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USAID Program Provides
Opportunities for Jamaican Youth
FrontLines - June 2009
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Orret Perkins attends a
training session at a music
studio as part of the Jamaica
Education for All Youth
Challenge Grant Project.
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KINGSTON , Jamaica—When
the World Bank holds its
Commonwealth Secretariat
Regional Caribbean Conference
on “Keeping Boys Out of Risk”
this year, it will showcase some of
the best programs to help young
men live productive lives and stay
on the right side of the law.
Among those programs is one run
by USAID and a local NGO.
It started in 2005 when
USAID’s office in Jamaica participated
in the Education for All
(EFA) Youth Challenge grant program.
EFA is a worldwide effort
spearheaded by the United Nations
to provide basic education for all
children and adults by 2015.
The program in Jamaica targeted
50 young men from the
formerly violence prone Grants
Pen community in Kingston,
who were among the thousands
of the country’s unemployed and
out-of-school youth. The aim: to
create opportunities for a better
life by addressing the educational
and employment challenges
of urban boys.
Participants ages 15 to 24 were
encouraged to take on more positive
roles in their community. The
program taught literacy, math,
business development, skills training,
and personal development.
Lessons also covered music, conflict
resolution, communication
and presentation skills, deportment,
and aquatic skills.
People’s Action for
Community Transformation
(PACT), a local NGO and
USAID partner, in association
with the Boston-based Education
Development Center, implemented
the program.
Participants Ramone Jeffrey,
Damion Stewart, and Andre
Fairclough are still part of a network
that, four years later, meets
weekly in person or by telephone.
Jeffrey, now 22, said he
recalled “seeing so many young
men stand together at the graduation
ceremony in 2007, many of
whom were probably doing nothing
and getting into trouble—
former gang members—all standing
together because they wanted
to elevate themselves.”
Fairclough said simply: “This
program was God-sent.” He found
out about it when he helped another potential participant complete
the application form.
Lorna Peddie of PACT said
that by the end of the project, the
young people had changed their
outlook and increased their selfesteem.
“Other than their training,
the project brought them an
understanding of their rights as
citizens,” she said, adding that
“they learned about their heritage
and got the chance to interact
with positive male mentors.”
Jeffrey, Stewart, and
Fairclough have started a recording
label and spend time with
producers, studio engineers, and
other professionals learning
about the industry.
While pursuing a certification
in electrical installation, Jeffrey
writes songs and is an aspiring
recording artist. Stewart, 23, juggles
plumbing with learning video
editing and production. Fairclough
is studying events and entertainment
management, honing his
keyboard skills and developing
artist management expertise in
Project Artist—an initiative sponsored
by a major corporation.
They have also developed a
business plan for a recording
studio, which will be housed in
the Grants Pen community. They
say having the studio in their
community will be their chance
to help other young people.
“We can then teach them what
we have learned about music,
how to use their voices better, and
how to work with video cameras,”
says Jeffrey.
The project participants have
dubbed themselves “Youth for
Change” and while they meet on
their own, members of the PACT
team have continued to mentor
them after the project’s end.
Grants Pen is also one of the
38 communities where USAID is
working to increase citizen participation
in security through public
education and youth engagement.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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