On Saturday, a community-focused workshop titled “Your Difference is Your Superpower” opened its doors at the Derrick Smith School and Vocational Centre in Barbados, offering parents, educators and frontline caregivers actionable, real-world tools and expert guidance to better uplift children navigating learning challenges. The event was organized by the Kiwanis Club of Pride of Barbados, in collaboration with the host vocational center and the Educational and Psychological Assessment Unit of The University of the West Indies.
The one-day gathering united child development specialists, K-12 educators, and family members across a packed schedule of interactive sessions. These sessions were crafted to help attendees spot early signs of learning difficulties in children, while also walking them through the full network of local support resources that are accessible to families.
According to Requell Griffith, who serves both as secretary of the Kiwanis Club of Pride of Barbados and lead of the organization’s Youth Services Committee, the workshop was developed directly in response to rising concerns from parents across Barbados. Many families have reached out to the club in recent years seeking structured guidance, as they struggle to find appropriate support for their children who face barriers within the national school system.
Griffith emphasized that the programming was intentionally inclusive, designed not just for children who struggle to keep pace with traditional academic expectations, but also for gifted learners who encounter unique challenges in standard classroom environments. Event organizers centered their planning around a clear core goal: to send every attendee home not just with new knowledge, but with concrete, step-by-step pathways to access ongoing support services for children.
“We wanted to make sure that in addition to having the information, that persons also have the resources and know where they can go once they’ve gotten the information to assist them and assist their children on their educational journey,” Griffith explained in an interview on the sidelines of the workshop.
Trained facilitators from The University of the West Indies led the majority of the day’s sessions, sharing evidence-based practical strategies, actionable care tips, and detailed breakdowns of local and national agencies that offer specialized support for children with learning difficulties.
For Griffith, the initiative is a deeply personal project, which she described as her “baby.” The idea first took root last year, after repeated conversations with parents who shared that they felt lost navigating the support system, unsure of where to turn for reliable help. “It came up with just conversations with parents and hearing the challenges that some parents experience with their children having learning difficulties and not knowing where to go, who to talk to, what information is out there,” she said.
At its core, the workshop was built to advance a broader mission: to deliver evidence-based, accessible high-quality information to families, and to bridge the gap between households and the specialized organizations and institutions that can help children thrive both in the classroom and in social settings. The event marks a key step forward in addressing unmet needs for caregiver support in Barbados, and organizers have signaled potential interest in expanding the initiative to reach more communities in coming months.