ADVOCACY THROUGH THE ARTS

Through the Resolution Project, young people across Jamaica provide insight into the issues that affect their communities. Through photographs, they share their lives with us. To get involved, make donations or find out more about the Resolution Project, and all our other inspiring projects, visit our website at www.jnfoundation.com, email us at foundation@jnbs.com or call us at (876) 922-4931.

Ready, Aim, Inspire...The Resolution Project, formerly called

Youth Zoom, is the annual advocacy through photography competition programme of the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) Foundation. Conceptualised by Earl Jarrett, General Manager of JNBS in 2004, the project equips and trains students in rural Jamaica in the art of photography and advocacy. By providing the necessary tools for young people to capture positive and negative images in their Jamaican communities, Resolution Project is inspiring students to speak up and speak out on issues that affect them, and become advocates for change.

Saffrey Brown, General Manager of the JNBS Foundation says that each year “an average of 250 students from 40 schools participate in the workshop and competition programme,” which is implemented with the support from the United Nations Population Fund and the Gleaner Company Jamaica Ltd.

Ms. Brown maintains the student participants are the catalysts who allow for the lives of others in their communities to be enhanced. She citied a photograph taken by students at The Manning’s High School in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland a few years ago, which exposed the graffitied state of the walls on the school compound. “When the photos appeared in the public domain, both the students and the school management were so embarrassed that they worked together to paint the walls and clean up their act.“

That, she says, is a great example of how one young person can inspire corrective action. “The

students stood up and protected their right to attend a clean school," said Brown.

Each participating school is provided with a camera and encouraged to establish photography clubs to ensure the continuity of the project from year to year.

RESOLUTION PROJECT: CHANGING THE WORLD THROUGH PICTURES

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Resolution Project Workshop, Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, October 2010

‘Where I call Home’ (2009)Judene HutchinsonAscot High School

TIVOLI RESOLUTION PROJECTTIVOLI RESOLUTION PROJECTTIVOLI RESOLUTION PROJECT

Ten teenage boys who were detained as part of the joint police and military operation in their Western Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens during May 2010, have become advocates for change through the use of photography.

An extension of the Resolution Project, the Tivoli and Denham Town High School students participated in a two-week photography camp at the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre this past summer (August 16 to 26). The project is managed in collaboration with Chichibud, a Jamaican non-profit organisation involved in community development.

A novel application of the project, “ the Tivoli programme created an outlet for the adolescents to creatively channel their energy, and learn to control and create positive images of themselves - two key components of rebuilding self-esteem and confidence,” says Rebecca Tortello, Director of Chichibud.

Students were given cameras donated by the JNBS Foundation and taught the basics of photography, while receiving counseling and psychosocial support.

“During the two weeks, they created photo journals exploring aspects of themselves and their communities through images and words of their choice.” Each student has two photographs printed and mounted in the Tivoli Resolution Project roving exhibition, which began at the

Grosvenor Galleries in Kingston during October 2010, Dr. Tortello adds.

She also noted that, “Art therapy has long been used as a tool for individual expression, and digital photography is of particular interest to teens as the barriers to entry are low. All that is required on their part is a willingness to pick up a camera and try.”

According to Clinical psychologist, Dr. Tammy Haynes, photographer, Max Earle; art therapist, Rozie Chung; and videographer, Mike Robinson, the response was encouraging. Although the team would have liked to have had the participation of girls in the programme, it allowed them to focus all their attention on the boys who are, in fact, “generally more at-risk in effectively managing this kind of trauma,”

Dr. Haynes opined. Devon Griffiths, who is in grade 10 at the Tivoli Gardens High School, was one of the participants. Guardedly expressing his own thoughts on the joint police and military operation in their community, Devon spoke openly

about his future. An aspiring lawyer, he believes that profession will help him to secure a financially stable future for his family.

“I want to get my mother out of the ghetto and give her a better life,” he says. However, Devon wishes that the perception of his community would change.

The community I come from is where they say the youths are handling guns, but we don’t let anything bother us because it’s not where you come from, it’s what you do and what you want to become in life. Plenty doctors, teachers, lawyers come from the ghetto,” he exclaimed.

Commenting on the benefit the teenagers derived from the programme,

The courage to look inward, the determination to move forward...

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Photo taken by Shavaugne Carnagie, Tivoli Resolution Project Photographer

Photo taken by Tremaine Harris, Tivoli Resolution Project Photograhper

Tivoli Resolution Project:

Design for effectiveness1. Assessing mental healthBaseline mental health measures were conducted through psychometric assessments. These assessments provided the Therapy team with current diagnostic parameters of any existing disorder such as PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, Conduct Disorder, Acute Stress or Adjustment disorders.

2. Treatment OutcomesThese assessments provided the baseline needed in tracking the treatment outcome.

3. Phase ICommunity initially engaged through the use of phototherapy. This phase developed rapport and introduced discussion of the psychological issues requiring attention. The phase is completed by an exhibition of the participant’s photographs beginning the dialogue of their experience.

4. Phase IIPhase II will implement the therapeutic intervention of individual and art therapy on an ongoing basis in the inner-city communities. The therapy will be conducted by trained clinical psychologists and art therapists free of cost to members of the community.

5. Therapy InterventionsAssessment and therapy will be conducted on a chosen day every week and will be advertised throughout the community. The therapeutic team will also perform trauma interventions in the communities of Tivoli Gardens.Tracking and measurement of outcome will occur at three month intervals over the course of the pilot.

Earl Jarrett, Chairman of the JNBS Foundation said, “The results of the project have exceeded initial expectations, in that, the photographs have not only assisted in rebuilding the students’ confidence as part of the healing process, but have also inspired action on the part of stakeholders in the wider society to find solutions to the problems at hand.”

“Inspiring individuals, communities, as well as decision-makers in the public and private sectors, is what the Resolution Project is all about. Through the project, teenagers are raising awareness of the issues specific to them, with the larger goal of creating a wave of change and prompting greater public involvement in the process,” he concluded.

Grosvenor Galleries and Tivoli Community Centre, Jamaica Showcase Youth Photographs

The Grosvenor Galleries in Kingston hosted a two-week exhibition featuring the photography and writing of the teenagers from Tivoli Gardens involved in the Tivoli Resolution Project. The exhibition was launched on Saturday, October 23, 2010.  The exhibition moved to the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre on November 24.

Jamaican Consul General in New York Hosts Tivoli Resolution Project Exhibition

The photographs taken by students involved in the Tivoli Resolution Project will be exhibited as a special event to be held at the Consulate General of Jamaica in New York on February 25, 28 and March 1, 2011, under the patronage of Consul General, Mrs. Geneive Brown-Metzger.

The Jamaican Consulate in New York is involved to help rally support for the project from Jamaicans living in the tri-state area; and, to highlight the need to provide further opportunities for young people in the devastated community, stated Mrs. Brown-Metzger.

“The photographs are striking, in that, they tell the stories of a people stricken by grief and devastation; but, also chronicle the process of healing and the determination of young people to build hope for the future.” she pointed out.

Tivoli Resolution Project Photographer Max Earle (left) and Art Therapist Rozi Chung (3rd left) take the young men on a tour of the Grosvenor Galleries lat year. With them is gallery owner Douglas Reid (4th right).

Max Earle (left) explains the theme of one of the photographs to a guest at the Grosvenor Galleries Exhibition during October, 2010.

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A section of the high rise apartments in Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston, Jamaica

Youth Picture Sparks ChangeEven before young photojournalist Tristan Rodney snapped the image that won him the

top individual prize for Best Photo in the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) Foundation 2006/2007 photography competition, he clearly understood the importance of advocacy. The Clarendon College fourth former and hundreds of other students who entered the competition had received training in photography and comprehensive instruction on how to articulate the plight of their subjects.

What Tristan was yet to grasp, however, was the power of his photograph. Nor did he realise the extent to which his entry, 'Poverty - Two Old Ladies', would prompt collective action to transform the harsh reality of the subjects - two elderly women - Elizabeth 'Liz' Hall, more than 90 years old, and her caregiver Maude 'Dora' Powell, who reside in Breezy Hill, Four Paths, Clarendon.

On reviewing the photograph, the JNBS Foundation was compelled to visit the ladies at their home to assess their living conditions. And, on establishing the need, sought collaborative assistance from Food For the Poor, who agreed to accompany the team on a second visit. What they found was two high-spirited, yet grossly deprived aging women, living alone in an untenable situation.

Liz and Dora had lived together for two years, as Dora, who was first engaged as a house maid, was no longer able to make the daily trip down the steep walkway to her own home two miles away at the bottom of the hill. Neither had received medical care in years, and the house in which they resided was in a state of disrepair, with dangerously widening gaps in its walls. There was no furniture inside the structure with the exception of two very old beds where the ladies lay their heads at night. An outdoor makeshift toilet about 60 feet away in the woods could not be used at night, and was a difficult trek for the feeble women. They cooked sparse meals on a fireside outdoors, and Dora accessed water from a standpipe on neighbouring lands, but was only able to collect small amounts at a time.

Moved by the plight of the two ladies, the response from Food For the Poor (FFP) was positive and immediate. FFP provided the senior citizens with a two-bedroom, two-bathroom home. The home was furnished with new beds, lamps, armoires, chest of drawers, night stands and wardrobes, a sofa, a gas stove, towels and linen, pillows and blankets, table and chairs, food items and utensils. Additionally, arrangements were made for them to receive medical examinations and treatment.

For his entry, Tristan also won a bronze medal in the 2006 Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s Visual Arts Competition.

‘Two Old Ladies’

‘Who Cares’ 2007 Best PhotoCamelia Coke, Spanish Town High School

‘Lock of Ages’ (2009)Brian Morgan, Manchester High School

‘Latrine Courtesy’ (2009)Milton Hanson, Spot Valley High School

Earl Jarrett (left), Chairman, JNBS Foundation examines the Best Photo in the 2009 Resolution Project Competition with photographer Milton Hanson

of Spot Valley High School n St. James