Family Centre

“During the last 33 years, Family Centre has grown from humble beginnings to an ever-evolving, multifaceted, multi-disciplined organisation that advocates for children, teens and their families.

“We have seen both the despair and hope in the eyes of the children, teens and families we work with. We are proud and humbled to have helped many families throughout our Continuum of Care in 2023, such that hope is what families leave us with. We have provided intensive counselling services to 128 families.

“We have 56 youth participating in our 4.5 year Youth Leadership Academy programme.

“A total of 106 students participated in our Beyond Rugby Bermuda and Beyond Yoga programmes during the 2022-2023 school year.

“This past year has had its successes and challenges like any other year. The most shocking and significant event was the loss of Martha Dismont, our founder and former executive director of 30 years.

”The world is indeed a better place for having had Martha in it. We find comfort in continuing her life's work every day through our commitment to ensuring families have access to support without barriers and working towards a healthy Bermuda where all families are valued, supported and empowered to thrive.

“Our partnerships with other organisations and individuals as well as the generous support of our donors showcases what is possible when we unite and have a shared purpose to influence and facilitate positive change.

“We are grateful for the generosity of those who invest in Family Centre's continuum of care, enabling us to achieve deeper impact.

“We have much hope for 2024 as we continue to enhance our programme and service delivery models by applying our professional development trainings to our work, continuous assessment of needs in our communities, and research of best practice strategies to address the challenges within our scope of work with children and families.

“On behalf of the entire Family Centre family, we wish everyone a peaceful and joyous holiday season and prosperous 2024 full of hope and light.”

By Sandy De Silva, executive director for Family Centre.

Bermuda Is Love

“For Bermuda Is Love, the most beneficial thing to happen this year has been that there seems to be more of a concerted effort in providing the basic needs of every person living in Bermuda.

“Practically, the implementation of the minimum wage and the creation of the plan to end homelessness represent majors steps forward in addressing the most basic needs of Bermudians.

“On the community level, we see Bermuda Is Love becoming more of a lived reality. Bermuda as a place of love and kindness, of compassion and generosity, a place where we can all come together to feel loved and respected in recognition of our shared humanity.

“For Bermuda Is Love, we see the beauty of humanity displayed each and every day. We see people going out of their way to help their neighbours. We see individual and community effort being made to consciously help those less fortunate. We see people caring. We see change actively happening in our community. We believe that change is already here. It is all around you. It is in you. And it must keep going.

“The biggest change for 2024 we wish to see in Bermuda is for us all to continue to recognise our personal responsibility in creating a better Bermuda. It is our duty to create a world where everyone’s basic needs are met. It is our duty to create a world where we all have the opportunity to not just survive but thrive, and become the best versions of ourselves.

“We must all recognise the beauty of humanity. I must come to see myself in you. You must come to see yourself in me. We are all in this together and we must all work together to create a better Bermuda and a better world. We must act with love in our hearts. Love for our fellow Bermudians, love for the world and love for ourselves.”

By Aaron Crichlow, cofounder of Bermuda Is Love

Age Concern

“The launch of projects such as the Dementia Care pilot and the request for interested investors in the potential development of seniors living at Channel House, St David's in 2023, are all good signs that an infrastructure of long-term care support continues to develop as a safety net for ageing Bermudian residents.

“The challenge of 2024, however, will be to determine how to maximise and financially sustain the provision of care initiatives such as these in the long-term.

“Recent observations on the extent of national healthcare expenditure in high-income jurisdictions has found that in some jurisdictions funding long-term care can be as high as 29 per cent of overall health expenditures.

“While Bermuda is known for having high healthcare expenditures overall, not much is discussed in the public domain on how healthcare dollars are being effectively used to provide the best ageing outcomes. This is an important discussion as Bermuda’s population of persons over 80 years older has grown from 4.6 to 5.8 per cent since the year 2013, signalling that we can expect greater demand for long-term care services as the island ages rapidly.

“As advocates for older adults, our hope for 2024 is that the new corporate tax provides a specific opportunity, as a matter of priority, for long-term care services to be sustainably financed, developed and co-ordinated.

“This will help to ensure that quality long-term care is within the reach of the everyday ageing Bermudian.”

By a charity spokeswoman

Bermuda Education Network

“As always, the highlight of BEN’s 2023 was our Outstanding Teacher Awards when we celebrate outstanding teaching in the public schools. Preparing for the annual awards forces BEN to make time for in-depth interactions with our clients — the public schoolteachers who are on the front lines.

“For our team of teachers and curriculum developers, the opportunities to visit the classrooms of our ten finalists and have professional dialogue with peers are a valuable source of information about what is really important.

“This year we observed that the best teachers share a common strength — their ability to establish a positive rapport with their students and support them with their mental wellbeing as well as their academic progress.

“This year’s winner, Hewitt Taylor, our runner-up Makeba Stowe and all of our outstanding finalists exemplify this quality — students feel welcomed and supported when they enter their classrooms. The response to our awards from the community in 2023 has been truly wonderful and inspires us to continue our mission of building a professional learning community for public schoolteachers.

“In 2023, we also witnessed the passion that teachers share for creating new and exciting experiences for their students.

“Mr Troy King’s dedication to creating an after school Coding and Engineering club for Berkeley Institute students is one example.

“Another bright spot of 2023 was the temporary move of Lyceum preschool to the Aquarium, which was caused by the Francis Patton facility renovations being delayed.

“Kudos to Sarah Brown, Ian Walker and their teams for making the most of this opportunity to create spaces for young children to play and learn in an environment that simultaneously promotes understanding about nature and the environment. It would be exciting if this kind of setting could be replicated in the new Parish Primary schools. Every primary could have its own foundation year and a dedicated community partner to create rich experiences like those that the Lyceum students have enjoyed this term.

“The best news our network could receive about next year would be that the parish school proposals are being paused with no more talk of school closures until the work on creation of foundation years and P7 and P8 classrooms and curriculum has been properly planned, delivered and evaluated.

“BEN wishes all of the island’s teachers a peaceful and happy Christmas and we look forward to continuing our work together in 2024.”