Organizational Development in Kingston, Jamaica

Seven Americans with disabilities left the snow-dusted hills surrounding Buffalo, New York and headed for the warmth of Jamaica for a U.S. Department of State-funded Partners of the Americas exchange program. With both cultural and professional goals, they sought to deepen the relationships they had built with disability organizations in Jamaica through previous collaborations.

All Partners exchanges pair counterparts from the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean. The U.S. individuals represented the Western New York Chapter of Partners and the Western New York Independent Living Project of Buffalo, New York. The latter, a disability organization, provides support services, programs for consumers with developmental and psychiatric disabilities, and community services.

The Jamaican partner, the Abilities Foundation, teaches vocational skills like cabinet making, garment construction, horticulture and information technology to youth with disabilities between the ages of 17 and 19. Joy James, the Foundation’s coordinator of Guidance and Counseling, describes the Abilities Foundation as “an institution that empowers persons with disabilities, equipping them to find themselves out there in the world of work.” She says the most exciting part of her job is assisting trainees to resolve some of the complex issues they come to her with. “I help them to find solutions. Part of my responsibility is to make sure trainees are given work experience for one month. What excites me is to interact with the business world and help them to accommodate our students.”

Building upon previous collaboration through the Partners of the Americas, the participating organizations in this exchange first identified a set of skills to enhance the services of the Abilities Foundation. Then the U.S. exchange participants focused on four strategic goals:

1) teaching website development,

2) starting a vending services program,

3) developing fundraising strategies and

4) creating a curriculum plan.

They also planned an exchange bringing their Jamaican counterparts to the US for the following summer.

The U.S. group comprised a diverse set of talents, backgrounds and disabilities including mobility impairment (both cerebral palsy and arthritis), diabetes and mental disability. Due to accessibility requirements that could not be provided through homestays, they stayed at a hotel just a short cab ride from the exchange site. Some participants required refrigeration for medication at the hotel, others needed accessible shower/bath facilities (like a roll-in shower) and accessible entrance/exit requirements such as ramps and elevators. Participants easily adapted to accommodations and cab drivers quickly became familiar with the participants’ needs for getting to and from the exchange site.

Because each exchange participant had experience in one of the four areas of interest identified by the Abilities Foundation, each was assigned to work on one of these goals. The program consisted of meetings and classes held with staff and/or students. Soon the value of the partnership became apparent as excited students in the HTML class turned their coding into a website and expressed themselves on their own web pages.

Participants had touched upon differences between the belief systems and disability movements of Jamaica and the United States prior to travel, yet all emerged from the program with a better understanding of disability in each other’s countries. They found that both countries had many disability issues in common. Geraldine Brown, a garment construction instructor at the Abilities Foundation, explained, “You have to break down ignorance, show what people with disabilities are able to do, so that everybody can see [their abilities].”

Brown, who has had a disability from an early age, learned her trade by sitting at her grandmother’s bench. One day her father bought some beautiful material for clothing and a hired dressmaker made a mess of it. From then on, Brown did the work herself. She attended a class of nondisabled students at the opposition of some class instructors. By the end of the class, she was one of the best students. Her teacher attributed her success to her goals, saying “Of all the students, you knew the reason why you want to be here.” Brown wants her disabled peers to pursue their goals too, just as she did.

Mitsy Mills, coordinator of curriculum development at Abilities Foundation, has a similar viewpoint and a unique way of encouraging her students to pursue new goals. Each week she puts up a “Thought of the Week” on the classroom bulletin board and starts each class with a joke. Her students say, “Where did you get all these jokes?” And she replies, “The Internet.” And they say, “I want to learn to get online!” With techniques like these, the devoted staff of the Abilities Foundation has enabled success for a number of students with disabilities in Jamaica.

While the U.S. participants felt that they contributed to the main strategic goals of the Abilities Foundation, everyone involved in the program enjoyed simply learning about one another’s cultures. They forged partnerships and friendships, not just in structured classes, but also in casual conversations with each other. Everyone learned tremendously from the exchange and participants made significant progress toward each of the four goals. The Jamaica-Western New York Partners exchange program resulted in a strong friendship between the participating organizations and also strengthened each in its own way.

Resources

Partners of the Americas, a private, nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, pairs U.S. states with Latin American and Caribbean countries in partnerships for cultural and technical exchange. With more than sixty partnerships, the organization seeks to improve the quality of life in the Americas through reciprocal exchange programs.

Local communities of volunteers run the partnerships in their areas. They plan and carry out a variety of technical assistance and cultural exchange activities in the fields of agriculture, the arts, community education, disability prevention, disaster relief, emergency preparedness, health, rehabilitation, sports and many other areas. For a complete list of Partners chapters, contact the organization or visit its website:

Partners of the Americas
1424 K Street NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005 USA
Tel: (202) 628-3300
Fax: (202) 628-3306
E-mail: info@partners.net 

The Abilities Foundation
191 Constant Spring Road
Kingston 10, Jamaica, West Indies
Tel: (876) 969-5720
Fax: (876) 969-5721
E-mail: info@abilitiesfoundation.org

The Abiliites Foundation has also received grant funding from Caribbean Community Foundation.