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bpTT The Journey to Self Reliance - Beyond Borders
BEYOND BORDERS
The Journey to Self Reliance
Energy giant BP Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT) is working with The Rose Foundation and the Inter-Agency Task Force of the Ministry of National Security, through the Beyond Borders Programme, to mend divides in society by improving the opportunities available to disadvantaged citizens living in marginalized communities.
The ‘at risk’ population has been a concern of BP Trinidad and Tobago for some time. With an aspiration to positively impact the lives of every citizen, the company has committed to making strategic interventions that help to improve the development outcomes of this segment of the national population. One such strategic intervention is the Beyond Borders Programme.
The Beyond Borders Programme was developed in 2010 through a partnership between BP Trinidad and Tobago, The Rose Foundation and the Ministry of National Security through its Citizen Security Programme. The programme strives to provide communities with the training and resources to create an enabling environment that is stable, safe and conducive for investments, business development and socioeconomic growth. Beyond Borders has been implemented in some of the poorest, most stigmatized communities in the country and stretches across Trinidad from Moruga in the south-east, to Covigne, Diego Martin in the north-west. Since 2012, BP Trinidad and Tobago and the Rose Foundation are the principal partners with on the ground support from the Inter Agency Task Force.
About The Beyond Borders Programme
Beyond Borders is not the first socio-economic intervention into deprived communities in Trinidad, but evidence suggests that it may be one of the most successful. Speaking with Sterling Belgrove, who heads the Rose Foundation it is clear that his understanding of disadvantaged communities has allowed him to design a programme that delivers results. He said: “Beyond Borders was conceptualized on the understanding that you have a community and in this community you have streets and each street is a separate
zone, normally referred to as blocks or turfs. These zones represent countries in themselves; they represent sovereign spaces. In a contrary way, these turfs/blocks and gang wars arise out of a sense of alienation. So citizens of the country feel like aliens in their own country.”
He further explains that “marginalized communities often create alternate systems and frameworks of governance, administration and justice. Social systems and economies emerge, which are not compatible with acceptable national systems. The deviant structures trigger the formation of ‘gangs’ or ‘cliques’, and other appellations as are specific. While these sub-institutional frameworks mimic formal structures, they are void of the values which drive those structures.”
It is this knowledge and understanding that has allowed the Rose Foundation to develop a unique methodology to guide their work in the communities targeted by the Beyond Borders Programme. Marcia Belgrove, co-founder of The Rose Foundation said of their methodology: “In the first instance we identify the organizations working in the community. So, you get an assessment from those persons who are already working in the community. Then, you do an informal walkabout, speaking to the community. You are introduced. From that conversation you can extract information from the things that are said and the things that are unsaid…building respect along the way. The other thing is you begin the process of legitimizing these organizations, so that’s training and development.”
Mrs. Giselle Thompson, Vice President Corporate Operations, BPTT and Mr. Sterling Belgrove, Founder of the Rose Foundation
Sterling Belgrove adds, “The training addresses social issues, legal issues, skill issues, capacity issues, it does mapping of the community, looking at the resources within the community and how they can be harnessed and channeled into resource mobilization.” Training is carried out in conjunction with the Ministry of National Security Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and funded by BP Trinidad and Tobago.
Since the start of the training initiative in 2010, thirty-five organisations have been formed across the communities enrolled in the Beyond Borders Programme, resulting in community-based business start-ups in the areas of bottled water, construction, graphic arts, photography/videography, transportation and catering. Twelve experiential work sessions were conducted with nineteen organizations.
Spotlight on Beetham Gardens
One of the first communities to benefit from the Beyond Borders Programme was the Beetham Gardens. During the first phase of the intervention launched in 2010, the Rose Foundation and its partners focused intensely on the training of community residents. Residents were enrolled in classes that instructed them in the formation of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) that could help develop their community. In the Beetham, five NGOs were formed.
In 2013, the sustainability phase of the programme was launched. In this second phase, the residents developed their entrepreneurial skills using the business incubator model. Several businesses were formed, including but not limited to, photography and videography services, environmental and sports organisations and catering. It is the goal that the training provided in phase one and two will allow residents to add a for-profit element to the already established NGOs that could help to sustain them.
Due to the success of the programme in the Beetham, in 2014 the Chairman of the BP Group, Carl-Henric Svanberg visited the community on his first ever official visit to Trinidad. Svanberg had personally requested to visit communities touched by the intervention. He said that “from the first time I heard about this programme, I wanted to come to see it. There is nothing more important than helping others to find their way.” When the Chairman arrived in the Beetham on April 30, 2014, he buried a time capsule of aspirations for the Beetham community. The time capsule is to be opened in 10 years, after which residents can assess the Beetham’s progress towards its transformation goals.
Two years later, as part of the fulfilment of the community’s vision for the Beetham, as recorded in the time capsule, residents benefitted from a special Beyond Borders project
entitled the Beetham Gardens Beautification Competition. For the competition, each Phase of the Beetham was divided into five distinctive gardens, residents of each Phase were encouraged to participate in a friendly competitive community process of beautification and enhancement to rebrand the community as a safe and welcoming place.
As a prelude to its initiative to transform Beetham Gardens, the Rose Foundation started with a clean-up campaign that removed some 40 tons of garbage in the area. The competition was launched on the 30th of November, 2016, after which, 12,000 seedlings (flowers and food crops), tools and soil were distributed to households and the five NGOs formed through the Beyond Borders Project.
The competition was extremely successful. Approximately 200 residents participated in the project. Kerwin Alexander, Chairman of One Call Foundation, and pioneer of the Beetham Gardens’ Beyond Borders coordinating group said the competition was like,“…a breath of fresh air blowing in the community.” Not only was the community beautified but food crops were sown and residents like Tifari Sobers started a business selling the vegetables grown during the competition at his roadside stand. The competition ended on 15 March, 2016 and over 40 residents were awarded prizes for their efforts.
Nineteen organizations participated in experiential workshops.
1. All Mansions of Rastafari
2. Mon Repos Development Foundation
3. Upper Cemetery Street Residents Association
4. Each One Teach One Children’s Foundation
5. First Touch Football Association
6. Positive Impact Foundation
7. With God All Things Are Possible (WGATAP) Foundation
8. Amethyst Family Foundation
9. St. Barb’s Transformation Foundation
10. St. Barb’s Reformation Foundation
11. KV Lifeline Foundation
12. Gonzales Advocacy Partnership
13. Inter-Agency Task Force Hearts and Minds Programme
14. Excel Government Primary School
15. St. Joseph Government Primary School Parent Teachers Association
16. D’vine Care Foundation
17. Friends of St. Barb’s Community Council
18. Choice Solutions
19. MARY Foundation
The Way Forward
Sustainable change resulting in transformation requires consistent and repeated activities. Sterling Belgrove is convinced that engagement over the next three to five years will produce transformation among the residents in the focus communities from the current reality to hopeful and productive lifestyles. Although the current downturn in the national economy inhibits business returns among the startup entrepreneurs, it challenges all participants to do more, and to do so creatively.
Some of the projects in the programme that will ensure sustainability include:
• Establishing a Grassroots Chamber of Commerce and Carnival Vendors Association;
• Operationalising of three water plants, one of which is in Beetham Gardens;
• Establishment of alternative energy labs;
• Pigeon Peas product development, including testing and certification; CARIRI
• Operationalising the Positive Impact Foundation sewing facility;
• Setting up offices for start-up NGOs;
• Continuous training for newly established organisations in focus areas;
• Development of more enterprises in each focus area, through recruitment and on-going training of residents.
BPTT will continue to support the Beyond Borders Programme because, according to the company’s Manager, Corporate
Responsibility, Ronda Francis “Targeting ‘at risk’ youth remains one of the main pillars of our corporate responsibility strategy. We depend on the ‘know how’ of NGOs like the Rose Foundation to understand the ‘bottom up’ approach and we depend on the political will of the government through its agencies to reach out to communities like Laventille and the Beetham. This is why Beyond Borders is now considered one of our signature CSR programmes and we are looking forward to its continued success and the transformation of disadvantaged communities in Trinidad.”
Incorporated for-profit companies arising out of the Beyond Borders Intervention have received technical support in the preparation and submission of prequalification packages for state contracts as follows:
1. JDK Contractors Limited, St. Barbs
2. J. Craigwell Maintenance and Construction Services Limited, Gonzales
3. Trilogy Transport and General Services Company Limited, Mt. D’or
4. El Luengo Development Company Limited, El Luengo
5. St. George East Development Company Limited, St. George East
6. Jeremiah and Bernadette Company Limited, Mt. D’or
7. Far Eyes Security Company Limited, Laventille
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