Our programs are designed to not only address immediate concerns but also enable a brighter future.
EDUCATION
After School Program
Led by an experienced and well-regarded special education teacher, the after school program welcomes all children. It not only reinforces lessons taught in school, it also assesses children to ensure they are learning. When the teacher finds the children have not grasped the lessons, the assessment further explores the reasons for this and creates a plan to fix the issue(s). As such, issues that could result in serious learning deficits in the future are identified and corrected.
EMPOWERMENT
Empowerment Funding Program
The Empowerment Funding program supports entrepreneurs with viable business models that have the potential to create jobs and positively impact the community. NBF not only invests in these individuals, but also provides them financial and business training to help them better manage their enterprises.
Gina’s Cafe
One of the Empowerment Funding recipients was Virginia, owner and proprietor of Gina’s Café. Empowerment Funding enabled her to expand her business, hire help, and turn her café into a community gathering place. The latter providing a new “social space” for the community and increasing the cohesion and development of the village as a whole.
Handicraft Workshops
Another empowerment program teaches locals how to create crafts using local materials to sell in souvenir shops on the island. Women and men work together sawing, carving, polishing and painting handicrafts ranging from jewelry to decorative ornaments reflecting local wildlife and cultural insignias.
NBF has secured placement of the crafts in souvenir shops around the island. The great majority of the income generated by these crafts will go the artisans, providing them with an income. As a small portion of the income will benefit the community center to cover equipment and materials and to facilitate the opening of more community centers around the island.
ENGAGEMENT
Community Excellence Squad
The Community Excellence Squad (CES) is a low-cost, high-impact way to achieve the goals of employing at-risk youth, positively influencing cultural attitudes, and physically improving the community all at once.
The CES is composed of volunteers, many of whom have been born and raised in the community in which the CES is being executed, who are tasked with specific objectives, such as keeping the local community trash-free. They receive a stipend in exchange for this work. More importantly, they are engaged in helping the community and serving as positive role models with high work-ethic standards as stipulated in a “Code of Conduct.”
Local community members who were at-risk youth engaged in low-level criminal activity were specifically targeted for this program. By providing these young islanders with an opportunity for gainful and socially beneficial employment, overall crime levels in the community were reduced while simultaneously stimulating the local economy and helping these young men and women escape the pull of the criminal underground and on the track toward a brighter future.
LEGACY
Among our projects, we are working with local community leaders on researching and preserving their history for a forthcoming documentary. In addition, we are working on establishing a network of bed and breakfast establishments that provide an authentic Roatanian experience for travelers while providing locals with a livelihood.
