SCHOOLS

St. Peter Claver Primary School    

Kingston 13

St. Peter Claver Primary School is located in an inner-city community in the west end of Kingston.  The school accommodates approximately 1000 students between the ages of 6 and 11.  The institution strives to serve both the educational needs of the population, as well as offering support for community development of the area.  In view of this empowerment focus, an ongoing partnership has been developed with a number of private sector, NGO and public sector organizations as well as community organizations.  These alliances have resulted in improved development and changes over the fifteen years of the existence of the school.

The challenges faced by the school are similar to those in other inner-city communities.  Poverty leads to crime and violence in the community, and a variety of barriers for children to attend school and achieve academic success.  To address these issues, St. Peter Claver Primary School has implemented several extra-curricular programmes, including music, arts and physical education, to attract children to attend school regularly and to build the social and personal skills necessary to achieve academically.  As well, St. Peter Claver School recognizes the need for parental support and participation, and therefore builds parenting skills and involves parents more directly in the educational process of their children.

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Hannah Town, Kingston CSO

St. Anne’s Primary School is located in downtown Kingston just beside the Kingston Public Hospital.  The school is located in a seriously economically depressed inner city area that is distressed further by periods of extreme violence – caused by organized crime as well as political tensions.  Chronic poverty, illiteracy and very high levels of unemployment have eroded most social institutions:  family, school, health care, justice.

Despite the challenges, over 690 students are enrolled at the school, in Grades One through Six.  The dynamic principal and staff are dedicated to providing the best possible learning experience for the students of this community.  The school places a special emphasis on improving the performance of boys.

In 2006, JSH conducted a survey of the needs and interests of the students and teachers, and together with the school staff determined programme directions to meet the needs identified, including a Playground & Games programme for all grades, an After School Reading programme, a Dance & Culture programme, and a social worker to reach out to the community and address family needs.  Through these activities, St. Anne’s staff hope to strengthen collaboration between school and home; promote programmes to socialize children and their parents, and build parents’ efficacy; develop academic and social skills and self-confidence among students; and address anger management, truancy and absenteeism among students.

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Tavares Gardens Primary School

Kingston 13

Tavares Gardens Primary School is located in another volatile inner-city community that has faced poverty and gang violence on an ongoing basis over the past number of years.  The school itself is in the middle of four gang areas, and therefore many students face barriers to coming to school and doing well academically.  Because of long-term poverty, the school morale has been very low, and with few students enrolled (presently 250 students), the school is not qualified for funding for more than the very basic curriculum.  The school’s goal is to provide a sound educational foundation for children, including academic studies, good citizenship practices and proper socialization and personal development. In 2007, a representative of the Transformation Team of the Jamaican Ministry of Education recommended Tavares Gardens Primary School to participate in the JSH replication project.  After a site visit and interviewing the principal, it was agreed that JSH would fund a small project based on the approach taken by St. Peter Claver Primary School.  A music programme for Grades 4-6 was initiated and was successful in

developing self-confidence and self-discipline, raising the overall spirit of the school, and supporting better attendance of the students.  Based on this success, and using the model of St. Peter Claver Primary School, the Tavares Gardens school made plans to expand its extracurricular programmes to include:

• Instrumental music (recorders, drum, guitar) for all students in Grades 1 to 6
• Parenting programme
• Team sports and physical education for all students
• Literacy programme for identified students requiring additional assistance

The focus of these activities is to develop social skills among the student population, support the parents of the students, and have a positive impact on the community through school activities.

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COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

S-Corner Clinic and Community Development Organization 

Kingston 13

S-Corner Clinic & Community Development Organization is a broad-based community development organization whose mission is to “enable the people of Bennet Lands through active self-help, economic activities and programmes of health, education, sanitation and community mobilization, to transform their lives and make their community one of which they can be proud.”  S-Corner has taken on multiple roles in the community, from innovator to mediator to facilitator, in response to its efforts to develop broad-based and democratic community participation.  S-Corner employs a participatory approach to development and community involvement.  It has increasingly moved towards a focus on youth.  The goal for the youth programme is “to transform the behaviour amongst the 9-12 and 13-25 year olds so they reduce anti-social behaviours, that helps to create a tranquil community in which inner-city youths are given the same opportunities as their counterparts in other parts of Jamaica.”  In 2008, S-Corner began construction of a new neighbourhood centre that will meet the needs of one area of the local community that has historically not been well served by other programmes.  This Centre will be built within a specific neighbourhood, as an additional or “satellite” location to the main S-Corner office and Centre.

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Kingston 11

St. Patrick’s Foundation is a 25-year old non-profit organization operating within the West Kingston inner-city areas of Olympic Gardens, Tower Hill, Seaview Gardens, and Riverton City.  The Foundation provides the surrounding communities with access to skills training, health programmes, and forms of remedial activities through its five centres.  St. Margaret’s Human Resource Centre aims to address the problem of unemployment and improvement in overall education for Olympic Gardens and the surrounding community through skill training, remedial education and provision of library facilities that would not otherwise be available to inner city at-risk youth.

St. Margaret’s programme includes a central skills training centre specializing in Woodwork (furniture, manufacturing, carpentry and joinery), Electrical Installation and Garment making as well as a Community Library.  The provision of a Library open to students and community members will act as a source of assistance for acquiring further information on the regular academic curriculum.  St. Margaret’s has renewed its efforts to reach out and involve community members (adults and youth, especially men), as volunteer leaders in the Centre and role models for the students.  The parenting programme is expanding and is accompanied by a Community Support Group, illustrating the increased emphasis on facilitating more positive inter-personal relationships, building self-confidence, and empowering both youth and community members.

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Kingston 11

St. Pius X Skills Training Centre is a small vocational training centre located in West Kingston, in the community of Cockburn Gardens.  Young women and men from the surrounding community face a number of barriers to employment – their home address alone will often bar them from employment.  Both women and men accept low-paying, unstable employment. 

The Centre prepares women and men for more stable employment by offering training and certification in the skills of Cosmetology, Food & Nutrition (Catering), and Clothing & Textiles.  The programme also incorporates life skills and literacy training to ensure that graduates are able to apply for and keep a job or be qualified for further training.  Certification and/or references from the Centre provide additional assistance for those seeking employment.  While the programme was originally created to help young women, more recently young men have shown interest and have been accepted into the programme as well.

Annotto Bay and surrounding communities, St. Mary

Annotto Bay is a small rural community of 10,000 people located on the north-east coast of Jamaica, in St. Mary Parish.  This parish, which is considered the poorest in Jamaica, has experienced the devastating decline in employment caused by the closing of sugar and downsizing of banana plantations.  Poverty is high and employment opportunities are non-existent for illiterate people.  Criminal activities have also begun to rise.  In addition, this region also suffers annually from hurricanes, floods and droughts. 

The Sisters of St. Joseph in Hamilton, Ontario supported education and community development projects in Annotto Bay and surrounding communities for almost 16 years. In 2007, the Sisters were called back to Canada permanently, so prior to departing Jamaica, they set up a Project Board to continue supervision and responsibility for the literacy programme.  Comprised of members of the local community, including teachers and business people, this Board has managed the transition with a project co-ordinator that was trained and coached by the Canadian sisters over a five year period.  The Literacy Project has recently expanded to include Enfield Primary and Intermediate School.  The project now includes children in Grades 1 through 6 in four schools in rural communities of St. Mary parish:  Annotto Bay All Age School, May River Primary School, Mt. Joseph Primary School, and Enfield Primary and Intermediate School.

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