Families in Action

Families in Action (FIA) will celebrate their 30th anniversary today with activities and 30 charitable programmes over the next year.

Chief executive officer Dionne Guischard told Sunday Newsday celebrations will begin today for the supporters of FIA at All Saints parish hall in Port of Spain, and will continue until April 2019.

FIA already provides programmes and services free of charge or at an affordable cost, addressing many of the social ills facing our society by strengthening individuals and their families. These include addiction support, youth education, confident parenting, as well as a 24-hour help line and counselling.

Guischard said the NGO would be using the year to give back to TT through an initiative called 30 for 30. This would involve free workshops across the country available to the general public.

One of these would be a series of 30-minute youth education sessions at a number of schools across the country based on what the schools administrators said needed to be addressed. There would also be a Front Office Outreach where representatives of FIA travel around the country to give people information about social issues, especially addiction. Their EAP division would also provide 30 articles on general health and wellness on the FIA website, and sessions to non-client companies.

In addition, there would be an appreciation day for clients and core partners, the annual Christmas distribution of grocery hampers for families in need, and several fundraisers including their first raffle which will be drawn in May or June, and their third Families Who Can Cook event in October.

“We survived this long because we had visionaries at the helm who played an integral role in getting this NGO off the ground. And our founder, Ivis Gibson, surrounded herself with people who had the same kind of commitment to alleviating the social ills in TT.”

For example, she said a number of programmes were developed for the FIA and given to the organisation, such as their peer helping and parents in education programmes.

Guischard said their employee assistance programme (EAP) also helped sustain the work they set out to do as they received income from servicing companies. “We are in an economic downturn and the first sector to suffer is usually the social sector, but our EAP is really helping us through.”

She said they also developed partnerships over the years and many of these sponsors remained constant, even if the amount of money they contributed fluctuated. Lastly, she said the team at FIA believed in Gibson’s vision and was committed to it, going beyond what was expected of them. Gibson passed away in 2011 at age 80.

She explained that the FIA was started in 1988 as a centre to deal with addiction. She said addiction did not only affect the addict but their families, friendships and jobs as well. Therefore, their programmes were aimed at all members of the family and aspects of their lives including children, parents, the workplace and the community.

“Our main mandate has always been to help and we have stayed true to that while being mindful of our finances... so our core services are still there but they have expanded over the years and evolved to suit the changing needs of our society.”

For example, she said in 2004 the FIA added a domestic violence programme. The school youth education programmes used to be focussed on leadership but now they were more about life skills and aimed at students who were “at risk.” And while the addiction support group started with volunteers, it was now more professional in its delivery.

Despite all the good the FIA has done over the past 30 years, its activities have been limited by finances restraints. Guischard said it prevented them from attracting and retaining professional, qualified staff.

“It also restricts us, to some degree, from doing the charitable work of the organisation to the extent that we would want to. Our dream is to touch every citizen of Trinidad and Tobago in an impactful manner but our funding does not allow us to do that.”

However she said the members of staff learned to be creative so they could still have a great impact on society.