Making single and unskilled mothers employable

christine staine

Single mothers in Belize City are being invited to attend a series of training workshops to develop and strengthen personal and professional skills that are necessary for the workforce.  The project, known as Supporting Single Mothers in Belize, is the initiative of the Women’s Department and going into its third year coordinators are seeking to offer the technical assistance needed to prepare single mothers for employment.  Christine Staine is the project organizer.

Christine Staine, Project Coordinator, Women’s Dept.

“The Supporting Single Mothers in Belize was launched in 2008 after the Women’s Department noticed that a lot of women are struggling with getting employable skills and actually providing for their children. And so with the help of the Government of Belize, we embarked on the project and decided that we want to do what we can for the women of Belize City, single mothers of Belize City. And so in 2008 the first cycle was launched and we had about eighty participants, completed with about sixty graduating from that first cycle.  There was a second one and now we’re starting the third cycle on July fifth and it finishes in December.  Actually it’s a five month training program.”

“The skills that are being taught in the training.  For the first month of the training the participants get an opportunity to develop their personality, their individuality in terms of their—they get a number of self esteem sessions, interpersonal skills, anger management, conflict resolution, communications, just to name a few. And for the other four months they actually do the skills training aspect of the project.”

Interested participants can register at the Women’s Department on Albert Street in Belize City.  Deadline for registration is Wednesday, June thirtieth.