Residents of East Kingston are calling for quality homework programmes and access to the internet to assist children living in the community. They also want more job opportunities and sports programmes to engage the young people in a positive way.

The residents, who are from the communities of Parade Gardens and Rose Garden, made their needs known during a town hall meeting organised by Project STAR at the East Queen Street Baptist Church in Kingston, recently.

“The young people need jobs. We are also interested in getting assistance for people who have their small business,” said Paulette, a resident from East Kingston, who also noted that there was a need for housing solutions.

For Keisha Lewis, a resident of Parade Gardens, the community is in need of sports programmes that will keep both the community members active and young people engaged.

“We are talking about football for the men, but what about netball for the girls? Obesity is real,” she said, while noting that the community needed sports programmes to keep them active and healthy to stave off non-communicable diseases.

Saffrey Brown, project director at Project STAR, said the town hall meeting was held to collaborate and get community feedback. She expounded that these suggestions would be analysed by the Community Transformation Boards (CTBs) and act as a guide for the development of intervention programmes that will be undertaken by Project STAR.

“We are aiming to work with community stakeholders to address the socio-economic outcomes. This is not a violence prevention programme; this is about improving the socio-economic conditions. If you improve the socio- economic conditions, you will end up increasing the resilience of communities,” she stated.

Brown said so far, Project STAR has established community-led CTBs in Rose Garden and Parade Gardens, with eight CTB meetings held and 1,700 community members consulted to date.

Meanwhile, on the pathways to employment initiative, 48 community members from East Kingston were trained in employment readiness; 19 of the first cohort of 21 were placed in quality employment and the team is now placing the 27 participants from cohort two, who completed their training, recently.

On the social inclusion side of the project, 472 community members have benefited from Project STAR programmes. As of February 28, 205 children were being provided with school meals daily under its recently launched school feeding programme in four early childhood institutions in East Kingston; 87 young persons have been engaged in the community sports programme, and 15 unattached young men streamed into Project STAR programmes.

There were also 20 referrals of fathers to the PATH Programme and 100 elderly residents were provided with meals, care packages and access to health care.

In terms of psycho-social support, Project STAR has screened 32 individuals, delivered 25 counseling sessions with the relevant partners, conducted 18 home visits and three referrals for victim services.

Project STAR is a social and economic transformation initiative created by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force; it is driven by communities to bring about societal transformation through targeted interventions in under- resourced areas of Jamaica.