’s progress in their own journey. Points reflected the development of a participant, and could be redeemed for tools and supplies related to one’s craft. Items which could be redeemed with points included art supplies, tools and equipment (including rentals), clothing accessories (for job interviews, etc), personal care and grooming products, studio recording time, and more.

Mexican Ambassador Oscar Arturo Esparaza Vargas also spoke at the program’s launch expressing the continued commitment of Mexico in accompanying Saint Lucia in its development efforts. The Ambassador said Mexico was glad to be one of the main international partners of Saint Lucia with the Synergy Project. Mexico’s sponsorship would be in the form of professional international collaborations, and assistance with the development of components related to professionalization, technical education, creative arts and craft, agriculture, amongst other fields.

When she spoke, Sarah Flood Beaubrun, beaming with pride expressed, “This is a journey walking on water . . . a leap of faith, responding to the needs . . . the great need of Castries Central and certainly Saint Lucia, and doing something out of the ordinary, because the need is so great.” She noted Synergy aimed to respond to the needs of constituents, and deal with unemployment.

“We can’t deal with that unless we look at the person, because you bring to the job who you are,” she said. “That is why at the heart of the program we have Synergy Pathway... which will encourage all of us to grow inwardly, and to know ourselves with sincerity.”

The minister revealed she’d found inspiration for the initiative based on the book Vices and Virtues written by Alejandro Ortega Trillo. As such, the program was one that every constituent was invited to journey on – even children, with permission from parents or guardians.

A full website for the Synergy Program continues to be developed. In the meantime persons can visit: facebook.com/Synergy-for-Castries-Central