Yello Shop highlights Donnet Williams’ work with Reach Within to strengthen youth mental well-being.
Yello Shop Talks with Reach Within
by Lou-Ann Jordan Jun 16, 2025
Resilience is a critical quality in our growth and development, as it impacts our response to life’s challenges. Regrettably, some people cultivate it very late in life, not intentionally but often through necessity. Although adopting the ability to overcome difficulties is beneficial at any age, acquiring such a skill at an earlier stage is invaluable.
Learning to face adversities with determination, flexibility, and hopefulness while young can help develop emotional and psychological fortitude. This kind of internal strength throughout one’s life, but at what age would such lessons be most beneficial? Undoubtedly, it should be at a developmental period when schemas are more easily modified. Most would agree that adolescence would be most suitable.
Fortunately, Grenadian youth have such an opportunity through Reach Within. The non-profit organisation implements resilience-building programmes to empower local youth, leveraging the enhanced potential for success that early intervention provides. Since 2003, Reach Within has assisted children, adolescents, and young adults in coping with various traumas.
The group’s work has significantly impacted the future of Grenada, and we are enthusiastic about the opportunity to highlight their achievements. This instalment of Yello Shop Talks features an interview with Donnet Williams, the Manager of Reach Within. She discusses the organisation’s history, programmes, and accessibility to the services.
Tell us about Reach Within’s origins in Grenada.
The organisation was founded in 2003 by Dr. Karen Lawson, shortly after the passing of her husband, Bart. Bart was a loving husband and father, a healthcare executive and advocate in New York, and Ambassador-at-Large to Grenada. He continued advocating for children and their right to receive the healthcare and resources they need to thrive there. Reach Within is a continuation of Bart’s legacy. Working alongside Karen, it has evolved into a model of care for the entire Caribbean region and beyond.
What is the organisation’s mission and vision for Grenadian youth?
Reach Within envisions a future where every young person—despite life’s uncertainties or hardships—builds the resilience, confidence, and self-esteem to overcome adversity with strength and truly thrive.
We empower children and youth to connect and discover their inner strengths so they may transform adversity into opportunities for learning, growth and positive outcomes in life.
Reach Within General Manager & Counsellor – Ms. Donnet Williams, MS.
How would you define resilience, and how is it portrayed in one’s life?
Resilience is the capacity to bounce back from difficult experiences. By cultivating the inner resources of self-awareness and self-regulation, young people can improve their ability to cope and develop a mindset that allows them to see challenges as temporary and manageable. With this state of mind, they are empowered, maintaining hope while continuing to move forward. Most importantly, they know they have the tools to navigate life’s ups and downs.
Self-empowerment and secure attachment are identified as key factors in developing resilience. Can you explain how these components contribute to becoming resilient?
Reach Within exists so that young people do not have to feel alone with their trauma or adversity. We believe that human connection is a biological imperative and often the first step to healing. Secure attachment is represented in a young person feeling safe in the presence of a caring adult, and opening up to their capacity to heal.
By teaching them about the nervous system in an age-appropriate way and giving them simple self-regulation tools, we empower them to become their own healers. When young people consistently practice self-regulation techniques, they are more likely to use these tools when faced with a stressful event, minimising the long-term effects of stress on the body. The more successful they are in overcoming anxiety, the more confident they feel and the more agency they have to move forward and thrive. These successes and their subsequent growth have a positive impact on their self-image and their beliefs, which become more empowering.
What programmes are currently underway in Grenada?
Reach Within is science-backed and uses the nervous system as a starting point to cultivate resilience. Repetitive rhythmic activities such as traditional drumming, mindful breathing, body movement, and our signature curriculum help support self-regulation. They give rise to a sense of body safety and the capacity to hold and process a range of life experiences.
Self-regulation in connection with a caregiver or other adult who is attuned to healing is vital to success. We build the capacity of the adult community to support young people through our trauma-informed training curriculum. This sustainable approach to building a cadre of lay mental health workers equipped to handle early interventions is simple yet highly effective.
Our model targets young people who have experienced adversity, which could be the typical stresses of growing up to more extreme challenges. For example, acute or chronic trauma that can result from child abuse, violence, and climate-related disasters.
We bring this model to a variety of settings:
Five residential care homes (orphanages) on the island: Children from birth-18 years who have been removed from their typical biological home environment due to abuse or neglect receive weekly self-regulation sessions. Caregivers are also trained in trauma-informed care.
Climate Resilience Camps: Within days of Hurricane Beryl, Reach Within was on the ground in Carriacou and Petite Martinique to provide psychological first aid to children and families. In June 2025, we will begin training community adults as lay mental health workers so they can support the long-term well-being of children and youth.
Positive Energy Program (PEP!): This digital version of our self-regulation program teaches children about the nervous system. It offers fun activities to cultivate self-regulation and promotes self-awareness through a 12-module curriculum. The program is launching in pilot schools across the nation, and teachers will also receive training on how to support the well-being of their students through the PEP! Curriculum.
Your tagline is “Your inner life shapes your world,” what message do you hope this statement communicates?
We hope people recognise that the cultivation of self-awareness and self-regulation can positively impact the choices we make in life. We are actually in the middle of a re-branding, so stay tuned for a fresh new tagline!
Mental health problems among youth are on the rise worldwide. What support do you provide for adolescents and their families with mental health conditions?
Adolescence is a particularly difficult time, especially for young people who have grown up in residential care homes and are forced to exit the system at 18 years. Our Youth Drop-In Centre in St. George’s is a place where young people ageing out of care homes and other youth facing poverty or other risks can find various resources. These include self-regulation sessions, mentoring, counselling, job and life skills training and housing advocacy. An important part of our work is the de-stigmatisation of mental health and reaching out for help.
Last year, Reach Within led psycho-social support sessions as part of a youth violence-reduction initiative. For many, it was the first time they had ever accessed such services or were exposed to terms such as anxiety or depression. A memorable response from one of the participants was, “For the first time, I feel like I am somebody.”
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Yello, thanks, Reach Within, for this informative discussion. To learn more, visit reachwithin.org or their social media channels at IG@reachwithin and Facebook @reachwithin1. Additionally, if you or any young adult want to access the varied resources provided by Reach Within, visit the Drop-In Centre on Lucas Street in St. George or contact (473) 425-0549.
