Archive for July 24th, 2009
CAYS receives grant
(CNS): A non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering youth experiencing difficulties to achieve their full human potential has received a grant from Hedge Funds Care Cayman (HFCC), a charitable organisation focused on assisting young victims of abuse. A release from HFCC says the grant will enable the CAYS Foundation to continue its work with the Cayman Islands’ youth, raising awareness and addressing the issues of child abuse and neglect.
Among the many projects the CAYS Foundation has developed is the Family Reunification Programme (FRP), which is designed to strengthen vulnerable families during the period when a child is preparing to return home after a stay at one of CAYS Foundation’s two residential homes. The programme has been in existence since the CAYS Foundation’s inception in 2003.
The CAYS Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering youth experiencing difficulties to achieve their full human potential by providing a continuum of care through its residential programmes in a caring, nurturing environment, and in partnership with other agencies within the private and public sectors.
The staff of the CAYS Foundation’s two residential homes, the Bonventure Boys’ Home and the Frances Bodden Girls’ Home, have worked diligently over the years to aid their residents, all between the ages of 10 to 17. Each resident is assisted based on their own individual needs, along with a regimen of care planning, tutoring and parenting classes. Families enter into the FRP when they are preparing to reunite with their children in their homes.
The FRP consists of several key characteristics that allow families to adapt into a unified home. Families involved in the programme receive counselling with anemphasis on several techniques that change the behaviour and response between family members. The FRP also focuses on coaching and mentoring parents, creating discipline models and behavioural strategies for families and working within the home during the transition to create a safe and stable environment.
Behind this great undertaking is the programme’s Family Support Worker (FSW), an individual who aids in bridging the gap between child and parent. The FRP currently staffs one FSW, which the HFCC’s grant funds for one year of work in the community.
“The Family Support Worker is an integral part to our Family Reunification Programme,” comments CAYS Foundation Chief Executive Officer Angela Sealey. “She is presently working with eight families on the island and we are looking forward to seeing the progress that they will achieve.”
While each family is unique, the FRP is consistent with its basic values and commitments. Each family-centred programme is both strength based and solution focused, encouraging both the child and the parent to work through their situation in a logical and caring way. The FSW supervises therapeutic visitations to aid a household’s tangible needs to create a supportive home for the child and parent alike.
Added Ms. Sealey, “Our Family Support Worker is aiming to expand our programme in order to offer additional services to the families who we work with. The funding from HFCC reaches far beyond those we counsel. Happy and supportive families are the cornerstone to building a stronger community. Our objective is to provide the tools to strive toward this goal.”
Since its inception in 2005, HFCC has raised over US $950,000 that has sponsored local agencies and their initiatives to combat the issue of child abuse and neglect in the Cayman Islands. The 2009 HFCC grantees include: The Nadine Andreas Foster Home (operated by the NCVO); the Ministry of Education, Training, Employment, Youth, Sports and Culture; Children and Youth Services (CAYS) Foundation; and the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre.
About Hedge Funds Care
Hedge fund industry professionals established Hedge Funds Care (HFC), a charitable organisation focused on assisting young victims of abuse, in 1998. Since that time, chapters have opened in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Toronto, Cayman, and London. The targeted groups for the organisation include those organisations with interests in hedge funds, including investment managers, investors, prime brokers, attorneys, accountants, technology providers, administrators and information providers.
The Cayman Committee of Hearts has representatives from Admiral Administration, Butterfield Fulcrum, Citco, Deloitte, dms Management, Ernst & Young, IMS, KPMG, Maples and Calder, Ogier, PWC, Harbour Trust, UBS, and Walkers.
Unfolding scandal in US
(New York Times): Illegal sales of body parts. Furtive negotiations in diners, parking lots, and boiler rooms. Nervous jokes about “patting down” a man who turned out to indeed be an informant. And, again and again, piles of cash being passed along — once in a box of Apple Jacks cereal stuffed with $97,000. Those were just some details of a sprawling corruption scandal, stretching from New Jersey to Brooklyn and beyond, that were revealed in court papers Thursday. Forty-four people were arrested, including three New Jersey mayors, two state assemblymen and five rabbis, the authorities said.
MLAs’ salaries revealed
(CNS): The leader of government business earns over $14,818 per month, or almost $177,800 per annum, while his opposition counterpart earns $10,541, or just under $126,500 per annum. The figures were released by the current LoGB, McKeeva Bush, who had promised to tell the people what Members of the Legislative Assembly earn. The Speaker earns almost as much as the LoGB at $171,672 per annum, which includes a car and maintenance allowance each month of $200. Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, who has served as a Cabinet minister and MLA in the past, is the next highest earner with an annual salary of $161,100.
The other Cabinet members, who are in the post for the first time, are earning $13,099 per month, or $157,188 per annum, while all opposition backbench members and Captain Eugene Ebanks, who are all former serving MLAs, each take home $9,316 per month or $111,792 annually, Cline Gidden as a re-elected member and Deputy Speaker, receives $10,033 a month or $120,396 per year. Meanwhile, the two new government backbenchers each receive $9,090 per month or $109,080.
CNS has also submitted an FOI request for information on how much and for what purpose that members can claim expenses and allowances, an issue that has been at the centre of controversy in the UK parliament recently.
During the election campaign the issue of MLAs earnings was raised on the hustings a number of times, with several would be candidates agreeing to take a reduction in pay if they were elected. With cuts expected in all government departments in the next annual budget, no one has stated yet whether the current members of the House will agree to any kind of pay reduction.
According to the statistics provided by the Legislative Assembly, members’ salaries have increased at different rates, with salaries for new members increasing by 17% since June 2005 to around a 32% for the post of Leader of Government Business and 36% for the role of Leader ofOpposition, after an incremented was added to that post during the PPM administration.
Bush sets date for 12th TIEA
(CNS): The Cayman Islands will sign the all important twelfth bi-lateral Tax Information Exchange Agreement in Washington Thursday, 13 August with the New Zealand government. Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush said the government continues in its commitment to complete agreements in order to remove Cayman from the OECD’s grey list. He added that discussions continue with Australia, Canada, France, German, Italy, Mexico, and Portugal.
The Cayman Islands currently has 11 bilateral agreements in place. In2001 Cayman signed its first agreement with the United States but it was not until this year that Cayman signed any further bi-lateral TIEA. The PPM signed with seven Nordic states in March 2009 and since taking office the UDP has signed with the UK, Ireland and most recently the Netherlands. While it is hoped the 12th deal will remove Cayman from the OECD’s list of less than fully co-operative nations recent comments by G8 countries and the OECD have indicated that just having TIEA is not enough.
Bush said recently however that he was confident that 12 agreements would see Cayman moved to the white list. “…Based on the discussions I have had with OECD officials,” he said last week that it is unlikely that the OECD would not move Cayman and that the organisation recognised Cayman’s commitment to the agreements.