Positive feedback, strong partnerships and an emphatic endorsement from an international supporter gladdened the hearts of The MultiCare Youth Foundation (MYF) team during their August 25 site visits to eight of the Foundation’s interns.
Young Chadrick Nation had been offered permanent employment by the Hope Zoo where he was interning; enthusiastic Craysho Mattis was hailed as outstanding and “executive material” by his host organisation, the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), and provided with an impressive recommendation. And, Devaughn Gentles, one of two young men interning at the Denham Town Police Station, is considering a career in law enforcement. All eight interns visited reported benefitting from their experiences in the world of work. They included Tyreese Campbell interning at the Denham Town Police Station; Usain Saunders and Ramone Gordon at Hope Zoo, and D’Jean Constable and Kevoan McGregor interning at WIHCON Properties Limited (WPL). WPL is a member of the ICD Group and sister organisation to The MultiCare Youth Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the ICD Group.
These young men, from underserved communities and assessed as being at medium to high risk of becoming involved in crime or violence, are beneficiaries of MYF’s YUTE For Tomorrow Project funded by USAID through FHI360’s Local Partner Development (LPD) Programme. Their internship is one, usually the final of the Foundation’s five “pillars” offered to their protégées. The others are Vocational Skills; Life Skills delivered with the Passport to Success (PTS) Curriculum; the Jamaican model of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Transforming Our Perspective (TOP CBT) and individual mentoring. Highlighting the critical role of Internship, MYF Project Manager Taneshia Stoney Dryden notes:
“Internship is important for a variety of reasons, apart from just teaching life skills. Going into internship, that’s the real world, and that’s how they implement the PTS life skills that we have taught them, in the real world situation. We know the realities of the boys in the inner cities, and being in corporate Jamaica is an exposure for them; it is telling them of the possibility of life beyond their community walls. It’s also to change their thought process from an ‘It’s us against them’ versus an ‘outer city’ viewpoint, for them to be a part of the mainstream. For example, working and internship means that they each had to get a bank account. A significant number of Jamaican youth are ‘unbankable’. So it’s just mainstreaming them, that’s really what the project sets out to do. To have them show up as their best self.”
Joining Mrs. Stoney Dryden and the MYF team were FHI360 LPD Chief of Party, Morana Smodlaka Krajnović and her associates: Youth Crime & Violence Prevention Specialist Machel Stewart, Shayzan McBeam, Assistant Project Manager, Office of Citizens Security, USAID and Geraldine Simmons-Grant, Manager, LPD.. Taking a keen interest in the interns and their progress were: MYF Executive Director Alicia Glasgow Gentles Mentoring & Counselling Officer Janike Banton-Morris, and Monitoring & Evaluation Officer Minkah Amen-Ra as well as CUSO Volunteer Cadienne English who was responsible for their job placement through the MYF.
Mrs. Smodlaka Krajnović noted that FHI360’s Local Partner Development Programme was “about partnering with Jamaican organisations with Jamaican led initiatives, to support and to deliver youth crime and violence prevention” and pointed out a number of related aspects she appreciated about the YUTE For Tomorrow Project. These included the partnerships between private sector, government and civic entities, as demonstrated by the internship hosts visited on the tour. As she put it, “All these entities MultiCare manages to bring together, all these people believing in coming together to give young people a chance to do something constructive with their lives.”
The LPD Chief of Party also commended Programme features such as preparing the young people through the Passport to Success (PTS) life skills curriculum, matching them with mentors, and the recent addition of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), in partnership with the LPD Programme. She was also impressed with The MYF’s personal touch, she added, noting:
“We see how every single person from the organisation knows each young person – they know them by name, they know their background, they know their story, and I feel that is part of the young people knowing that someone cares about them. I think it is really the crucial part of the success.”
While acknowledging that crime prevention is a complex challenge that can be long term, Mrs. Smodlaka Krajnović notes, “For now, every young person that we keep away from a gang, that we keep away from the streets, that’s a success!”
