A new social enterprise business aims to help young people through character development.

It is the brainchild of Bermudian Tiffany Trott, who at 25 sees her youthfulness as a beneficial attribute for connecting with and showing empathy for school-age girls.

Ms Trott has an academic background in sociology and interpersonal studies.

She gained a bachelor’s degree in sociology, with a minor in psychology, from Canada’s Brock University, and a master’s degree in social work, management of human services, from the University of Michigan.

After many years living in Canada and the US, she has returned to Bermuda with a desire to help young people set themselves up for success in life.

This month she took a step towards achieving that with the launch of a series of week-long workshops for schoolgirls aged between 12 and 14 (M2 to S1).

The enterprise is called The Transition, and is based at Ms Trott’s home in Warwick, although she has ambitions to ultimately expand it into schools.

The fee-based, summer camp-style programme, entitled Workshops to Thrive, runs for five consecutive days, with four cohorts scheduled for July.

Each day starts with a continental breakfast before engaging students with a session topic such as setting and achieving goals; developing healthy relationships; respect and dismantling destructive language; and standing in commitment and perseverance through obstacles.

Explaining where the idea came from, Ms Trott said she had a solid family background but she noticed there was a higher likelihood of a young person going astray in life if they lacked the same level of family stability or a strong support network.

“I wanted to look at the family unit and I wanted to do some social work,” she said. At one point she had considered becoming a lawyer, but she had a greater interest and passion for social work.

Ms Trott praised Warwick Academy principal Margaret McCorkell for instilling in her the quality of perseverance to pursue her ambitions, which in turn led to her moving overseas to study for her university degrees.

While in Michigan she helped to develop a curriculum to assist teachers to engage with students, and last year she conducted an online survey of high school students in Bermuda to identify issues affecting young people on the Island.

“I wanted to find out if they felt competent to be a leader, competent to be part of a team, and competent in their communication abilities,” said Ms Trott.

“This allowed me to create a programme for the needs of young people and a platform for youth voices.”

Six schools, including Warwick Academy, Saltus and BHS, allowed Ms Trott to conduct the survey.

The feedback helped to shape the workshop sessions now being offered, which aim to help young girls set and achieve goals, handle emotions such as anger, fear and pain and bullying issues, creating healthy friendships and developing positive social etiquette.

Ms Trott wants the workshops to assist young people feel comfortable in their own coping strategies, with opportunities for self-exploration and fostering competence.

As a business enterprise, she aims to expand and grow The Transition.

“I would like to do seasonal workshops and actually go into the schools and have all the middle schools adopt this into their curriculum.”

She said setting up The Transition had been a challenge, particularly because she has been away from the Island for many years.

However, she gained support from a number of schools, and said she was thankful to Dellwood, Whitney, Clearwater and TN Tatem schools for allowing flyers for The Transition workshops to be given to graduating students.

Ms Trott is aware that due to the recession some parents might have difficulty meeting the $125 per student cost of the week-long workshop. She said: “I am willing to work with those parents.”

On her motivation to create such as business, she said that during her university studies she received scholarships from Knowledge Quest and HSBC’s Fessendent-Trott Scholarship, and now she wanted to assist other young people improve their lives.

“I was given opportunities from my parents and through those scholarships and I want to give back what was given to me.”

The remaining workshops will run for each of the next three weeks, starting on July 13, July 20 and July 27. There are about 10 openings available for each of those weeks. Ms Trott is based in the St Mary’s Road area of Warwick. She can be contacted by e-mail at: info.TheTransition@gmail.com