Charity co-founder Crystal harnesses the power of sport to bring people together.

In 2025, after months of preparation, 21-year-old Crystal launched her own charity in Barbados: The Hibiscus Sports and Culture Foundation.

Driven and determined, Crystal has always had ambitious goals, but she credits the Achieve programme with equipping her to break those top-level goals down into manageable, achievable steps.

‘I was like an arrow with a target, but the Achieve programme taught me how to bridge the gap between,’ she explains.

Skills for success

Achieve, delivered through our partner Barbados YouthADVANCE Corps (BYAC), supports young people to build core skills such as teamwork and leadership, with a strong focus on learning by doing.

For Crystal, the skills she honed on the programme have helped her to work with others, step by step, to build and then launch her foundation. She says that she will continue to draw on her learnings for years to come, as she steers her fledgling venture to success.

‘They’ve given me the skills that I need to achieve,’ Crystal explains. ‘With the start of my foundation, my goal is to use what I learnt to build it into the help everyone needs, island wide.’

Connection and community

Progressing community development through sports, culture and enterprise initiatives, Crystal’s foundation has a particular focus on serving disadvantaged neighbourhoods. It works across the generations, supporting both young and older people to build community.

‘We launched Hibiscus because we saw first-hand how young people and seniors were being left behind – without safe spaces to learn, connect or feel valued,’ Crystal recalls. ‘Our goal is to build a homegrown ecosystem of care, culture and opportunity that lasts for generations.’

Coaching growth

Crystal herself is a standout sportswoman, with a particular passion for football and the traditional Bajan game of road tennis. As the co-founder and sports director of her charity, she leads all the physical wellness and inclusive sports activities, such as their popular ‘Football Sundays’.

Crystal’s blossoming teamwork and leadership skills have directly benefited her everyday sports coaching, as well as her business venture. ‘The Achieve programme provided me with the challenge, and I love a challenge, of working with others, facing leadership and mentee roles,’ she explains. ‘By the end I’d gotten the wisdom I needed to be a better coach.’

In future, Crystal hopes to become the first female coach of the Bajan national women’s football team.