| The 2007 Hedge Funds Care grant recipients have been selected. |
After an intensive grant selection process, Hedge Funds Care has distributed $145,054 to support local projects designed to treat and prevent child abuse and neglect in the Cayman Islands.
The grantees are: The Nadine Andreas Foster Home (operated by the NCVO); the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre; St. Ignatius for an abuse identification training programme entitled "Protecting God's Children"; and the Department of Children and Family Services.
"The grant selection process is purposely lengthy and thorough", explained committee co-chair Peter Cockhill. "There is a careful screening process where the committee conducts site visits and requests that the potential grantees present the details of their proposals. This is an exceptionally important part of the overall process because Hedge Funds Care is committed to ensuring that the donations made by the companies and individuals in good faith are going to be supporting projects that will benefit the children of the Cayman Islands, by directly addressing the issues of child abuse and neglect".
The process began with a media campaign targeted to the wider community. Advertisements requesting proposals were run in the local media; there were appearances on CITN's DayBreak; press releases issued to the media; appearances on local radio stations including the lunch hour spot on Radio Cayman and KISS FM.
Once the proposals were received from the various agencies, the Hedge Funds Care team including the HFC Executive Director in New York, Doris Schwartz and Dr. Bart Grossman, professor of social work at the University of California at Berkeley, assist the agencies with making sure that their projects are on target with the Hedge Funds Care mission to treat and eradicate child abuse and neglect. The committee then met with each of the representative organisations, usually at their facilities, meeting with as many of the people involved in each project as was feasible.
"This was a fascinating exercise for me and all of my colleagues on the committee", stated co-chair Colleen Montain. "We were able to see first hand a side of Cayman's social network that some of us had not previously been exposed to. The issue of abuse, especially when it comes to children is horrifying, but seeing the treatment centres and the places of refuge that are all at capacity, really brought home the message that there is a need as great in Cayman as anywhere else in the world for caring people to be involved, and funds to make their efforts materialise".
The Hedge Funds Care committee was able to host a morning meeting attended by almost every representative organisation in Cayman that touches upon the issue of child abuse and neglect in the Cayman Islands. The organisations represented included: The Department of Children and Family Services; the CAYS Foundation; the NCVO; the Family Services Unit of the RCIP; Big Brothers Big Sisters; the Health Services Authority; the National Youth Council and the UK representative from the Child Protection Programme in the British Overseas Territories.
"This meeting played a vital role in assisting the committee with making their grant decisions", stated Peter Cockhill. "It was through this meeting that the committee was able to get a solid understanding on where Cayman is in terms of the development of an infrastructure that supports the victims of child abuse. It was overwhelming to see the passion and commitment on behalf of all of those people who work in the field and to see that there was no shortage of ideas on how best to tackle this very delicate issue."
The important result of the meeting was a shared knowledge from both the agencies in the field and the donors of funds that there are a number of ideas as to how to make most effective use of the funds, but that a clear strategy had yet to be finalised.
A representative from the UK government who has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the standards of the UN Charter for Children are being met in all the British Overseas Territories, has submitted a report and an accompanying action plan to the Cayman Government. This report, which has identified a number of initiatives that could be part of the plan for the Cayman Islands in the near future, is currently under review by government. Hedge Funds Care Cayman is liaising closely with the Governor's Office, the Cabinet Office and non-governmental organisations to ensure that additional funds which it has to distribute can address needs identified in the action plan.
"Hedge Funds Care (Cayman) is extremely proud of its success in being able to raise the amount of money that we did last year and we are very keen to see this money begin to make a dramatic difference in the lives of Cayman's affected children. We feel that we have a responsibility to the donors as well as to the children to ensure that the money is spent in the areas in which it will have the most long-term impact", stated Montain.
The Hedge Funds Care Grant Selection Committee comprises: Colleen Montain of UBS (co-chair), Peter Cockhill of Ogier (co-chair), Glen Wigney, Denise Gower also of Ogier (secretary), William Walmsley of Rawlinson-Hunter, Patrick Agemian of Citco, Lindburgh Martin of Close Brothers, Tim Ridley of CIMA, Doris Schwartz and Dr. Bart Grossman.
The Hedge Funds Care mission is built upon the understanding that there are several factors that contribute to the incidence of child abuse and maltreatment today. Substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence, prior victimisation, and poverty (linked with underemployment or lack of access to employment) are some of the factors that cause family strain and can put children at risk. HFCC is committed to funding activities that strengthen vulnerable families, build community resources for at risk families, preserve the integrity of the family without jeopardising child safety, enhance permanency planning, improve foster care and adoption, and provide clinical treatment to victims as well as support to non-offending family members. Hedge Funds Care Cayman is also committed to enhancing gen eral awareness within the community and increasing the awareness of children to the problem of abuse in order to facilitate disclosure and break the cycle.