From campers to changemakers

At 25, Amanda Hendricks is building a life that once seemed difficult to imagine. Today, she has a steady job, a supportive team around her and a renewed determination to pursue her education and career goals. Before becoming involved with Project STAR, the Parade Gardens resident described herself as withdrawn and uncomfortable around people. She often isolated herself and found it difficult to open up or socialise. Taking the first step towards employment was therefore about much more than finding a job; it meant confronting fears and pushing herself beyond the boundaries she had created around her life.

That newfound confidence is what Project STAR hoped to spark when it brought together 50 teenagers from five communities for its inaugural residential Youth Summer Leadership Camp. Under the theme ‘Arise. Change. Believe.’, the four-day, three-night camp brought together youth ages 15 to 18 from Rose Gardens and Parade Gardens in Kingston, Salt Spring in St James, Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland, and May Pen in Clarendon.

Project STAR, the social and economic transformation initiative that targets under-resourced and under-served communities across Jamaica, will continue beyond its original five-year timeline after independent evaluations found that the programme has been delivering measurable results and remains faithful to its development model.