By Vickania Turenne, Bard College, Annandale
Introduction
In the fall of 2022, Vickania Turenne, a student from Bard College Annandale, felt inspired to launch a community-based initiative in her home country of Haiti after taking the OSUN Civic Engagement and Social Action course. Haiti is ranked as one of the countries that has the highest crime rates in the world and has become worse after 2021 due to political instability and a lack of effective governance. During this difficult time, she became more concerned about the teenagers who are often overlooked in crisis responses, despite being prone to exposure to violence, and vulnerable to involvement in delinquency. Vickania became concerned about the fate of these communities and felt compelled to take action. Out of this concern, she developed a project titled “Coaching Teens for Social Inclusion.”She initiated the project to raise awareness about the treatment of underprivileged children in Haiti and to educate the teens to help them develop themselves and avoid falling into juvenile delinquency through child rights, cultural identity and peace building conferences. Moreover, the project was designed to create self-esteem training and recreational activities such as handicraft workshops.
What the Project Is About and Who Is the Targeted Audience
Originally, Coaching Teens for Social Inclusion aimed to support children aged 10 to 16 from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those living in orphanages, raised in single-parent households, or experiencing homelessness. Vickania recognized that these children face significant socio-economic challenges and inequality, making them more susceptible to involvement in delinquent behavior or become victims of the rising crimes. When underprivileged children face these risks, they are often treated differently within their communities, reinforcing cycles of marginalization and exclusion.
However, despite her initial plan, Vickania faced limitations when trying to implement the project as originally proposed in her OSUN Course on Civic Engagement and Social Action. She lacked the professional training and capacity required to work with children who may have experienced severe trauma. Recognizing this gap, she decided to pivot her focus to another vulnerable group; people with disability, specifically the deaf community. As she is an experienced sign-language interpreter, she felt it was more feasible to connect with the community and support them. This revised targeted population of the project maintained the core mission of social inclusion, but it honed in specifically on the mental health needs of individuals with hearing impairments. Vickania observed that deaf people are often left out of conversations about violence. And, there is a common but a misinterpreted assumption that their inability to hear gunshots is a valid reason that they could not have equally experienced the similar mental distress in violence. In reality, she found that many deaf individuals suffer in silence, carrying the weight of their experiences without having a support system. They may not hear the violence, but they see its impact on their families, sense the fear in their communities, and face additional barriers when trying to express their distress.
Through her project, she was able to provide two mental health support activities for 20 individuals with hearing impairments and offered psychological first aid to 40 more deaf participants. The sessions focused on helping participants process trauma and build resilience in an environment where violence is constant. One impactful moment came when a woman, who had never even heard of the concept of mental health, finally found a safe space to express her trauma and seek professional help, a moment Vickania described as truly meaningful.
How OSUN Helped Her
Vickania thanks the OSUN Civic Engagement and Social Action Course for equipping her with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to launch her initiative. Throughout the course, she gained four essential competencies: leadership, project management, intercultural communication, and teamwork. Most importantly, she developed a deeper understanding of what it means to be a global citizen to be able to see local issues as part of a broader, interconnected world.
Breakout sessions during the OSUN course allowed her to connect with students from different countries and contexts, many of whom were also designing impactful civic engagement projects. These peer discussions inspired her to act and empowered her that she was not alone. Course lessons such as mind mapping and stakeholder mapping stood out for her in identifying the community needs and the support she needed to start her initiative.She also emphasized how the course taught her the value of clear communication, skills that were practically useful when she engaged with a diverse range of stakeholders in her project, from community elders to school leaders to members of the deaf community. The concept of global citizenship taught in class helped her view the treatment of people with disabilities not just as a Haitian issue, but as part of a global struggle for equality and inclusion. As she put it, “If Haitian people start thinking differently about people with disabilities as equals, I know it will contribute to the world.”
Challenges and Success
Similar to other civic initiatives, Coaching for Social Inclusion was not without its challenges. One of the first obstacles Vickania faced was finding the team who shared her vision and were willing to work with the deaf community. This is where the stakeholder mapping exercise from the OSUN course proved invaluable as she said. It helped her identify potential allies and build a network of support around the project. Because of having the right partners, she was able to secure a venue for free of charge by partnering with local schools who were willing to support her cause.
Another major challenge was the lack of resources. As Vickania pointed out, resources were not all about money and grants. It was also about skilled trainers, volunteers, and local partners. At times, the lack of these important supports made the project feel daunting. But she recalled a phrase her classmates during the OSUN course repeatedly shared: “If not now, when?” This mindset pushed her to start with small things. Therefore, to get the project off the ground, she used her own money and reached out to community partners for further support. Over time, these small steps set the momentum of her project. Through this process, she learned a valuable lesson that it’s possible to start meaningful community work without having everything in place at the beginning. As she reflected, commitment and courage often matter more than having everything in place.
One of the project’s most rewarding successes for Vickania was the trust she built within the deaf community. Initially, many participants were hesitant or skeptical to participate in the activities. But over time, the sincerity and impact of the work became clear. Participants engaged actively, and many expressed how much they appreciated having a space to be seen and heard. For Vickania, the most powerful moment came when a deaf woman, previously unaware of what mental health even meant, opened up to a therapist and began her journey toward healing from the neglect of her own psychological needs.
What Is Next
Looking ahead, Vickania hopes to expand Coaching for Social Inclusion by actively involving youth in promoting more inclusive attitudes toward people with disabilities. She believes young people can become agents of change, and she wants to equip them with the tools to do so. The next phase of the project will include training sessions for youth from local associations, schools, and churches.
Her goal is to challenge traditional perceptions towards people with disabilities and create a community where people with disabilities are seen and treated as equals. To achieve this, she acknowledges the need for more strategic outreach, especially to youths who may not be interested in disability inclusion. Another key important element of her project is about safety, given the ongoing violence in Haiti. Creating safe spaces where community activities can take place is a priority moving forward.
Moving on, Vickania is hoping to garner support from all possible stakeholders to expand the project’s impact, and reach to those who need it most. Her story is a powerful example of what can happen when young leaders step up to serve their communities with vision, adaptability, and heart.