A new social programme aimed at the reduction of poverty will be launched within a few months time.
Minister of Social Care, Steve Blackett announced today that the Identification Stabilisation Enablement Empowerment (ISEE) Bridge project will begin with 30 households.
“The pilot ISEE Bridge project is aimed at reducing the scourge of intergenerational poverty in Barbados. It will apply a new approach buttressed by strong psycho-social input by social workers along the lines of the Chilean Model,” he said.
Blackett was speaking during an OAS Caribbean conference on horizontal technical co-operation in social protection in the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St Michael. He explained the bridge programme was an amalgamation of the existing ISEE project and a Chile based Puente programme.
Permanent secretary Sonja Welch said the Puente programme successfully reached the “poorest of the poor” by engaging them in helping themselves. “It has elements we can adapt to our model so this conference is to discuss with other countries which have already modified the Puente programme,” she said.
