Projects Social Improvement
3 min.
Known as the “Unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean”, the island of Saba in the Caribbean Netherlands is a tiny paradise in the middle of Caribbean Sea and home to about 2,000 permanent residents. Boasting exquisite natural beauty both above and below sea level, Saba offers nature, warmth, and tranquility in a setting largely untouched by the modern world. While this makes it a wonderful place to be and a memorable destination for tourists, its small size and remote location also results in a few considerable challenges, one of the major ones being stable employment for the people of Saba. The Saba Reach Foundation, which was formerly called the Foundation Social Workplace Saba, recognized this particular challenge back in 2007 already and has been working tirelessly ever since to improve the situation.
Saba Reach Foundation
As we mentioned just above, the Saba Reach Foundation was established as the Foundation Social Workplace Saba back in 2007 by the Island Government of Saba. This foundation is a non-profit organization aimed at facilitating sustainable employment and participation opportunities for adult residents of Saba who are being held back by a distance to the labor market. It is important to know that, in this context, “distance to the labor market” is not a literal distance (for example, in kilometers or miles), but a figurative distance to the labor market. It refers to the number of barriers that exist when it comes to unemployed people attempting to enter the labor market. These barriers can range from insufficient education and a lack of information to the absence of opportunities and the impact of a mental or physical disability. The more abundant and higher the barriers for a person, the larger the distance to the labor market for him or her.
The Saba Reach Foundation was set up by the local authorities to educate, train and upgrade the skills and knowledge of the people of Saba. The goal is to increase and improve the number of skilled professionals on the island to be employed locally, regionally and internationally. On both the short and the long term, this should lead to a healthier and more self-sustainable local economy. The organization supports Saban adults by helping them accumulate experience in key subject areas, like agriculture, entrepreneurship, and civil functions, while also working on their interpersonal skills. Like that, the island’s workforce should step by step improve its capacity to adapt to constant social and economic change, despite the remote location of their miniature paradise island.
Three major functions
When the foundation was established, its role was to support the execution of the Social Workplace. This is a program focused on finding and creating employment opportunities for people who are facing social and/or psychological barriers when it comes to finding stable employment. At the same time, the Saba Reach Foundation was tasked with implementing the Sociale Kanstrajecten Jongeren (which translates into English as “Youth Opportunity Path program”), a special market training program for local students without a high school diploma or start qualification.
Finally, the organization also runs the Adult Continuing Education (ACE) program. As the name suggests, this program is aimed at adult residents of Saba looking to keep learning in order to benefit as much as possible from available local, regional and international employment opportunities. It offers professional courses and training for all interested adults on the island who are having trouble overcoming their particular distance to the labor market by themselves.
The Saba Reach Foundation is located at the Eugenius Johnson Center in Windwardside (pictured above this article). You can get in touch with them via social media (Facebook and Instagram). You are also more than welcome to get in touch with us at Future Islands here for references and more information.
