As a youngster growing up in Greenhill Village, Diego Martin, the Boys Reformatory was the imposing looking building on the Main Road just between Crystal Stream and Sierra Leone. This was the place that young boys who did not behave according to the norms of society were sent to live. Sometime later on the name changed to the Industrial School For Boys. To-day, not as imposing looking, and under restoration since it was destroyed by fire, it is now the St Michael's Home For Boys.
However, its purpose remains the same, a home for youngsters aged ten to 18 who are sent there by the Court because in most instances there is no-one willing or able to take care of them and they have committed non-status offences, which the new manager, Alison Salandy explains in easy terms: "if an adult is out at 1 a.m. the police will not ask them what are you doing out here at that hour, but one of my sons (once they are here legally I am their guardian) will be asked what they are doing out at that hour of the morning and for them it is an offence."
Throughout the interview with Alison, who was appointed manager in February 2001, constant interruptions by one of her boys or sons as she calls them, showed the great bond which exists between this woman who is to all intents and purposes their mother for the time that they will spend at the Home. A woman who has "worked with children all my life" and is a trained teacher "that is my first profession."
After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management with History at the University of The West Indies, St Augustine, she taught first at Providence Girls Secondary, later completed the Social Work programme at Mona Campus in Jamaica, and was Assistant Director at El Dorado Girls Youth Camp before coming to St Michael's 11 years ago as Deputy Manager. Having worked with this age group all her life, she knows that "no two days are the same, sometimes no two moments are the same but I don't think I can do desk work pushing paper, once you work with kids that's it."
The youngsters must not be younger than ten and not older than 15 when they come in to St Michael's. "Once you are 16 you are sent to the Youth Training Centre, but once committed here you stay with us until 18. By and large the bulk of the 125 boys on roll are not there for criminal offences, it is more a case that there is no one willing to take care of them: "they are living with Granny who can no longer control them so in truth and in fact have not committed a crime as such." The Home is still on vacation and those who have been committed by a magistrate to stay until they are 18 are allowed to go home for vacation "so we try to be in touch with a mother and ensure home is pretty safe for them to go back to" says this dedicated woman. "Those whom the magistrate have remanded, pending a probation officer's report, must have the magistrate's permission to go home."
Alison has given herself three years to turn St Michael's around: "we need to get on the cutting edge of technology, communicating with Juvenille Justice Centres abroad with monthly newsletters so that we know what is happening in the business." So not only is there a lot of physical work taking place on site, but Alison is restructuring the way in which the Home is run so that in the very near future, her boys will be like boys everywhere else, normal and healthy, getting into some mischief like sons at home will do.
To this end a Primary School on the premises serves only "our boys, some go to Diego Martin Junior Secondary after the Common Entrance, while others may go on to Senior Secondary. There are boys already attending special classes outside, such as the Trinzuela College; a skills training programme for slow learners takes some students to the Goodwill Industries Trade School, while others are at the Association for Developmental Education in Petit Valley."
"The most important rehabilitation tool" says Alison "is sports" which if I am to judge from the massive cupboard crammed with trophies, obviously plays a very big part in the Home's programmes. "Boxing, football- we are the best in the west, cricket, athletics -one of our ex boys represented this country in Australia last year at the Olympics, we have had boys represent the country in boxing while still at school, table tennis, even the odd scrabble competition."
The decision to rebuild St Michael's, in phases, started when the primary school went up. The second phase of the dining hall , multi purpose hall and kitchen is now finished and will be handed over in about three weeks. The third phase of the trade shops and basketball court started about three weeks ago are expected to take ten to twelve weeks.
With the help of her 45 member staff who take care of the children on a round the clock basis, Alison is in the middle of what she calls "a special programme that is preparing those boys for when school resumes in September." Why the introduction of a special programme at this point? Because Alison has seen in her six months as manager, St Michael's move from its neighbours being very angry at having the Home in their midst to wanting to assist in whichever way they can.
"Just as we say it takes a community to raise a child so too I feel I need this community to help me raise these children" says a determined Alison. "It is my intent to turn St Michael's into an organisation that a boy will feel privileged to be a part of, remember we still have the stigma. Therefore, society will respect, admire and support us so that my vision to be a model Juvenille Justice Centre for the Caribbean will be fulfilled."
To this end , Alison got the board to agree to the use of different resource groups. Personnel which include the religious component under Father Ronald Branche are dealing with the spiritual aspect; personnel from the Ministry are doing the social aspect. "Last week Wednesday they came in and did table manners for my boys. We prepared a three course meal for them and my boys learned to eat with knives and forks, with members of staff between them working with them showing the correct way to use knives and forks. By Friday, they had as their guests young boys and girls from the Guapo Police Youth to lunch and my boys were fantastic. They had a chance to use their knives, forks and entertained in ways that made me very proud, with all levels of staff working together serving the boys while they entertained their guests."
The other part of Alison's programme includes the clean up aspect and physical aspect in which army personnel are involved "because we know you must have a healthy environment, such as, clean dorms, while the physical thing cannot be just physical exercise but sports clinics, outings, hikes, nature trails. All these with discipline. My boys have now learned that there is value in working hard and being rewarded after. I see my boys working hard but saying Miss I am enjoying it."
There were some minor hiccups during the first two days of the physical/clean up part of the programme as trying to wake teenagers early on a morning to get set programmes underway is a very difficult thing. There were late starts due to insufficient clothing, late meals, certain boys not accustomed to being given instructions far less to follow them, and protesting. These problems had to be dealt with if the programme was to be problem-free. Management was consulted and within two to three days the programme was running smoothly and the boys understood that this programme was to their benefit. Alison is using this period until school reopens to instil new habits such as early rising followed by a physical exercise programme to prepare a young man mentally and physically for the day ahead, and she sees that it is working because it is the second week of the programme with no further problems.
In general, says Alison, who is determined to succeed "I have to look at St Michael's prime function of behaviour modification followed with providing bread and butter skills so that when he returns to society he not only gets a job but is able to keep that job. We honestly feel a child who comes in to us must not be the same child who leaves, we must be able to monitor his progress or deterioration along the way and must know if it is working or not so we can do something about it if he is not progressing, if we are to provide him with a bread and butter skill. And because our society is one that still asks for a paper, he must have some kind of certification so we are attached to the National Training Agency and they are assisting us in putting our training programme in place that allows for certification on completion."
I wish Alison, her staff and "sons" every success in the future and would ask of my own volition, any individual who can provide any kind of help for the Home's benefit, to please contact Alison Salandy at 637-7886.