If Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey had his way the old Sterling Children’s Home in St Philip would be transformed into a facility to house single mothers who fall on hard times and are unable to find suitable living until they are able to do so.
He shared his thoughts on Wednesday, as he shed more light on plans to amalgamate the departments providing social services in Barbados.
Humphrey was speaking during a press conference, which followed a closed door meeting with other ministry officials and members of the European Union Delegation to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
The EU has donated some €3.6 million (BDS$8.3 million) as budgetary support towards Government’s planned Social Protection Policy and Strategy Programme. An initial amount of €2.55 million of the EU funding has been disbursed.
Humphrey disclosed that he recently visited what used to be Sterling Children’s Home and he was of the view that it could be retrofitted to become a bridge for single mothers and their child/children who were seeking housing.
“I know that former minister (Cynthia Forde) had a view that is shared by the Permanent Secretary (Gabrielle Springer) and shared by me, that we should be in a position to do something with Sterling,” he said.
“There are a number of single females in Barbados with children who find themselves, for one reason or the other, at the mercy of the State and without a place to sleep, and we were thinking of the possibility of using that facility to be able house these single women with children who are often exposed . . . When you hear a female has been evicted or a female does not have the revenue it is normally a female and children regrettably, and there is no place for them to go.
“So we were thinking about being able to retrofit it at least to be able to house persons who find themselves in this state, because I feel a lot of these things have to be transitional. That the resilience part of these policies we build is important . . . We have to improve people’s circumstances so that these transitional phases are genuinely transitional,” he explained.
Pointing to plans to amalgamate the departments that offer social services here, Humphrey said this restructuring has been in the works for more than a year . He said Cabinet had already established a committee and there were funds for a change management consultant in the Estimates.
“My personal desire would be to have us in a position where we are actually engaging the public and the unions in the next few weeks. I would like to think that within a year we can really be telling the public about a Department of Family Services,” said Humphrey.
Pointing to various studies that have been conducted over the years regarding the restructuring of the island’s social services, Humphrey said “All the various governments have agreed with it in principle.”
According to him It was now a matter of making minor tweaks and implementing that restructuring exercise.
Adding that he did not expect a lot of pushback, Humphrey said “The Cabinet has already seen the first draft of it and so some tweaks have to be made, but I suspect that we will be in a position to speak very seriously about where we are in a few weeks.”
Earlier this month after being sworn in as a government , Humphrey made the announcement of the plan to bring the Welfare Department, the National Assistance Board, the Child Care Board and the National Disability Unit under a single Department of Family Services. (MM)
