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Speak2Someone!

U-Turn BVI
Aug 14, 2016
2 min read

"...there is no hope...no one to talk to...no one will understand...I don't know where to begin...so, what am I going to do?"

One may be surprised to know the extent of underlying social issues being faced by our BVI youths today. Usually, the extent of these issues remain undetected until that young individual decides to take drastic measures, such as taking their own lives. Let's be honest...SUICIDE is becoming more and more frequent in our small community and it is about time that we step up and take proactive and novel measures to reach out to our young people. It is time to break the silence.

Speak2Someone is a novel project that is designed to immediately put our struggling youths in contact with the right persons in our community. Our community pastors and guidance counsellors themselves have a wealth of knowledge, experience and understanding as it relates to different aspects of life. What better way to bridge the gap than to create an effective avenue whereby this wealth of knowledge and experience can be passed on to our youths from the role models within our community.

When I initially presented my proposal for the mentorship aspect of the youth project to Bishop Cline of the New Life Baptist Church, it was originally designed to adapt the standard face-to-face mentoring model. However, Bishop Cline rightfully pointed out a few factors: 1) not everyone is willing to come forward to discuss their issues with someone face-to-face; and 2) the factors of time and availability could prove challenging when trying to arrange sessions between mentors and youths. Indeed these were valid points. Furthermore, what one may find is that in the times when they need to speak to someone the most, it is somehow usually outside the hours of 9am to 5pm on a Monday to Friday. So what is one to do? Use the Speak2Someone facility! Speak2Someone is the online facility that will connect youths to community Pastors and Counsellors at any time of the day or night. It also hosts inspirational videos and various scriptures to live by, because indeed God's Word gives life and hope.

I am pleased to report that the Speak2Someone volunteers have willingly given their time to participate in the project and are most passionate about reaching out to the young people in the BVI. Thank you my dear volunteers for being so patient whilst we worked together to develop this avenue. I hope that our youths realise how much our BVI community truly cares for them and how committed we are in supporting them to Make a U-Turn for the Better!

The Speak2Someone facility will be launched soon. Please check back for further updates.