Montego Bay, 19 December 2019 – Jamaica – Social Services Manager at the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Gresford Bennett, says the entity has pumped more than $300 million into its Alternative Livelihood Skills Development Programme (ALSDP), which channels social interventions for unattached youth.
The ALSDP targets close to 6,000 youth
in 18 underserved communities across seven parishes, and provides training in
different areas, including event production, film, and digital animation. They are drawn from St. Ann, Clarendon, St. James,
Westmoreland, Kingston and St. Andrew, and St. Catherine.
The
initiative is a component of the World Bank-funded Integrated Community
Development Project (ICDP), which runs from 2014 to 2020. The latest engagement to be initiated under
the ALSDP is the Event Production Skills Training Programme, which was implemented
by JSIF in partnership with the M-Academy, the training institute of the Main
Event Entertainment Group, at a cost of $21 million
The
second cohort of 32 participants, from Western Jamaica, were presented with
their certificates during a graduation ceremony at the Grandiosa Hotel in
Montego Bay, St. James, on Monday (December 16).
Speaking
at the ceremony, Mr. Bennett noted that the ALSDP is designed to create
opportunities for meaningful employment for young people.
“The
objective is to rapidly move young people from the corner of their homes to a
training facility and to actually earn money,” he stated.
Mr.
Bennett said the ALSDP is distinctly different from other training programmes
in that it is structured to meet the needs of unattached youth in the 18
targeted underserved communities.
“You
might ask why we would do a programme like this, given the existence of a
national training agency. The answer lies in what we saw in 18 communities
across seven parishes that the Integrated Community Development Programme was
mandated to operate in – several young people with various levels of education
and sometimes multiple engagement with various training programmes,” Mr.
Bennett said.
He added
that JSIF found young people whom he described as “professional trainees”.
“[Due
to] the stipend [involved], they try to attach themselves to a number of
training programmes… and it just seemed as though the training [programmes
were] becoming an occupation. We wanted to change that [hence the advent of the
ALSDP],” Mr. Bennett said.
Some 106 young people from 18 inner-city
communities across Jamaica have now benefited from the Event Production Skills
Training Programme, since the initiative’s introduction in April 2019.
Contact: Nickieta Sterling
Release: JIS
Photo Captions:
Header: Social Services Manager at the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Gresford Bennett, speaking at JSIF’s Alternative Livelihood Skills Development Programme (ALSDP) Event Production Training graduation ceremony for participants from western Jamaica, at Grandiosa Hotel in Montego Bay, St. James, on Monday (December 16).
Insert: Social Services Manager at the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Gresford Bennett (left), presents a Certificate of Completion and a Main Event Entertainment Group Limited care bag to Cazema Campbell, one of 32 persons from western Jamaica who participated in JSIF’s Alternative Livelihood Skills Development Programme (ALSDP) Event Production Training, during Monday’s (December 16) graduation ceremony at the Grandiosa Hotel in Montego Bay, St. James.
Photos by Nickieta Sterling