Sweet Water Foundation

Programs and Services

Sweet Water Foundation uses an amalgamation of three methodological frameworks for the delivery of its programs and services.  (1) Our Social Ecological Model considers the complex interplay between individual, relationship, community and societal factors, as a means to identify and address the factors that put people at risk for experiencing or perpetrating sexual violence. (2) Secondly, we take from the Public Health Model in which the ultimate goal is to stop violence before it begins.  Finally, we make good use of the (3) Psychodynamic Psychotherapeutic tradition, which provides healings for child victims of sexual abuse, adult survivors of child sexual abuse, and also for the perpetrators of it.

Although there are very few, if any, comprehensive therapeutic programs in place for CSA in the Caribbean, there are many agencies and groups who work in other disciplines to address the problem. These include policy makers and the Law (Legal Aid, the Child Welfare Authority and other Social Justice workers), School Counselors and such like. Sweet Water aims to work in concert with these groups, to provide complementary services and programs that do not already exist. Beginning in Grenada, we aspire to develop programs that may eventually roll out across the entire Region, towards the Caribbean population in Canada, and indeed towards all countries where Caribbean peoples reside.

The Programs and Services of Sweet Water Foundation include:

To volunteer your assistance with any of these programs or services, or to make a financial contribution, please contact us in any of the following ways:

email: hazel@sweetwaterfoundation.ca

phone: 473-415-8000 / 416-628-2969

mail: Sweet Water Foundation, 19 Avondale Avenue, LPH5, Toronto, ON. M2N 2T6.

mail: Sweet Water Foundation, c/o Hazel Da Breo, Wavecrest Apartments, Grand Anse, St. George’s, Grenada.

The Sanctuary

The physical, material manifestation of Sweet Water Foundation lies in the acquisition of land, and in the erection thereon of a building – a sanctuary – where therapies for the healing of victims of Child Sexual Abuse can be administered, along with trainings in these therapies for lay-persons and professionals alike.

The construction of the Sanctuary has been commissioned to Canadian/Grenadian architect Bryan Bullen.

Prevention

Stewards of Children

A Partnership Project with Darkness to Light, USA

(For Adults)

Darkness to Light is an international nonprofit organization based in Charleston, U.S.A.  They seek to protect children from sexual abuse by placing responsibility squarely on adult shoulders. They educate adults to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to CSA.

Their Stewards of Children program is the only adult-focused child sexual abuse prevention program proven effective in increasing knowledge, improving attitudes and changing participant’s child-protective behaviors over the long term.

It is a one-day-workshop which focuses on training employees and volunteers of youth-serving organizations to better prevent, recognize and response to CSA.

The Darkness to Light Stewards of Children program includes:

• Facilitator Training: Face-to-face intensive facilitator training, which utilizes an interactive training process of workbooks, videos, and discussion, aimed at increasing knowledge of child sexual abuse, improving the related decision-making processes, customizing policies and procedures for different types of organizations, and increasing knowledge of laws and regulations of reporting in different states. Upon completion of facilitator training, participants will be certified to train others using Darkness to Light’s program.
• Training Professionals in Youth-Serving Organizations: Face-to-face three-hour training of professionals and volunteers of youth-serving organizations, conducted in communities throughout the nation by trained and certified facilitators. This training utilizes the training tape/DVD and workbooks for each front-line participant.  Those trained by this method are not expected to train others.

Program Materials:

• An interactive workbook and a 7 Steps Guide for each participant containing the full program curriculum.
• An accompanying 1 ¼ hour VHS/DVD integrating segments of sexual abuse survivors relating their stories of violation and healing, with segments from the author of the curriculum and from professionals who interface daily with the problem of sexual abuse
• Opportunity for discussion about important issues in sexual abuse prevention and the relevance of these issues within organizations that serve children and adolescents.

After training participants will:

• Understand the facts of child sexual abuse – incidence rates and effects on individuals and society
• Understand how child sexual abuse happens
• Understand that adults are responsible for the protection of children
• Understand the importance of screening staff/volunteers who work with children and adolescents
• Understand the importance of a well conceived one-adult/one-child policy
• Have resources to react responsibly to incidents of child sexual abuse
• Understand the proactive role youth-serving organizations need to take to protect children and educate their communities about child sexual abuse

In Grenada:

In developing successful community prevention strategies, we focus on a “tipping point” concept toward meaningful social change. The Tipping point formula comes from Martin Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, How Little Things Make a Big Difference. In this book, a fresh approach is presented to understanding how trends occur and how significant change and improvement happens in society. This idea has great significance in the work of child sexual abuse prevention and accurately describes our ultimate goal in moving communities toward resolve using the Stewards of Children prevention program as the primary intervention tool.

The Stewards program is designed for adults to share the interventions taught (7 Steps to Protecting Our Children) with other adults and implement specific structures and strategies within their homes and organizations that serve children, thereby, significantly increasing their protective scope and reach. Using this strategy and based on our research, we believe that once we train 5% of the adult population, we begin the cultural shift toward the protection of children from sexual abuse though specific interventions and behaviors.

For a quick estimate in calculating the target population for any community, you begin by determining the adult population – 75% of the total population. Our target goal to reach the tipping point is 5% of the adult population.

For Grenada with a population of 100,000, the adult population is approximately 75,000. The targeted tipping point of adults to train in the Stewards of Children curriculum would be 3750.

Puppet Theatre

A Partnership Project with Kido Foundation, Carriacou, Grenada.

(For Children)

The Kido Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization located on Grenada’s sister island, Carriacou. Their primary mission is to preserve the natural ecosystems, arts, heritage and encourage sustainable development of the Southern Grenadines through environmental education, social development, scientific research and eco-tourism.

In addition to these efforts, the Founders / Directors of Kido (Dario Sandrini and Dr. Marina Fastigi along with Tyrone Buckmire of the Sweet Water) deliver social and environmental education programs for youth, including computer literacy training, summer camps and other outreach programs for youth.

They also produce a Puppet Theatre show for children (all written, produced and performed by Dario, Marina, and Grenadian children) which focuses on ecological awareness and the necessity for respecting and preserving our natural environments. These puppet shows are performed all over Grenada and Carriacou to groups of elementary and high school children, for free.

See www.kido-projects.com for more information

Anti-Poverty Initiative:

Ø  Food – Direct Intervention.

SWF aims to provide breakfast food packages to children at risk. These packages will include non-perishable items, in consideration of the fact that impoverished families are often without refrigeration or ovens.  Items will include Quaker Oats, Powdered Milk, Canned goods such as Tuna and Sardines, plus Crackers and boxed Juices.

The Breakfast Packages will be directly delivered directly to the home of each recipient.

Ø  Food – Indirect Intervention.

We have become aware of one woman, living in a rural area, who has observed the same situation that we have – that children going to school hungry are terribly at risk for taking dangerous measures to alleviate their hunger. This woman has taken it upon herself to set up a food-stall at the cross-roads of her village, where she provides breakfasts to children in her area, as they pass by on their way to school.

SWF plans to source and partner with other such women in the many villages around the island.  We plan to supply the raw materials – Flour, Canned goods, Juices, etc. that will enable them to carry out their mission.

Ø  Food – Sustainable.

SWF further plans to furnish families in need with the long-term, sustainable means for feeding themselves, with donations of such items as:

1.     Fruit trees.

2.     Vegetable plants, such as tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, corn and so forth.

3.     Fishing rods and accessories, such as lines and hooks.

4.     Herbal plants – those used both as food seasonings and as medicines, such as Sage, Thyme, Ginger, Garlic, and others.

This initiative will work together with more direct measures, to provide both immediate hunger / risk alleviation, and long-term sustainability.

Education and Training:

At this time, there are no known psychotherapists in Grenada who specialize in treatments for Child Sexual Abuse (with the exception of SWF), even as the need for such is profound. In order to address this dire need, SWF proposes the following:

Ø  Visiting Therapists / Professors.

SWF aims to identify specialists from the Caribbean and Latin American Region, from Canada and from further afield, who will agree to visit Grenada for one, three, six or twelve-month sojourns, in order to (1) Open and attend Clinic for clients in need of this specific healing, and (2) to train both lay persons and practitioners (from social work, psychotherapy, psychology and other healing modalities) to provide specific and specialized treatments in this field.

Ø  Scholarship Grants.

SWF also aims to sponsor students of existing Psychology degrees and programs to attend a training course or module in CSA treatment.

We also aim to identify one graduate from a Psychology Program (at the St. George’s University, or from abroad) who can be sponsored to a full certificate course in Canada, or in another identified / partnering country.

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Healers’ Conference:

The International Healers’ Conference will be the very first of its kind in Grenada, and indeed in the entire Caribbean Region.

SWF Research has shown that while there are several interventions in place that deal with the burgeoning issue of Child Sexual Abuse, most of these initiatives focus on identifying children at risk, on removing those children from their sites of abuse and on punishing perpetrators. Very few, if any, focus on treatments that assist survivors in their very urgent,  serious and long-term business of recovery.

The ground-breaking and urgently needed Healers’ Conference seeks to address this gap in our service to victims of CSA.

SWF plans to source and engage the full range of healers who work exclusively in this arena. We will invite psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, medical doctors, artists, priests and others, all of whom will disclose their experiences, approaches and practices in healing CSA.

Anticipated Outcomes:

Caribbean peoples in general, victims/survivors of CSA in particular, and those professionals who are seeking to learn ways of dealing with the issue, will receive a wealth of awareness and skills in the debilitating, long term effects of CSA, and of the many and varied means of healing it.

Long-term partnerships and liaisons will be made and nurtured, towards the end of initiating a movement of thinkers, practitioners and their clients towards the achievement of life’s true potential and worth.

Timelines and Location:

September 18-21, 2010. Grenada.

Mt. Cinnamon Hotel, Grand Anse, Grenada.

Confirmed Presenters:

Dr. Adam Crabtree, Canada.

Heloisa da Silva Porto, Brazil/Canada.

More Information TBA:

Toronto Connections:

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) counted a population of 5.1 million in the 2001 census. A full 2/3 of these are immigrants; persons who were born someplace else and moved to Toronto with all of the mores and folkways of their countries of origin intact. Of these, an approximated 1.7 million are Caribbean (census 2001).

Sweet Water has a keen research interest in the mental and emotional health of these peoples.  Some of the questions we ponder, and aim to be able to satisfy are:

• If Caribbean immigrants have been the childhood victims of sexual violence in their culture of birth, what happens to their issues when they move abroad?
• Do they find healing in the established, mainstream health care networks there? Do they turn to standard psychotherapists, clergy, social workers, extended family, or to “traditional” healers?
• If they seek assistance from Canadian professionals, are these professionals acculturated to or aware of the systems that inform their clients’ socialization? Do they have the specific training that best equips them to help Caribbean victims of CSA?
• If immigrants with CSA issues do not seek assistance, why not? And if not, how do they acclimatize to their new Canadian culture; how do they integrate and with what expectations do they raise the next generations of Caribbeans, vis-à-vis the prevention, reporting and healing from CSA?
• Are adequate numbers of Caribbeans choosing the healing arts as professions, training themselves in this specific area, and working with their own peoples? And if not, why not?

This study is certain to have significant impact upon the manner in which people who live in the GTA view the training and provision of critical health care programs and services for Caribbeans and indeed all immigrants, along with native Canadians too.

SWF has a two-pronged approach to this query. (1) A Research-based study, to be carried out by a partnering University or Social Studies entity, and (2) To introduce both the Darkness to Light CSA Prevention Program and the Kido Foundation’s puppet theatre to this population.

Towards the second aim, that of the Darkness to Light Stewards for Children program, Sweet Water is thrilled to have found several young women of Caribbean backgrounds who now live and work in Toronto, to take this leg of the SWF healing path forward.