Laurette Adams Thomas – The change agent

SHE can’t stomach the idea of monotony, and she’s innovative, creative, loves the performing arts, has a passion for the social services, and is committed to being an agent of change.

Born in Vineyard Town, St Andrew, Laurette Adams Thomas, 39, relocated to Linstead as a teenager where her career focus was on becoming a teacher despite her father being adamant that she join the army as he felt there were better opportunities there.

However, on the admonition of her mother that she pursue a discipline that would give her spiritual guidance, Adams Thomas, the first in her family to go to university, had a change of heart and decided to attend the then West Indies College (now Northern Caribbean University). Here the experience she gained would pave the path for her journey through life.

“In high school I was a cadet. My mother wanted me to choose something where I would gain some amount of spiritual guidance. I was pressured, but it was a good idea to attend a Christian college. I wanted to make them proud,” she said.

While in college, Adams Thomas said she was accidentally placed in the mass communications programme, and though her main focus was in English language and literature, she managed to do a minor in the area of mass communications.

After leaving college, luckily she had developed a love for media as her efforts to find a teaching job initially proved futile.

“Nothing was available, I had fallen in love with mass communications and went to the Creative Production and Training Centre where I did courses in acting techniques for video production and directing the actor for the camera,” she said.

“I realised it was something I loved and knew the whole idea of acting was something I could tap into because the skill was there.”

But after she was asked to audition for a role, her parents shot down the plan as they believed the role would question her integrity as a Christian.

Thereafter an opportunity presented itself to teach at St Andrew Technical High School and she took it up, but admits that she received an eye-opener.

“It was no bed of roses, these were children exposed to all sorts of issues and they weren’t living the lives normal teenagers would live. They had no regard for authority and teachers were faced with constant disrespect. It wasn’t how you’d expect children or teenagers to operate. It was a rude awakening and I said it was my last year and I wouldn’t stay,” she said. “However, I ended up spending five years there.”

It was at this point that she realised her true destiny lay in impacting people’s lives and truly making a difference.

And so, Adams Thomas became more than a teacher and went beyond her call of duty to effect change in the lives of the teenagers she encountered.

“I became someone they could trust and respect and I influenced a number of them. There were those with social and economic issues, some were abused, some were guarding turf and I had to really get through to them to tell them it was possible to conquer their own situation and have a better life,” she said.

She then decided it was time to move on, and made a switch to the agricultural industry where she served as a company’s executive secretary.

However, one of life’s curve balls was directly thrown in her arms.

“I encountered a totally different experience. Insults were hurled at me even though I went beyond the scope of what I was employed to do. The chief operating officer gave me approval, but I reported to the head of the company and he was autocratic,” she said.

Adams Thomas admits that there were many times she felt like throwing in the towel but had to develop a new strategy for work and pummel through her tenure there. Not long after, she got the opportunity to go abroad and work as a supervisor with the MENTOR Network — a private organisation which focuses on rehabilitating the elderly and caring for them based on their physical and psychosocial challenges. Having worked with teenagers, this new role would teach her patience as she had to first work on the ground to understand the demands of the job to effectively supervise the staff.

“I was now in a situation where I was bathing people, cleaning them, brushing their teeth, doing hands-on care and focusing on the physical and medical care,” she said.

Her abilities earned her the supervisory position in three months — half the time it would normally take — and wanting to make a difference, she effectively moved the organisation from provisional licensing to full licensing as she managed to tighten the existing gaps.

But, while abroad, another curve ball came her way as she took ill and the funds she had saved had to be used to cover most of her medical bills. Shortly after she returned to Jamaica in low spirits.

“I left my husband for two years and I came back no better than I left. I came back home confused,” she said.

But having obtained a degree in human resource management from University College of the Caribbean, she was able to gain employment with the Office of The Children’s Registry as human resource manager and then registrar, again putting her in the area of social services which she had now grown to love.

“I was now working with children and I grew to love the job. It had to do with building the social infrastructure and looking out for their best interest, something which I now was passionate about having been a teacher and working with the elderly,” she said.

But always seeking an opportunity to grow, Adams Thomas took vacation leave and decided to assist her husband, an evangelist, with his ministry, which led her to her four-year position as general manager of the Golden Age Home in her hometown, Vineyard Town.

“I saw the advertisement in the paper and I applied. I realised I had been groomed professionally. More so, I believed that when it comes on to areas such as policy development, management and organisational development, those were strong areas for me,” she said.

Now armed with the responsibility of ensuring the best care for the residents and her staff, she said she can relate to their needs having worked hands on and also giving back to them in a holistic way.

“It is a highly stressful job. If you’re not careful the employees can become burnt out. I have to look at programmes and initiatives we can employ to motivate the employees and at the same time ensure that the residents are comfortable,” she said.

When not busy with the running of the home, Adams Thomas said she uses her time to give support to her husband’s ministry by travelling with him to different parishes to spread the gospel and pull on her social services skills to assist the less fortunate.