Community Building in Jamaica

“YES! The church people dem a bring back di place!”
(In other words: the church people are restoring what has gone missing in our community)

This was the enthusiastic comment of one man from Majesty Gardens to the Fusion volunteers, as a community Festival that he had been “taking in” drew to a close. After several weeks of violence and 3 murders just in the previous 4 days, Fusion worked with volunteers from three churches within Majesty Gardens and several other churches from out of the community to hold 3 days of festivals over the Easter weekend of 2010. The festivals were held on the borderline between the rival sections of the community and the result was a reintegration of the community and two months before any further violence took place.

See highlights of the festival at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhFTsUDJMrs&feature=channel

This reduction in violence is a regular result of this type of community intervention, but Fusion is more focused on the ongoing work of growth in the lives of individuals than just the events themselves. What was significant about the festivals in Majesty Gardens is that over half of the volunteer team that was serving and making this impact on the community were young people who have been attending Basketball clubs, Day Trips, Youth Bible Discusions (etc.) run by Fusion.

Fusion Centres are established in response to research into local need, so that we are aware of services that are already provided and are helping to fill the gaps rather than replicate the work of other groups, so in Jamaica this has resulted in:

• Community festivals designed to build connection, social cohesion and trust in fragmented communities.
• Monthly Youth Day Trips for teens, building cooperation and problem solving skills
• Lunchtime programmes in schools, providing positive role modeling and mentoring for teens.
• “Yard Flexx” youth discussion times to equip new young Christians in their early discipleship
• Youth Drop in centres
• Providing sociology and youth psychology training for community workers and school Teachers
• Value based Kids Clubs for children aged 4 – 11
• Family Day Trips
• Providing basic First Aid Training
• Designing and running a “Journey to Freedom” Pilgrimage where Jamaican young people and those from other cultures take a journey to key places of Jamaica’s history to identify with the Jamaican story while actively serving local communities.

Information and support

If you would like to receive information about how you can support the work of Fusion Caribbean either in prayer, by lending a hand, by telling others about us or financially then please contact us.