The founder of a programme dedicated to delivering healing welcomes 2026 as the year she can devote herself to the mission as her sole responsibility.

Gina Spence, speaking one month on from her retirement from management at the Willowbank Resort, said: “The truth is, I’ve always done two jobs. I’ve always had a full-time job and the charity.

“The beauty of this transition is I can focus 100 per cent on the charity and the work we do. I didn’t realise how much I was being stretched.”

The Gina Spence Programme, which deals with the aftermath of lives lost to shootings and violence as well as addressing bereavement and grief, has grown to meet the challenges in an island where demand keeps rising.

She told The Royal Gazette: “The need is great for the work we do. The numbers are showing it. The requests are showing it. It’s a good way to get a feel for where we are and how our people are moving through their grief.

“There’s a number of things we’re experiencing as a community that are grounded in grief and loss. But there’s hope. There’s so much to be thankful for in the midst of it all.”

The charity’s Champions Programme, which supports children who have lost a parent to gun and gang-related murder, now has more than 100 young people on its roster.

However, Ms Spence emphasised her charity’s wider role in helping the community to come to terms with a multiplicity of losses.

She said: “Believe it or not, there’s a grief in Bermuda right now as people try to adjust to the new Bermuda — the one where we have violence, where you can’t leave your doors unlocked.

“There’s a loss of a Bermuda where young people would never disrespect an adult in public, where the taking of lives was not something we were familiar with. You could leave your door unlocked. Exchanges that became quarrels could be quickly ceased.

“I believe we’re grieving for a Bermuda we used to know and have.”

The present economic challenges come with an estimated 21,000 residents either uninsured or underinsured, she said. Housing, healthcare and food consistently stand out as top concerns.

Ms Spence added: “If you go back ten, 20 years, housing wasn’t the issue it is now, or affordable food. We don’t have a housing crisis. We have an affordable housing crisis.”

She said of the Champions Programme: “As shootings continue to happen, of course our numbers are dictated by whether the deceased has children — and the demand and need is greater than ever before, simply because shootings haven’t stopped.

“More than 100 children are in our database for Champions. We’re serving more than 30 families, because the deceased have children but also extended family.”

Ms Spence likened the further ripple effects of public violence to the reach of second-hand smoke.

“You have bystanders, people who were in the vicinity of a shooting. They’re traumatised too.”

She added: “That’s why an extended community is coming for help. First it was victims and their direct family. Now it’s trickling down to others.

“We came out of community outreach for years. We’ve become so much more than that. Now the programme is where the community can come to us for help.”

Ms Spence described herself as “ready, thankful and overjoyed that I can focus 100 per cent on GSP — I’ve always been an advocate for the underprivileged”.

She said she had been gratified to find herself recognised as one of the 2025 Bermudians of the Year by The Bermudian magazine.

“I was absolutely honoured and thankful that the work is being recognised at that level.”

The charity moved to Queen Street in Hamilton last year. Ms Spence can now concentrate on raising funds, advocacy and speaking for GSP as well as devoting more time to her clients as an advanced grief counsellor.

Her work calls on her own experiences of loss, including growing up in foster care and the loss of her son-in-law to gun violence in 2010.

“This work becomes so much more meaningful to me as an adult looking back on life,” she said.

Whether the losses come from people facing divorce or separation, grappling with displacement and looking for a home or the families dealing with the aftermath of serious road accidents, Ms Spence sees widespread need across the community.

She said she was heartened by the responses last year by the authorities in holding town hall meetings after a wave of gun violence.

“I have to give credit where it’s due, to the police, the Minister of National Security, the Governor,” Ms Spence noted.

“Those meetings told people that we hear you, we see you and we want to hear from you.

“A lot of information was shared that was good for the authorities to hear from people.”

She added: “I do believe we are making inroads. I love the collaboration of charities and other organisations coming together. Collaboration is always great.

“I believe that those with the funds to help, whether it’s international business or community donors, can see the need.

“We need funding; that’s the bottom line, to meet these needs and bring balance.”

• For more information, visit gspcharity.com