Christmas treats strengthen community bonds, unity

Project STAR successfully hosted its SPARK! Youth Innovation Summer Camp, engaging teenagers from Rose Gardens and Parade Gardens in Kingston; May Pen in Clarendon; and Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland. The camp provided a safe, structured, and inspiring space for young people aged 13–16 years to explore entrepreneurship, personal development, and emerging career opportunities in STEM and the creative industries.

Project STAR has officially launched its Kicking Forward Football Programme in May Pen, Clarendon, marking a significant milestone as the initiative expands into a fifth community. Marlon Moore, Youth & Sports Coordinator, shared that the programme is not just about introducing football sessions but implementing a deliberate framework of youth engagement and behavioural change.

This newspaper feels compelled to enthusiastically applaud a “community hub” initiative, organised monthly by the private sector-led Project STAR which supports some of Jamaica’s most impoverished neighbourhoods. A story in this newspaper this week relates how the latest such session in downtown Kingston involved collaboration between PATH and National Commercial Bank (NCB) in assisting locals to be registered on the spot for welfare benefits and banking services.