Brenda Thomas-Odlum of Antigua-Barbuda sees Coady’s Leadership Development diploma program as a strong tool for helping her improve on her leadership skills working for the Antiguan-Barbudan government. (Debbie Johnson photo)

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um sometimes has to show people where she is from on a map. A tiny Caribbean island with a smaller sister island Barbuda, Antigua depends primarily on tourism to support its economy.
Thomas-Odlum is attending the 19 week long community leadership development program at the Coady at St. F. X. and works for the Ministry of Health, Social Transformation and Consumer Affairs for the Antiguan-Barbudan government in the division of social transformation.
As director of community development within her department she found out about the Coady program via a departmental communication asking if she might be interested in upgrading her skills at a course offered in Canada. She had to put off attending the course at the Coady as her department had just started a new program and another junior officer in her division attended instead.
“I got very good reports back from her, she said it was safe and very applicable…and a beautiful place, but didn’t say much more as she wanted me to have my own experience,” Thomas-Odlum said.
She didn’t tell Thomas-Odlum about the cold temperatures but she mentioned the need for some extra layers of clothes given Antiguan temperatures are tropical. She read about the program and in turn found out that the Antiguan-Barbudan prime minister had come to the Coady 40 years ago and returned to St. F. X. for the Coady’s 50th anniversary.
“He pledged that he would leave a legacy so to speak to give back to the institution because it has molded him into what he is today as a successful prime minister in the Caribbean,” she said.
He established five scholarships for students who would be, or have been working on development on the island. She is the second recipient of the scholarship. She is very grateful to be part of this scholarship program and without it wouldn’t have the exposure. Thomas-Odlum noted that it will improve her leadership skills and having attended similar courses 15 years ago, she sees now how things have changed.
“Things now become more complex and you need to update your skills in order to be relevant…this course is exactly what I need,” she said, noting the leadership and communication components.
She said as a social worker it is part of her job to help transform life for individuals, families and communities. The economy is the biggest challenge for Antigua, though there are some social problems. The government has had to cut its budget recently resulting in her department having to become more creative with the way they work with less money.
“Most of the money goes to healthcare in our ministry and with the social transformation component we work closely with non-governmental organizations (NGOs)…and they have been able to assist us to offset program costs,” she said.
There is an aging population on the islands along with a number of residents who are over the age of 100.
“We also have differently-abled persons who fall into our scheme of things that we have to arrange programs for and have a population of migrants from Spanish speaking countries where there are some social issues,” she said. “We have pockets of poverty on the island, mostly with people who move here.”
Tourism is the island’s main industry and when the season is peak, people are very happy she said. When there is a hurricane it can take the island several months to get back in shape and for small businesses they can be devastated.
The other social issue occurring involves the deportation of Antiguans back from the United States. In some cases these people don’t have relatives left on the island and can some times return home with drug issues and needing some support.
The island also has some drug problems given its location and the flow of drugs from other countries and islands. There is a drug education program in her department that helps educate young people about drug use.
She notes that a large percentage of the island’s young people stay in Antigua though young Barbudans don’t give its small size. Many will move to Antigua or go to the United States.
“They may come to Antigua to work or they go to America, there is a bit of brain drain of educated people because it is more profitable to work off the island,” she said.
All of the courses in the diploma program have been useful for Thomas-Odlum who is one of 11 people in her department and the foundation in leadership component is teaching her how to evaluate herself and her staff. Project planning and implementation have also been a large component of the course with her and fellow classmates.
“There are so many experiences I have never heard about but we can use whatever they have used and been successful with,” she said, adding the richness of sharing is such a great learning tool.
Another component of the course has dealt with food security. She noted the importance of this given there is emphasis by government for islanders to produce more locally-grown crops as a means to offset imported food. Noting the importance of micro-financing, she hopes this will show how small enterprises can benefit from projects.
Helping communities to become self-driven is important and she noted the success of a community like St. Andrew’s that she got to visit recently. She said the community-driven projects will be models for her when she returns. A model that she feels will be very successful for her is the “leaky bucket” model that will help with facilitating projects which is a means to determine what comes into the community and what leaves.
She has found the local community to be very supportive and friendly, noting St. Paul’s Anglican Church congregation has been very hospitable. Thomas-Odlum has also been able to improve her computer skills and has a Facebook site that she has that keeps her in constant contact with her two sons.
“The first month here was so challenging, I missed them so much, I had never been so far away for that period of time,” she said.