The Joy Town Community Development Foundation (JTCDF)

The Joy Town Community Development Foundation (JTCDF) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization which was founded by Major Richard Cooke and Pastor Bobby Wilmot in 2001. It is incorporated for the specific purpose of aiding community development in Trench Town and its environs. The organization is energized by prayer to bring about positive attitudes of hope, joy and peace in the community. Strategic Objectives To facilitate and provide quality education and training for the community of Trench Town. To promote healthy life styles and reduce at risk behaviours in youth in Trench Town To support and facilitate economic endeavors in Trench Town To operate two centres of excellence providing child health services, adoloscent-friendly programmes and development of youth and community members in the performing arts To reduce violence in Trench Town and strengthen Trench Town Community Based Organizations (CBO’s) and the community’s capacity to problem solve. To make JTCDF sustainable through institutional strengthening – embed comprehensive administrative, project and evaluation systems and procedures. Value Statements JTCDF will apply a participatory and community driven approach to all areas of its work or interventions in a non-judgemental and non-discriminatory context. JTCDF will employ Bible-based principles and operate in an ethical and respectful manner in all its undertakings. JTCDF will operate in the spirit of excellence, results-oriented and in a pragmatic and timely manner. JTCDF will operate within a transparent and accountable framework taking into account the legislative and policy frameworks externally and internally. In order to fulfill the mission and realise the vision of a transformed community, the JTCDF has recognised four major thematic areas which must be addressed simultaneously in order for anyone of them to be successfully dealt with. There has to be a poverty alleviation strategy initially through financial assistance, strongly supported by initiatives to stimulate sustainable economic activity.  Concomitantly, measures must be taken to significantly improve existing education offerings and provide new and appropriate opportunities.   A critical component supplementary to any education and training is a healthy lifestyle and life skills programme, inculcating wholesome values and attitudes and promoting effective parenting skills.  There can be no sustainable interventions in any of the inner-city communities without an effective strategy for significant violence reduction leading to sustainable violence prevention. The JTCDF recognises that it will require the collaboration of most if not all of the government agencies, community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations and other stake holders in Trench Town to successfully address all four thematic areas, at once.  Collaboration and also the facilitation of service entities enabling them to effectively bring their services to the community will, therefore, be a major part of the JTCDF’s agenda. Because of the long term nature of the mission, the Foundation will institute programmes appropriate for each stage of the process, but when at all possible, these programmes will be executed as a series of discrete but inter-linked projects.