The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), through its Jamaica Social Stock Exchange (JSSE) subsidiary, is seeking to raise over $33 million to support three social projects after its upcoming telethon.

The telethon dubbed ‘Step up Jamaica’ is to run over three days (December 16-18) following an official launch event scheduled for December 12. The initiative in its first iteration has targeted the three projects believed to all have the potential to address a number of social ills.

They include the Choose Life Shalom project centred on mental health and wellness, Stop the Violence project led by faith based organisation, Spring Praise Jamaica Foundation and the Jamaica Music Institute (JaMIN) music entrepreneurship project sited in Trench Town, St Andrew.

The Shalom project is seeking to raise $10 million while the JaMIN project, spearheaded by Agency for Innercity Renewal Limited (AIR), wants to raise $6 million. The bulk of funds from the raise will, however, go towards the Stop the Violence project which seeks to attract funding of approximately $17 million.

These funds represent just a third of the over $100 million that the JSSE will be targeting for social projects as it moves over into the new year.

“All of these figures are for the initial start-up of the projects as they all can be scaled and applied anywhere across the country,” said Nora Blake, manager of the JSSE, speaking to the Jamaica Observer earlier this week.

In helping to raise funds for these projects the JSE, targeting primarily corporate and Diaspora support, aims to address and provide remedial action on a wide range of socio-economic issues spanning crime and violence in schools and communities, suicidal tendencies, youth unemployment, and mental health challenges especially among youngsters in the post-COVID-19 era.

Owing to slow market response to the selected projects, Blake said the intent is not only for the telethon to bring greater awareness to the social stock exchange, but to also engage sponsors and the public in making meaningful contributions towards the development of a better Jamaica. This, while they invest in initiatives that tackle the root causes of some of the major social problems plaguing the country.

“This is not just a stock exchange thing, this is a national effort to help the social sector to get the change we need and all want to see for our country. The telethon will therefore give a boost to the effort of bringing attention to some of the issues,” Blake said.

“Once we get these projects listed and secure the needed funding, early into 2023 we also want to have another round of project selections. We already have some in the pipeline, including the STAR project among some smaller ones which we could select and put out to the market for funding,” she further said to the Caribbean Business Report.

Project STAR, which is a Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ)-led social and economic transformative initiative, aims to eliminate crime and violence in communities across the island by building capacity to shape better social outcomes especially for those marginalised and at risk. The programme in engaging a mixed-financing strategy inclusive of corporate donations is to also list on the social stock exchange as it aims to attract millions in crowd funding from the Diaspora and other multilateral funding sources.

“We have received the application for Project Star, it’s a huge project so we are now working through the details to deliver on it among others in 2023,” Blake said.

The telethon, which is to be aired across the JSE’s Caribbean Business Exchange (CBX) channel and other online and media platforms, is to feature a number of entertainment packages and artist performances through which it is hoping to attract investors locally and those spread across the Diaspora in the US, UK and Canada.

Managing director of the JSE group Marlene Street Forrest speaking at a pre-launch event last week said that the social stock exchange launched in 2019 was established to connect civil society to social investors wanting to contribute to socially, culturally and environmentally responsible projects geared towards upliftment.

“We have seen the work and the support that we have been given so far having closed two projects and we have also heard the stories from those who have had their projects funded that it was well done and how much it has helped with their expansions, growth and corporate governance.

“The impact of the three [remaining] projects to be funded will be great for Jamaica based on the positive [investment] that this telethon will help us in contributing to the lives of so many,” Street Forrest said.