Tomorrow’s Children Programme

Tomorrow’s Children is an integrated arts project for children aged, 5 to 14 years from different socio-economic backgrounds. The project recognizes our children as our nation’s most valued asset and seeks to preserve this vision by presenting opportunities for them to integrate their emotions, actions and intelligences, thereby performing at their optimal levels. The creative process is seen as being critical to this development and as such the arts are engaged to create a nurturing environment where the growth of authentic, enquiring young minds is encouraged. Varied forms of artistic expression including bizart, culinary arts, music, drama, dance, photography and the visual arts provide the channels through which the participants develop their artistic/expressive abilities, self-confidence and the ability to interact positively with others. Educational/recreational field trips are also used to further provide opportunities for socializing and exchange between the children.

The Tomorrow’s Children Project has three broad complementary objectives:

1.  to bring together groups of children who on an everyday basis live in exclusive worlds, and to re-socialize them through the arts to a common understanding of themselves as citizens of the same country;

2.  to stimulate the creative imagination of this cross-section of Jamaican children to explore and develop their internal resources, simultaneously encouraging them to refine their sensibilities and heighten their appreciation of their physical and social environments, and

3.  to use the creative process to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of our nation’s children.

For the achievement of the above-mentioned objectives, a wide cross-section of social groupings will be tapped to identify and integrate 40 children into the programme. They will be selected from the communities of downtown Kingston, Spanish Town, Portmore and the Greater Papine area through the schools and community centres. This is to ensure that the composition of the group reflects a dynamic mix of children from different circumstances and at different levels of accomplishment and need.

The programme will serve to level the playing field for these participants by instilling in them a sense of community and by providing equal opportunities for them to develop holistically through the arts. The activities to be undertaken will allow for the development of their creative and intellectual abilities; to enhance their self-expression; to enrich their social skills; and to assist them to heal from their mental/emotional hurts.

Partners of the Americas is a private, nonprofit, non-partisan organization headquartered in Washington D.C. that develops leadership, understanding and opportunity in the Western Hemisphere. This is done primarily through the work of dedicated citizen volunteers throughout the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as through federally- and privately- funded programs.

Partners has a “people to people” philosophy, which grew out of a call by President John F. Kennedy in 1962 for citizens of the Western Hemisphere to work together. Jim Boren, one of its founders, inspired by this challenge envisioned a two-way network of volunteer partnerships that would interchange within the Americas. This vision has evolved today into 120 volunteer chapters linked with overall North/South partnerships. Each of the organization’s partnerships links a state or region in the U.S. with an area in Latin America or the Caribbean. For example, Buffalo is partnered with Jamaica.

The partnerships are aimed at building cultural awareness, respect and camaraderie. They create and implement projects that improve the quality of life of others. Both sides work together on community based projects. Emphasis is given to activities that enhance the quality of life of women and their families, provide income generating opportunities to young people and adults, increase food supplies and strengthen the capacity of community organizations. Through these processes the participants become leaders in their communities. There is even the possibility of cross-cultural exchange where one partnership visits another to aids its development.

The Jamaica Chapter is one of Partner’s 60 chapters through which some 7,000 volunteers work together to improve the quality of life of people by addressing areas such as Gender & Equality, Youth & Children, and Agriculture & Environment.

VISION

Partnering to improve lives through volunteerism.

MISSION

To work together as citizen volunteers to create opportunities for social development and empowerment through knowledge sharing and partnership.

GOALS

• To build a network of permanent linkages among people, institutions and communities.

• To create and implement projects that improve the quality of life of citizens of Jamaica.

• To promote authentic situations that will help members acquire a strong sense of personal worth, leadership and a spirit of volunteerism.

COMMITTEES