Jamaica
’s generally accepted number one problem is crime. The main perpetrators and victims
of crime are unemployed men between 14 and 25 years old from, with very low literacy
level from single parent families.
These men are most often found on the corners of the inner cities hustling and doing
very little productive and a lot along the road to a life of crime.
These men started life with little opportunity, poor values and attitudes, poor
education and negative life skills training.
This project will target 150 males who are simply hustling on the corner and provide
them with amongst other things remedial education, basic IT training and lifeskills
training.
On completion of the 14 month initial project a further 150 males will be brought
into the program for the 12 month training and development component. YOU would
be working with community stakeholders during the first 14 month program to identify
students to take part in subsequent 12 month phases.
The project will seek to bring the men back into school, into jobs in the traditional
workforce or into self employment. “The devil finds work of idle hands”.
This project seeks to put useful skills into the idle hands of these men and positive
values and attitudes into their minds.
The project will be for inner cities
with a high unemployed male population and high crime rate.
The overall goal of the project
is to “kickstart” these males back into the mainstream system from which they have
dropped out and on their current path have little chance of getting back into.
The project will be for 150 men
in any targeted inner city community predominately aged 14-25, unemployed and have
dropped out of school and/or never been formally employed. They will be the ones
mainly “on the corners”.
After the project the majority of
the participants will either;
-
Be re-entered into the formal school
system
-
Find a job in the traditional workforce
-
Start their own business
The participants will amongst other
things be taught;
-
Positive values and attitudes
-
Lifeskills
-
Basic information technology
-
Designing and implementing community
based projects
-
How to start and operate a small
business
During an 8 week training program participants
will be provided with the requisite skills, both practical and social to enable
the participants to better fit into their community and society as a whole.
At the end of the project there will be an
awards ceremony and end of project function highlighting the best projects and success
stories of the project. It will also be used to recognize the many volunteers, sponsors
and stakeholders in the project.
In order to keep the interest and focus of
the participants the programme will be heavily biased to practical rather than theoretical
concepts. These concepts will be realized in projects that will be the results of
the training given.
The projects and exercises will also have fun
components to ensure the programme is highly motivational.
A key component is the implementation of 30
community projects, one from each of the 30 groups of 5 participants. These projects
will be simple projects in the community to teach the participants how to design
and implement projects that can enhance the community from which they have come.
Eight weeks per cohort was chosen as an optimum
period of time as to hold the focus of the unattached male for more than 8 weeks
will prove difficult. Also an unattached male between 15 – 25, the target audience
can on a normal day “hustle” JA$1000 from washing windows of cars at traffic lights,
general “begging a money”, rarely less than JA$100 (a bills), watching someone parked
car and giving it protection, small theft etc. This totals JA$30,000 per month on
average.
A program for much longer
would thus be less enticing as the financial loss would be a disincentive.