OVER the years, the Sunshine League has become a home away from home for hundreds of Bermudian children. And while some might see these children as victims, executive director of the Sunshine League, Denise Carey sees them as survivors and only because she can relate to them through her own life experiences. Ms Carey met with the Mid-Ocean News’ Tricia Walters and Glenn Tucker this week to talk about the events 28 years ago that changed her life and ultimately brought her to the Sunshine League.Q: How did you end up at the Sunshine League?

A: I had no intention of working with children, specifically. When I went to college I wanted to work with offenders. I studied criminal justice and my dream job was working with the Department of Corrections and that’s where I intended to end up.

I came home and worked at Brangman Home and at the Department of Child and Family services where I met Alfred Maybury of Probation Services. He saw something in me that I did not want to see — or refused to see or accept — and mentored me in working with young offenders.

He was really focused that this is where I should be and that’s where my skills lay. Over the years of working with him he very casually kept assigning me more and more young offenders and before I knew it, that was all I was entrenched it and I loved every minute of it.

>Q:<$> Why did you chose a career working with offenders?

A: When I attended Paget Primary, we (students) used to walk almost the length of Ord Road after school to get home. We left in clusters of two or three.

There was a young lady I used to walk with. Her name was Connie Furtado and this particular evening I asked if she wanted me to walk her all the way home. She walked further than me. She said “No, no” and this was the first time I had offered to walk her all the way home.

A couple of hours later the police came knocking on the door. They could not find her and she was raped and killed that night. That was the determining factor of why I am where I am today and why I wanted to work with offenders and work with this particular population.

It was huge for me because she could have said “Yes, walk with me” — or it could have been me walking home alone. It changed me because it was an indication to me that I was supposed to contribute and help make a difference in somebody’s life.

I didn’t start talking about it until I was about 18 or 19. Even my family didn’t realise how traumatic that was for me.

A few years later my father calls me a couple of days before Christmas and he says “Hey, I’m going away, I’ll see you when I get back”, but he never came back. (pause) That was three years after the incident with Connie.

He came to visit a few years later, but as a child to have those very significant things happen so close together... it helps me work with these children. I can relate to what they’re going through and that’s another reason I don’t see them as victims but survivors. I feel that despite what I went through, I survived and I’m a better person having gone through it.

Q: How long have you been with the Sunshine League?

A: I’ve been here for a year and two months. I decided a year before I left court services that I was going to leave and would actively start researching where else I wanted to go.

When they advertised this post, I kept it on my nightstand until the night it was due. Everything told me not to do it, but I just decided to bite the bullet. It seemed like a huge challenge and I was like, “Who else would want to do something like that?”

I get bored very easily and I was worried that I would move and would not like it, but I love it. I absolutely love it!B>Q: What is the most satisfying part about being at the Sunshine League?

A: The children are fabulous, the staff are fabulous and the community has been wonderful! It’s been a big move from working with offenders where it felt like the community didn’t support your efforts. People weren’t as motivated to assist, but being here at the Sunshine League, I find that people are always willing to help, the phone is always ringing and they are asking what they can do to help and that’s an experience I’d not had in the ten years I’ve been back in Bermuda.

The staff have been very supportive. We have a range of people from just coming home from school with limited experience and who want to develop their experience, to people who have worked for years and wanted a change; to teachers who want to be here part-time and people are here for different reasons, but they are all very driven and that motivates you to do your best.

For me personally, I’m a single mother and working with these children who just happen to be in the same age group as my son Jordan is very exciting for me. I can literally take my work home and bounce ideas off him. He feels that he is a part of my job.

When I was a probation officer, I couldn’t expose any of it to him and talk to him about it at all, but here he gets the opportunity to participate in fundraising and walks and he gets to be actively involved and that’s the greatest benefit for me.

When I decided to apply for this job, we sat down and had a long talk about how he would cope with watching me show affection to other children and how he would deal with that. This was a process of deciding to come here because it’s life changing. It’s not a nine to five job, it becomes your life. But it’s been great!

What are some of the challenges?

A: Funding. People have a misconception that Government pays for everything. But they don’t! They provide us with one third and the rest is fundraising. That’s a constant battle, especially keeping the community aware of what we do here outside of Christmas time.

People sometimes forget that between February and November we’re here and we still need things. Another challenge is keeping staff trained and up to date on interventions in working with children in crisis, it’s ongoing because we have a limited budget. Also getting foster parents involved and making others aware of the need for foster care. I think that there is a shortage of foster parents. Some people see foster care as a long term commitment, but the department utilises foster parents for emergency placement, so they may need an overnight or weekend placement. That’s something I would love the community to become more aware of. Either single parents, retirees, couples who don’t have children and want to give back in that way can get involved.

Q: Any big changes planned for this year?

A: We put in an application for accreditation as a Group Living<\p>Service from the Bermuda National<\p>Standards Committee in January, which is by far my biggest project I’ve ever embarked on, so, this year is going to be a very busy year for us to make sure the entire programme meets Best Practice Standard

Q:<$> How is the accreditation going to benefit the Sunshine League?

A: It’s going to benefit the staff and residents and the community. For staff, it will ensure that everything is in place for them to be most effective and supply quality care for the children, so that holds me accountable as director to make sure all the resources they have are there and everything is working.

For the children, it ensures that all of their rights are met, they receive best quality service from us in a timely fashion, whether it’s working with their families, Child and Family Services, or meeting their health care needs. It benefits them 100 per cent.

For the community, hopefully it will demonstrate to them that if they are donating money to us, they will get value for their dollar and that we are being held accountable for the money we receive and put it where we say we’re putting it. It will also ensure the service we are providing is a quality service.

Q:<$> What about future plans for the facility?

A: I would love to see us build a two-bedroom cottage on the back of the property as a transition home for a single mother or father who is having difficulty either in employment or accommodation. So that the child can make the transition from the League into a back cottage with their parent for a year, or a year-and-a-half and allow that family to get some stability and get some life training skills.

Eventually they will make the transition off the property. I would also to see a scholarship at the Bermuda College for former residents of the Sunshine League, no matter what length of time they were here. I want them to know when they turn 18 and they have been working hard, that that will be there for them.

>Q:<$> Doesn’t it break your heart so see when children don’t get what they deserve?

A: It’s very difficult to watch a child get discharged from the League and see the looks on the remaining residents’ faces as that child is walking out the door. You know in the back of your mind they’re thinking “Why hasn’t someone come to get me?” They don’t understand at all. Even if you sit down and explain to them the circumstances. Some of the parents and grandparents have very valid reasons why they are unable to take care for these children, but no reason is ever good enough.B>Q:<$> How do you distance yourself emotionally from that?

A: It’s just years of experience and knowing that they are going to be stronger having gone through this. I don’t see them as victims at all, they are all survivors. Every human being has gone through a traumatic experience at some point in time and it’s what has been there to support them and help them get through that has made them a positive and contributing individual and I see that in them. They will have so much to offer when they’re adults because they have been through so much.

Hopefully they will be wonderful parents. We sit down and talk about where they will be in their 20s and 30s and I say to them to remember what they have been through, and remember when they are parents to think about what type of parents they want to be. That honestly motivates me to continue in this profession and help them keep their heads up.