When you listen to students who have taken part in this programme, you realize that it actually fulfills many of its objectives, and if it had more funding, it would really become more visible as a model worth emulating.
The programme, the Caribbean Internship Project (CIP, you can say sip), is not new conceptually—it is basically what the name suggests—and it involves students of The UWI whose focus is essentially on supporting children and families.
It grew out of an Inner City Child Support Project in Jamaica from 2001-2004, which had been funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and managed by Aldene Shillingford, who still leads this current version.
It’s been ten years now since CIP officially began, this time as a partnership between the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the Mona campus and the Caribbean Child Support Initiative (CCSI) in Barbados.
The CIP’s core emphasis initially was its support for Early Childhood Development (ECD) through the Roving Caregivers Programme (RCP), which provides stimulation for children and parenting education. Young men and women from the communities, generally unemployed, are recruited to work with the families and their caregivers. Working mainly with disadvantaged communities and families, the interns put their lessons from UWI to practical use.
Initially, there had been others as well, such as the Regional Radio Project, the Storytelling Programme, and the Communication for Development which had worked with a parenting programme in Jamaica. Seeing how effective the multi-dimensional thrust has been, has encouraged the organisers to consider broadening the range of interests of the students involved; so that while it had originally targeted those from the Social Sciences, Education and Media and Communication, The UWI is exploring the possibility of expanding this programme to include other disciplines.
The CIP has evolved since 2011 when funding from the BVLF ended. ECD is no longer the main area of focus—its new vision is that of a service-learning programme serving human development needs of the region.
By 2010 the CIP had become known as a UWI project involving the campuses at Mona, St Augustine and Cave Hill. By 2011 three Government Ministries in Belize, Grenada and Dominica and one non-government organization in St Lucia began partnering with The UWI to share the cost of interns placed at social service agencies in their country. From 2003 to 2012, 226 interns have been placed.
Deputy Principal of the St Augustine Campus, Professor Rhoda Reddock fully supports this, especially in the way it ties in with the idea of Service Learning and Community Engagement, an initiative of her office. Prof Reddock believes the well-rounded student can be developed through this model. “I think we also have to engage with the communities around the campus so that they see us as partners,” she said. “We can do this by research, we can do this by having programmes using some of the skills that the departments have, community service programmes, service learning programmes; there is quite a lot of scope…”
Current coordinator, Aldene Shillingford, says that at this point, having CIP institutionalized, that is, getting the recognition it deserves through funding support from The UWI would be helpful. It’s already established its viability, she said, through its interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving in the region and the way it promotes regionalism.
“It’s Caribbean people solving Caribbean problems,” she said.
What better example of independence can you want?
 One intern, Rainah Seepersad, who was in the MSc Clinical Psychology programme at UWI, spoke about her experiences in Grenada and St Lucia.
In Grenada, she worked at the Ministry of Social Development, with the Roving Caregivers Programme, facilitating parenting workshops; and the Child Welfare Authority Office, where she was supervised by a Child Protection Officer as this involved cases of neglect and abuse. She also worked with the psychotherapist at the Family Therapy and Counselling Clinic, and was also able to work with one inmate at the Richmond Hill Prison Facility.
For her three months in Grenada, she shared living space with Craig Dixon, a media intern from Jamaica, and Mary Ifill, a social work intern from Barbados.
“We shared residence with a family, the landlord and her son. We became sort of like a family, we were all very close, we cooked together, shared meals like a family, had fun weekends together, went on island tours, to the beach, waterfalls. I am still in contact with everyone, I made a lot of friends on the island,” she said.
She also tasted a lot of the cuisine, including lambie waters (conch).
“Our host cooked a lot and we helped prepare meals,” she said, listing some of the fare, “the usual Sunday lunch: macaroni pie, shepherd’s pie, veggies, Grenada’s famous oildown…”
In St Lucia, it was the first time she had been away from home for Divali, “so I made parsad and shared with the other interns there.” (Jonique Gaynor, media intern, Jamaica; Marion Robinson, psychology intern, Jamaica; and a former intern who still works there, Jillian Laydoo, psychology intern, Trinidad.)
She worked at the Centre for Adolescent Renewal and Education as a School Counsellor/Psychologist, where she took part in weekly group sessions for students to discuss their concerns, individually and within the school environment. Individual therapy sessions were also available for students who were referred by teachers or who were interested.
Inmates at Bordelais Correctional Facility, who were recommended for rehabilitative services, were involved in an academic programme with the purpose of reintroduction into society. “I provided individual counseling sessions for inmates as well as group therapy sessions.”
She said issues raised by inmates included reuniting with their families (and children), moving past old negative relationships and accepting new positive relationships, and anger management. Sessions helped them to identify triggers in the past that may have led to impulsive or dangerous behaviours and emotional awareness and coping skills, and to find alternative ways of expressing anger and moving forward. She said many said it was something they wanted to learn and they valued the sessions as a sounding board for things they were embarrassed to talk about.
Back in Trinidad and working as a clinical psychologist in San Fernando, Rainah looks back at the year she spent as a CIP intern as a period of much growth.
I learnt to coexist with others of different cultures,” she said. “Being Trinidadian made this easy for me since we are exposed to different cultures and people here.”
 “Rural is rural wherever you go, no matter how sophisticated the country,” says Khadijah Williams-Peters, as she discussed her experiences as an intern with CIP in 2006 when she was located in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
She had been attached to a programme called VINSAVE (Save the children) and in the course of her internship, which focused on early childhood education, she trained staff and helped develop policies around Hiv and AIDS and she worked with the Probation Department as well.
Khadijah did her Master’s degree in social work at The UWI, and is now a full time lecturer at COSTAAT, where she has been seconded from her substantive post as a guidance officer at the Ministry of Education. She is on the board of the Children’s Authority as a representative of social work.
She has been in the social work field for 12 years and the experience she had with the internship helped guide her choices of where to set her focus. Seeing some of the conditions under which people lived, and realizing how difficult simple communication could be even among Caribbean islanders were some of the lessons she learned, as she broadened her experience in Jamaica and St Lucia. The internship helped her “understand cultural differences and forge regional relationships,” she said, many of which persist nearly eight years later.
One of the other things she learned is that many problems and issues are universal, as she discovered when she connected to a rural community in the UK.
“The experience also motivated me to establish an NGO to work with children and families in need. We work across the Caribbean as well. The experience was really an excellent catalyst for many great things in the field of social work and education,” she said.
In her current position, as a guidance officer, she says the concept of the multidisciplinary team would be ideal for our schools. Each school, she said, should have a guidance officer, a psychologist, a social worker a special education teacher and a nurse, but she knows the reality, and would be happy if for a start, such a team services each district.
It is hard to see the shortfalls in the system.
“It affects me,” she admits.
“Apart from practising, I have a passion for education, so yes, it can be frustrating, but at least I can share my knowledge and I believe there is power in education.”
 
I found out about CIP during my final days as an undergraduate at The UWI, Mona Campus. Looking back, I cannot believe it has been six years since my first internship in St Vincent and the Grenadines!
The CIP experience has allowed me to visit some of the most beautiful places in the region: St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Barbados, and whilst on this journey I have formed lifetime friendships with some very special persons.
Most importantly, CIP helped me to develop my skills in public relations and communications. My placements have afforded me the opportunity to design and implement effective communication strategies that have modeled, promoted, explained and reinforced the values of the Roving Caregivers Programme consistently.
“During my internship at the Division of Human Services I was responsible for the provision of psychological services to clients of the Division. This included children at the New Beginnings Transit Home. We do daily psychotherapy and psychological assessments of the children at the Home.
A comprehensive Behaviour Modification programme has been implemented to assist in managing the behavioural challenges of those children. Several staff development workshops have also been conducted in addition to individual counseling for staff. Staff have been trained in Anxiety Reducing Techniques by Family Case Workers to help them prepare abused children for things like giving statements. Court reports have also been enhanced by having psychological assessment reports of both children and adults. Also introduced to the Division is my participation in supervised visits between adults (foster carers/parents) and children whereby interactions are observed and analysed.
My confidence has grown immensely from having this experience. I now write a biweekly newspaper column and have been asked by several attorneys-at-law to provide assessments for clients.
Placement here has allowed countless people to receive a service that significantly improves their lives. Additionally, the Caribbean Internship Programme embodies regional integration by providing opportunities for individuals to give their skills for the benefit of the region.”
Ginelle Nelson is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Division of Human Services at the Ministry of Health, Wellness, Human Services and Gender Relations in Castries, St Lucia.
 
I didn’t realize my country had so much poverty. I saw a lot. I was ashamed. It was an eye-opener.
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