 I have no distractions, but there's no service here. Welcome once more to In Focus, the production of the Government Information Service, the National Television Network. We are coming to you live from our studios. We are happy that you are able to join us once more this Thursday, and we'll have a slight change in our format today as we've got a number of guests who are going to be part of our program. So first of all, I'd like to introduce my co-host once more, Lissa Joseph, and Lissa today. We have a very lovely, lovely Sheridan, so we know that we're going to go right into it and we welcome all our viewers, and again, an opportunity for you to welcome our first guest today. Absolutely. The second show for the second season, yeah, we're in a great role. We want to say good morning, and welcome to our studios to the beautiful, lovely Sheridan. Thank you. I always have to make sure it's not lovely, but if you have to include it. It's lovely. Yes. Sheridan, you're not a stranger to St. Lucian's, but of course, your work has had such an indelible impact on St. Lucian's children, and I think by them having to go home and talk to their parents about it, the message is definitely spreading, and not only are you in St. Lucian, but you're also taking these efforts across the Caribbean, so we're going to start from the very beginning. So lovely Sheridan is an author, but most importantly, what she wants to sort of champion is the Buddy Bench program. So she's an anti-bullying campaign, and for you, when did it all start for you to not just want to perhaps protect your own children or children within your tight space as a teacher, but extend this to children across the globe? Right. Good question. Again, good morning, and thank you for having me. It's such an honor to be here. I love coming here on Independence because the country's alive, it's so festive, and we get to share the message, to tine with the theme of togetherness and working together. For me, the mission for the anti-bullying campaign started through, I have taught in different countries around the world, and just observing within the school system, in and outside of schools, what was going on, and I kept thinking, you know what, we need to have a shift. A lot of times, we were responding to the bully with aggression. We were responding with anger and frustration, and especially when you're dealing with children, there's a root to that. You know, children, I don't believe they are bad children. I believe they are children who make bad choices, and a lot of time those bad choices stem from children being victims of bullying themselves, or going through something traumatic or something in their lives that often we don't know anything about, and they're sort of acting out and reaching out and seeking validation and attention and crying out for help, and so I was thinking, how can we change that, and so I wrote a book with a simple story on treating others the way you'd like to be treated. It's called Be a Buddy Not a Bully, and it's a self-published book, and on my own, I just started going into the schools and reading to the kids and talking to them about bullying, and I talked to the school district, and they loved the message, and over the years, I found that when I spoke on kindness and spoke to them about responding with kindness and being kind to others and looking out for others, including others, teachers started to say they love that, they love the message, and as you said, the kids go back and they start to talk about it, and so when I heard about the Buddy Bench, I said, wow, this is a great way to incorporate it with the message I'm trying to spread, so I tied in the Buddy Bench with the message in my book, and I was on the board for the Mental Health Association, and what we do is provide mental health support for children and adults in the community. And that's in Florida. That's in Florida, and so we're always creating workshops and campaigns on how to reach children, how to help them, and then this became such a great passion, I was working in corporate America, but then I said, you know what, this is something I need to be doing, you know, full-time, and so I just created a founded Buddy Ambassadors and created a program. I went, I proposed it to the Mental Health Association, and they loved it, and we started there. And you decided to come back home. Yes. And to help our... Absolutely, so I started doing it in the U.S., and of course, this is my home. I love St. Lucia, everybody who knows me knows this is... I'm tied in with everything St. Lucia, and so I just wanted to do it here. So I went to my dear friend Jonathan Gladden, who is another Lucian boy, you know the artist, but he's Lucian at heart, and I said, John, I have an idea, I have this bench, and he loved the concept, and he just quickly came on board, and he designed the full bench. And then of course, you know, just when I'm passionate about something, I'm like, let's do this, let's go, and he's busy, but he went ahead and did six more benches with the schools. And I just started, I went to friends and I told them about the idea, they loved the idea, they loved the concept, and we just started... I went to the ministry, I got an endorsement for the program, and they loved it and they supported it, and that's how it started. And with that, as you said, the children, I think, started sharing the message, the teachers started hearing about it, they loved the kindness thing, they started writing me and saying, listen, we need to... We need tools, we need, we love this, we need to provide children the tools that they need to help them, to be their best selves, to help them with their choices, to help them in decision, with their behaviors. And so they wanted that support, and they kept saying, can you come to my school? Can you come? And so I just tied it in, you know. So how does the buddy bench work? Okay, so the buddy bench is basically, it's not... I always go to the kids when I go and present to them, I say, it's not just any bench, it's a special bench. And I see the buddy bench as a metaphor for so many other things, right? And so, a lot of times children are out, they don't have a friend, they don't have anybody to talk to, and most kids are not going to say, oh, I miss, I don't have a friend. They just sort of feel alone and they feel left out. So I was looking for something tangible to put the message of being a buddy into practice. I was looking for something, you know, I go to them, I talk about being a friend, but how do we put it into practice? And so when I saw the bench, I said, this is perfect. So if a child needs a friend, you need somebody to talk to, they're feeling left out, they sit on the bench, the buddy bench, and a friend or somebody reach out to them and come and say, hey, they know that person needs a friend. So it's sort of like a signal to say, hey, I need a buddy, I need a friend. And it started, when we started, we started with it, we started to see that it was, well, children were actually using, especially the younger ones. You know, I love to reach them at that early age because this is the age where they sort of know... Now beginning to process. Process, yeah, they're like... Influence what they think in patterns. Exactly. And they really, they use it. And the younger we reach them, the better. You cannot wait when they're older. A lot of times it becomes a conduct issue and that's when you need the psychologists and psychiatrists and all these other things. But if we reach them at a very early age, we can see, we can shape and influence their behaviors in some way. And we could teach them what we're trying to teach in terms of empathy and compassion, instilling them. And so they start to practice that. So basically, if they need a friend, they sit on the bench and somebody comes out and reach out to them. And today you are launching the Buddy Ambassador Campaign and that's happening down at the Belvedere Combined School. So out of the Buddy Bench, we now have our Buddy Ambassadors. Yes, so what I did was I founded the Buddy Ambassadors organization and we create programs together with Mental Health America. We create programs and initiative to help with spread kindness and inclusion so we have activities. We award and recognize and honor boys and girls to exemplify what it means to be a Buddy. They are leaders, they stand up for others. And again, it's based on character. It's not based on grades. A lot of times children get rewarded for A's and B's or whatever grade that, and that's great. We want to encourage getting good grades, but we also want to remind children that it's an honor. It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. Character is important. I think that's something that is lacking into the... What's the point of achieving and being excelling and then you're not a nice person or you're not kind to others. You're not a good person. And so I said to them, you know, if we're talking about mental health in children, we really want to recognize the boys and girls who are exemplifying those behavior traits, characteristics and don't focus on the grades. And so we provide them with a certificate. They're a buddy ambassador. They get their buddy ambassador buttons. They get called up by the author and I did a presentation and they're proud. And in that way, they encourage the other boys and girls who are looking on because we keep coming back. At the end of every term, we come back and we award more certificates to the teachers and counselors at the school. We hold them accountable. We say, you know what? You have to earn it. If you like to be a buddy ambassador, you sort of have to show us through your actions and behaviors by where you treat others or through your kind acts. We'll be observing you throughout the term and we will reward you. So that's the buddy ambassador's component of it all. Okay, lovely. A quite interesting story that you've told us. I would like to know your early influence of, you know, you left St. Lucia at a very young age. Was there anything during that period, the transition between St. Lucia and Florida that really influenced you to go in this direction or was it merely you got the inspiration up in Florida and with the limited experience you had in St. Lucia that really mushroomed into what's happening today? Very good question. You know, when I look back at my life, I see how, so I love my country so much, so much of my culture of being here has influenced the work that I am doing and what I'm doing and the vision and the mission I have in terms of the change I would like to see. Growing up here was great, of course. It's a great culture, but in school I was also bullied. You know, I was bullied a lot and it influenced a lot of things about my behavior in terms of who I am in so many ways. And as I continued to grow, I see how that bullying impacted me and when I started to observe and see what's going on in schools, it reminded me, sort of like took me back to that and then I said, you know what? I want to be an advocate. I want to definitely be a voice now that I've really in full circle come to understand it, especially teaching in other countries and traveling, I travel quite extensively so when I travel and I observe certain things, I thought to myself, I want to in some way have an influence in my country on how we can unlearn some of the things we've learned and one of the things is that, for example, when I started with this concept of the body bench, people were like, in St. Lucia, what body bench, you know? How is that going to, you know? That bullying is a part of us, you know? Like we, you have to be tough, you know, that sort of, you know, but treating others unkind, you know, the way we communicate with each other, the way we treat each other, that should not be something that's part of our culture, the way we interact and even the way we deal with children. Some of those behaviors need to be changed and we need to unlearn some of that and so I thought, you know, especially with compassion, we are a society that really lacks compassion, more so than ever I've seen lately, it's really, we need to really work on being more empathetic and compassionate towards each other. But I think it's understanding what the concepts are because I would, many people say, but we are Christian society, so you rely on prayer and so if I'm praying, I'm a good person. But we are lacking the compassion that is supposed to be one of the core values of Christianity, so it's perhaps along the way we have sort of lost what those values are and it's all about being self-indulgent and everyone is, well, I have to look out for myself. And again, you spoke about being tough and it's the message that we tell our children, if he punches you, punch him back, that sort of thing. But how do you even begin to deal with some of these, because it's one thing to tell children, you ought not to yell at someone, don't hit, don't fight. But how do you now deal with the issues that may be perpetuating that sort of behavior in children? So I would think that's perhaps the sort of way behind the whole body of ambassadors. That is the vision and that is the mission and I was just having a discussion with the principal about this. I just went to her before I came here and she was telling me about a bullying incident that is happening at her school and she said to me, she's so happy that she has a counselor background because it really helps her in terms of how she approached and how she deals with it, very not familiar, not in the usual way that we deal with it over here. And she said, she realized that she had to respond with compassion, she had to find out, especially with the kids who are being the bully, what is going on? Why are they behaving in this way? And sometimes being so compassionate and trying to find the route, you get criticized for it and you get condemned because we are generally a very aggressive culture. If somebody, we hear an incident happen and we're like, yeah, you should do this and I'm going down in the school and the parents and everybody gets really angry but how does that solve the situation, okay? So when we talk about bullying, one thing I have to say is it's a community effort. You cannot just pinpoint one or two people and say, oh, this is the reason and that is the reason. There are so many layers to this and I would say the mission that I am on and I know it's going to take a very long time but again, we have to hold ourselves accountable and that starts with from leaders who's leading our nations, anybody in a position of leadership, we have the parents, the principals, the teachers, community members, everybody have to hold us accountable in terms of leading by example. What are these children seeing? How can we talk to children about something and that's why I have a workshop. I have a workshop with the Ministry of Education in creating a buddy culture in the school. So here am I talking to the kids and educating them about being a buddy but I have to also educate the teachers on and provide support to them on how you can help create that culture in school, how you could respond to children who are bullying and those who have been bullied. What can we do? And again, it stems from them leading by example, creating a culture of kindness, a zero tolerance policy at school. I know you all had recently had an incident at the St. Joseph Convent and I read a little bit about it and I know there was a lot of commotion when they took a stand for suspension for the young ladies and you know, when I said, you know, we need to, you know when we were little, when you did something and you were disciplined, it was very unusual that somebody steps in and say, you know, it's almost like you understand you did something bad and the community came together and said, yes. You know, you don't even want your parents to know because then they'll say thank you for telling me and then they will, together as a community, you know you'll get in trouble, you'll not get away with it. So when systems are put in place where people you put in position to do their jobs, when they do their jobs, you have to, as a parent, you have to allow them and you have to support them and through their suspension for a child, it's good for them to sit and reflect on their behavior even if they were not aware or any of this, but it's good for them. It's good for them. It's good for them because again, lovely, it's a reflection of how the society as a whole views bullying and what it is that we determine is bullying. Exactly, and that's another whole definition. This culture, it is different in terms of how we define bullying because as I said, when I came with the concept, everybody's saying, we just tease in, that's just a joke. Everything is a joke. I just joking with you, that's, you know, and if you are treating somebody, if somebody is being hurt, if they don't like it, if they are affected by it, it's not a joke, you know, they've been affected and we need to be mindful. And we see that it is a problem even at the highest level because we have people in leadership that have made jokes about people with disabilities or people who are in some, it's just almost like a custom to just say things, don't think, you know, that's not inappropriate. Online, you look at the thread and the conversation when people are talking to each other, they insulting each other, you have character assassination, all of those things are just the norm. So that's again, when we talk about unlearning those things that we have learned and really being educated on understanding that those things have, there are consequences to such behaviors. So it's really living conscious, living conscious and leading by example. We've got to take our first break in our program but we're certainly going to continue on that trend and we'll find out a bit more on the Putty Bench project. We'll be back on InFocus. What is money laundering? Money laundering is the concealment of the origins of illegally obtained money, typically by means of transfers involving financial institutions or legitimate businesses. There are three steps in the process of money laundering. One, placement. This is the movement of illegitimately obtained cash from its source into circulation through financial institutions. Two, layering. This is the act of concealing the source of that money using a series of complex transactions and bookkeeping tricks. Three, integration. This is the movement of previously laundered money into the economy, mainly through the financial institutions and thus such monies appear to be normal business earnings. What is terrorist financing? Terrorist financing provides funds for terrorist activity. It may involve funds raised from legitimate sources such as donations, profits from businesses and charitable organizations, as well as from criminal sources, such as the drug tree, the smuggling of weapons, fraud, kidnapping and extortion. There is an interrelation between terrorist financing and proliferation financing, which is the act of providing funds or financial services used in the acquisition, manufacture or transport of weapons of mass destruction. How does money laundering and terrorist financing affect St. Lucia? St. Lucia can lose its reputation and international credibility, more violent and organized crimes and corruption, penalties for the financial sector and loss of correspondent banking. St. Lucia will be evaluated in 2019 with respect to its money laundering and terrorist financing regimes. How can you help? Get involved. Learn about the threat that money laundering and terrorist financing pose to St. Lucia and cooperate with financial and non-financial institutions when information is requested. Money laundering and terrorist financing are crimes with penalties of up to $1 million and imprisonment of up to 10 years or both. A message brought to you by the National Anti-Money Laundering Oversight Committee and the Attorney General's Chambers. Thanks for staying with us. You're reminding you that you're on InFocus. We are also live on WVENT 93.5 and later in our program. You can call us on 4682162. You're reminding you that we have our institute of guests at this time, lovely Sheridan and she's speaking on the body bench. The very illustrious Pam Beach Illustrated Educator of the Year. Well, tell us a bit more about it. We're sure that a lot of it would have been about your authorship and your advocacy and the whole bullying aspect within schools. Have you also in Florida gone outside of schools? We know you're in a project here. And what's the prospect of you going outside of the school system? Because even if in the Public Service of St. Lucia, they've had this drive as well within the workplace to make it a way that some of it still happens. What's the prospect of that happening? And tell us a bit more about the prestigious award that you received. Okay, so the first part of the question is the Pam Beach Illustrated Educator of the Year Award. What an honor. I was so thrilled to receive that because it was for innovation in education and it's not basically in the classroom, but if you come up with a program that is different and is impactful, so it has to be measured. And as I said, I was doing this for a couple of years and they saw the shift in terms of what I was trying to, what I'm trying to create in terms of spreading the culture of kindness and inclusion, which is desperately needed, especially in the United States with all the divide right now, and raising awareness on mental health in children. And so the teachers, the educators really spoke out and said how impactful it has been. And again, the impact of the program has to do with the principals and educators and teachers, everybody working together to help spread the message. I'm planting a seed, I am introducing it, but everybody have to work with me and they saw that when they worked together with me, they were seeing measurable impact. So that's what it was measured by. So it was a huge honor because I was definitely in the midst of some great educators, so that's good. So in terms of, there was a second part to the question, overhead to extend it beyond the classroom, yes. This is a, it's a big issue, especially in the workplace. And a lot of people have reached out to me outside and said, when are you gonna introduce this into the workplace? And my organization, I just founded it a year ago, a little over a year. So we are just starting, I'm just starting to build and grow and sing and that's definitely an area I would like to explore, especially tied into mental health awareness in St. Lucia. It's something that is needed. But I need, we need the support of leaders, of organizations, of working together. We like, I like the theme on together, but together we can achieve great things. So we need the support of other organizations to come together to have a campaign on those issues, you know? And see how, how taking action on this makes for a better society. Society, absolutely. So it ties into the aspects of violence and crime. Crime, mental health, all of those things. All the social issues that we are facing, it all ties in together. And we have to make it a priority. This is not an option. If we don't, if we don't make it a priority, we will see that the society will continue to decay, you know, and then what are we going to do? Keep building big, big, big fences and just live like prisoners. Live in prisons, wanting more police officers. Officers, that's not our, it's a domino effect. And that's not our country. That's not what we want for our beautiful St. Lucia. And so we have to put those systems in place. And I'm just happy for the support I've been receiving so far, it's been great with the community. I think, you know, as I was about to tell you, I was just telling you, we have 27 benches right now. I'm placing six more. And my goal is 41 by the end of the year to collaborate with the 41 year anniversary. But it shows what we can achieve when we work together. Because not just me, we have community, organization, community members all coming together. In the private sector as well. In the private and public sector, coming together to spread this message of kindness. And if we work together and we spread this message, we can achieve so much. And I want to see that extend beyond the classroom, outside of the classroom, in the workplace, understanding, really educating the public on what bullying, as you say, really finding what is bullying and how are we contributing to this vicious cycle? Because there are so many people who are contributing to it and they're not aware. Now you keep mentioning mental health. How does that factor into that? Because someone will believe, okay, well, bullying someone, taking advantage of a stronger, weaker person. So where does mental health fit into this? When you look at research and statistically, it has been proven that a lot of the problems that face in society, it stems from some form of bullying. And it trickles down into so many other things. For example, trauma. People underestimate what is trauma and how it affects somebody. So somebody might be bullying you and calling you names or being mean to you or abusing you in some way. And if you think this is just the norm, you just go about life, this is, they're not understanding how this is, this form of trauma is impacting that person's mental health, their mental space. Later on you see that person could suffer from depression, have all sorts of mental health issues, some of them chronicle. And it could start from just these behaviors in terms of that form of abuse, but not knowing that it's abuse. Working in a toxic environment, living in a toxic environment, it does have a very big impact on our mental health. And so definitely the two is tied in. I remember speaking with some educators and they're talking about how angry our children are. And so that within itself, it sort of contributes to bullying. The children have all sorts of behavior, problems. In the classroom can't settle, they can't. So teachers complain about more than half the time in the classroom is spent in trying to settle the students and you're not really having that exchange of teaching and learning happening. So we can see how the program within itself is it's more than just a concept of let's just say, spread love and people to sort of dismiss it, but it really speaks to the sort of future or maybe not even the future, the sort of now that we have. The awareness is definitely needed. The awareness is needed. We need to go to the roots, stop dealing with it from the branches. We sort of like sweep these things and I think it's just going to go away. And we see now more than ever the cases with bullying and a lot of things are not even being spoke about in the open. They have a lot of principles are frustrated and they need the tools, the teachers. There's a lot happening behind the scenes. And if we don't address it, as you said, we're gonna have to build bigger prisons. The boys training center will not be big enough. And that's just not what we want for our society. So we have to raise awareness on this, on the issues of bullying. It's lovely. Any final words, you know, that you've got to get on your assignment this morning. You're heading straight down to the Bellevue Combined School and the closing remarks and maybe even before that, I know that you will, you said that your organization is just fragile and I just like to know if you've had anything in place looking at monitoring and evaluating to know how successful you are. Right. And maybe some of the feedback you're getting. That's what I want to work on. And that's why I now really start working with the Ministry of Education and seeing what we can do moving forward. Because I launched the campaign, I just started going to the schools and I'm always here for a very short time. I'm based in the United States. So now I think because they realize that there is a need for this, we need to pay attention to this, I think we're going to be heading in that direction. So I'm very excited about that. So we could measure and we could see how impactful it can be. Last thoughts is, you know, as a society, as we celebrate 41 years of independence with the theme, let's do this together. I just want to encourage the illusions and all of us to really be mindful of our words and actions and how we treat each other and whether it's online in person, these things do affect other people. So everybody's going through something. And so let's truly work together. Let's be kind and let's work. Say kind things. Yes. About someone when they're not in a room. Exactly. Be mindful. Be mindful. And some of the behavior that, a lot of us, we know that it is wrong. And just because everybody else does, it doesn't mean that it's right, you know? And so we can learn some of the things that we've learned and let's work towards truly creating a body culture and we can only achieve that together. And that's what it means to work in together. It's truly not with words, but with action. All in. All in. In your 20 seconds, I know that you and Ryan go way back. Oh yeah, nice. Ryan, you are very proud to see that lovely day. Yes, definitely. Definitely. Blossomed into this very productive person, yes. For sure. From when my dad didn't know that she had all that talent, but it was too young to know that. But it's good to see that she's really done that and has come out to contribute to Ireland. Like to say all the best to her dad and her mom. Thank you. I'm sure they're supporting her as well. My mom told me to tell you hello and you said that my dad used to make your suits, tailor your suits. So I want to say shout out to my dad. And yeah, I remember listening to him on, this is an icon here, so you listen to him on the radio and the sports, everybody knows you. So it's an honor and it's good to be sitting here with you today. Thank you. Well, safe journey to the Bellevue Combine and all the other schools that you're gonna be having your body benches set up. And we're happy that you're able to come back to Central once more and continue on this program. We're on in focus. We'd like to say thanks to lovely Sheridan for being part of our first segment this morning. We'll be back on in focus. Ooh. Great job, guys. Nice. Thank you. So what about yours? It's a fast food. I'm gonna find a little bit of Bobo on the menu. I'm gonna ask you something. You want to know Bobo too? That's an opinion for you. Let's start and talk about new business. Huh? Yes sir. Let's see the two of you all. You see the two of you all? Yes. Just leave me alone. Really? Hey, hey, Bruce. Yes, yes, Bruce. What's all that aggression about? Do you want it again? So I've been dealing with a lot lately on my mind. I've worked everything just about 100% You know what? What about if I sign you up with the EAP? EAP. Yes, the Employee Assistance Program. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I remember, I remember. Yes, that would be great. That would be great. Can I come into my office with you? Sure, no problem. Hi, good afternoon, Chris. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Employee Assistance Program. I just came to say thank you for recommending me for the EAP session that I did. The sixth session, it was really, really helpful. Sure, I'm really happy that you've got this opinion. Yes, thank you. Go on and have a nice day. You also. Thank you. Hey, morning, Crystal. I just came to apologize for my reaction the other day. Yes, yes, I did come to apologize and I do hope that you have accepted my apology. It's okay, stuff happens. Thanks, you have a nice day, okay? Thanks, sir. Wow, you changed them. If you believe that you are victim of bullying or you are the bully, then seek help. Seek counseling. Call the EAP at 4...