Former Premier Dr Ewart Brown was key to implementing the Mirrors programme
Launched in 2007, the Mirrors programme was one of the first initiatives under the administration of Premier Ewart Brown.But attempts to get the personal transformation scheme in place for Bermuda’s youth had been frustrated for more than a decade before that.Mirrors had its origins in a personal development programme devised in the US by Mark Charley, of Uncommon Results.“It’s the longest I have ever worked on something and never had anything come out of it,” Mr Charley said.Speaking of the decade of struggle to get it started, Dr Brown said: “Mirrors to me was an excellent example of how patience in Government is not a virtue.“Actually, impatience is the virtue, and that’s because so many people are wedded to the status quo. Why change it, is their approach.”Mirrors is regarded as Dr Brown’s proudest accomplishment. Government MP Dale Butler, who was then Minister of Social Rehabilitation, recalled Dr Brown ordering him to implement the programme directly upon taking office.However, Dr Brown said, prominent sports figures in Bermuda had already banded together in the early 1990s after becoming concerned at the erratic, sometimes violent youth behaviour cropping up at sporting events.He named cricketer Rudolph Lawrence and footballer Leroy (Nibs) Lewis, as well as cricket legend Cal (Bummy) Symonds, cricketer Eldon Raynor and footballer Kenny Bascome, as part of a group that visited his office after his return from the US.Recalled Mr Lawrence: “It happened because of a football game in St George’s. Some things happened during that game that a lot of people didn’t appreciate.“People didn’t like what was taking place and felt something should be done to have help for these young men.“Leroy Lewis got a group of ex-sportsmen together to see if they could help these young men. We talked to Dr Brown because he was our doctor.“We headed around to his office and he said he might know somebody.”The somebody in question was Mark Charley, whose personal transformation programme Uncommon Results had caught Dr Brown’s attention during his Los Angeles years.“He made a call and said it would be good to get this chap who could help us,” Mr Lawrence said.“At that time, the United Bermuda Party was in Government. The Progressive Labour Party was in Opposition.“We could not talk to nobody, in either of them. They didn’t want it.”The group pooled money to bring Mr Charley to Bermuda, where he stayed at Dr Brown’s home in what was to be the first of many visits.Then-Premier Pamela Gordon attended a presentation with a short film at the Elbow Beach Hotel, attended by the Governor, numerous Ministers, and members of the judiciary.“The Government of the day promised they would go through with it,” Dr Brown said. “And it didn’t go anywhere.”He added that his own party remained equally reluctant to put Mirrors in place, but said that under the administration of Alex Scott, the first tentative funds were put in place, amid rising concern at Bermuda’s escalating levels of youth violence and gang activity.Recalled Mr Butler: “When I became Minister, Dr Brown exposed me to the programme.“And I saw great things in it, especially because I was not seeing any comparable programmes out there. In other words, if we didn’t do Mirrors, then what?“Civil servants were not keen because they kept raising the question of how it would be evaluated.“We kept saying, Mr Charley had results instantly, but they still wanted something more. Mr Charley gave us numbers for various organisations in the UK. I went to England and saw the programme in operation.“I had a dilemma. On one hand, Mark Charley was saying he was happy, but the local officials were not happy with it. The idea just sat there, because it meant spending money.“Dr Brown then became Premier and on that Monday I went into his office and congratulated him, and all Dr Brown said to me was ‘Uncommon Results’. He didn’t even look up from the paper.”Mirrors was implemented with a swiftness unusual in Government, Mr Butler said.Within days, Mr Charley was making yet another trip to Bermuda — this time to put the programme in place. The programme rapidly gained a following.Recalling several years of budget cuts to Mirrors, Mr Butler said: “I was torn to pieces when I had to reduce the number of residentials. But I’m glad Government has held onto it.”Hailing the programme as a success, Mr Butler added: “I believe that, had we taken the programme sooner, in 1997, we would not have seen the violence and the trouble.“These guys who are out there causing it would have turned out different.”With a residential just months away, Mark Charley will once again visit the Island, as Mirrors staff still receive Uncommon Results training.The organisation, with a staff of eight, is committed to developing its own sources of funding to keep the programme alive.Mr Butler said: “Bermuda has accepted that we are going to have to find the money to keep Mirrors going. I’m just crossing my fingers that the funding comes through.”
Now-Environment Minister Marc Bean, a policy advisor to Government under the premiership of Ewart Brown, became recruitment and enrolment manager when Mirrors was put in place.
Mr Bean said the programme was “critical to rejuvenate the younger generation”.
“I can safely say, without hesitation, that it has saved hundreds of lives in this country from destruction,” he added.
The task of bringing in volunteers and young people was difficult for a new programme with no template, he said.
“While somewhat trial and error, I think we delivered, and set a standard for future Mirrors participation.”
The name, created in Bermuda, is a metaphor for self-awareness and “the reflection within”: the ability to see yourself in others.
Along with assistant coordinator Tory Darrell and coordinator Kimberley Jackson the programme was put in place.
In November 2007, the first 33 participants attended the residential for 15 to 18-year-olds.
“For the first graduation at the Berkeley Institute, I shared the stage with Dr Brown and Minister [Dale] Butler,” recalled Mr Bean. “I noticed it was so important to Dr Brown that he got on stage and started crying.
“At one point, we had to tell him to go off the stage. He came back on and he cried for the entire hour on stage.
“It reveals a spiritual aspect of Dr Brown. To be a medical doctor, you have to love human beings.”
Mr Butler said: “The best part is that graduation. Kids who have been very rude and disagreeable with their parents getting up and saying 'because I understand my issues, I can do better'.”
He added: “Dr Brown never said it was for young black men. It was for Bermuda and for the youth. Those people that came in for assessment were just children who needed our help.”
Conceding that Willowbank had been an expense, Mr Butler said: “Could it have been cheaper? If we'd had motels in Bermuda, yes.”
However, he recalled Dr Brown defending the decision not to bunk Mirrors participants at Warwick Camp.
“He said 'no, we've already sent these children the message that we think they're second-class. We're not going to do that again'.”
Mirrors is now being considered by other jurisdictions, he said. The scheme lost some participants, Mr Butler recalled.
“Very often that was because you were getting very close to the real issues — to some painful things.”
Nonetheless, he said, the Willowbank resort had “not one broken window” during his three years as Minister.
“Those children's self-esteem went through the roof.”
