CSO Spotlight: Kids In Need of Direction (KIND)

Name of Organisation

Kids In Need of Direction (KIND)

How can people find you?

Website – www.kindkid.org
Facebook – Kids In Need of Direction – KIND
Instagram – kind_tt
YouTube – KIND – Kids In Need of Direction

How was your organisation formed?

My Mum was a true philanthropist, and I grew up actively participating in charity work as a large part of my life. At 16 I wanted to be a missionary and I guess that has not changed. Here I am….

What area(s) of interest does your organisation have? What does your organisation do for your stakeholders? What problems do you aim to solve for them?

We have many areas of interest as we have nine (9) programmes which are listed within our attached KIND Overview. Most notably though, our programmes are all needs-based and align to our mission ‘The Kind Mind’. This means that all our work revolves around the understanding of “What is the Kind Mind”? and just as important the understanding that ‘being happy’ is directly related to kindness.

Our organization provides assistance to disadvantaged persons and their children, so that they can live a normal, healthy fulfilling life. ‘Empowering children, Transforming Lives’, one family at a time…

We aim to assist adults and children in understanding that they are responsible for their choices. Our programmes are designed to inculcate a positive mindset bringing awareness to how we think, speak and act and how this behaviour affects others. KIND assists families who are impoverished and living under the bread line with food, clothing, schoolbooks, school uniforms, transport, life skills and referrals to other non-profit organisations and government institutions for assistance.
KIND also offers life skill training so that persons 18 and over can improve their life and the livelihood of their relatives and family members.

What was your most challenging experience/ project? How did you get through it? What made you stick with it to the end?

One of the more difficult challenges faced was with 2 sister-clients in Trinidad who were 23 and 27 years old respectively, and who had 6 children each. The 27-year old sister was HIV positive and the 23-year sister wanted KIND to adopt her older daughters – who were 12 and 10 years old at the time and who had been raped and touched by older teenaged cousins. It was a complex case as we later realized that in the Caribbean this situation was not an anomaly and was a way of life for several families.

We broke down the situations and dealt with them one at a time. Regarding the assault, we got Family Services and the police involved and provided counselling for the girls and their mothers. KIND hired 2 remedial teachers to go to their homes to teach the younger children until we could get them into school, and this happened a year later. This made a big difference with the basic learnings for school.

We worked with these families for 5 years as we could not leave these children on their own and not in school. It was the right thing to do. The teacher was also committed to making changes and some neighbors were committed to helping the families.

What is the coolest thing you’ve achieved/ project you’ve been a part of or executed? What benefits did it deliver? What change did it cause, create, or enable?

Our Data Retrieval Project was the best project that KIND implemented that helped in showcasing the overall growth of the organisation. It allowed us to spread our wings comfortably while collecting and mining the data; examine the real needs of the clientele to create ‘needs based programming’ specifically designed for clients. This is a relatively difficult task for any company, much less for a non-profit to actively pursue, but the benefits far outweighed the challenges and the risks. Additionally, we were able to examine our internal trajectory, output and timelines, capacity and operational goals, whilst identifying the number of persons served by each programme. This has benefited us and our sponsors greatly.

As of December 31, 2022, KIND has assisted 158,000 beneficiaries through 13 different programmes, and this figure will be updated at the end of 2023 and at the end of every year thereafter.

Do you have anything else you’d like to add? What should people know about your organisation? Do you have any tips or advice you’d like to share?

KIND is a relatively small organisation, consisting of five Board Members who are always available to the organisation, three full-time and five part-time committed employees. We are focused and results oriented and because we all have a shared passion for assisting those in unfortunate and desolate circumstances, we are able to bring our varying strengths together for a common purpose.

Get involved with a non-profit organization and make a difference in T&T. We believe that to change our homes, our communities and our country, we must be an active part of it. We cannot only talk about what needs changing, we must participate; lead by example and make the changes we want to see happen. This is how the Universe works!

Choose kindness in your life and you will be happy!

In a perfect world where you have all the resources necessary, what would your dream project be and what would want it to achieve.

Our dream project would be to have more space for our projects that are held in-house at KIND. We would love to have grounds for the children to run and play where we could plant a full garden with the students to help them understand the benefits of planting your own vegetable garden and the benefit of being in nature.

It would also be important to have grass outside of our building so in our Mental Health Training workshops we could lead our teachers, social workers, guidance counsellors, medical staff etc in guided walking meditations. And, to have a meditation room with the sound effects of running water, proper soft lighting and music to accommodate 30 persons. This would help all the age groups that attend our workshops and who are in our KIND Mind Initiative. It would allow the messages of kindness and happiness to permeate the senses of all participants, as being in nature is the best gift to humanity that we have; it gives us all that we need to connect with our true selves.

Are there any upcoming events, good news, or announcements you’d like to share with readers?

KIND will be having various activities in observance of World Kindness Day for the entire month of November. These include:

• A Weekly Kindness Challenge: KIND will post a challenge and encourage followers to post or tag us when they complete the
  challenge.
• Spotlighting Kindness Heroes: KIND will celebrate outstanding individuals and organizations whose acts of kindness have left a lasting impact.
• Sharing your story: KIND will Invite followers to share their personal stories of kindness, using the hashtag #KINDActs.
• Collaborating with Influencers: KIND will team up with some amazing influencers to create a collaborative video, spreading awareness about World Kindness Day, KIND, and our mission. 
• Going Live with Corporate Sponsors: KIND is hoping to fill two coveted spots on Facebook and Instagram, for its first ever LIVE event entitled “A moment in KIND” sponsored by two companies. The LIVE is carded for November 15th – one at 11:00 am and the other at 3:00pm and will be no more than 30 mins each. The LIVE will discuss the goal of the World Kindness Day Campaign, who we are (KIND) and how the sponsor company is displaying their Acts of Random Kindness. The audience will also be engaged and invited to take part in a small trivia for a chance to win sponsor prizes.