Raking in just about half the funds it had intended to raise from an inaugural telethon held last month, the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange (JSSE) said it remains committed to securing the full amount needed for investment in three targeted projects among others expected to come on stream in 2023.

The three projects include the Choose Life/Shalom initiative which focuses on mental health and wellness; Stop the Violence by the Spring Praise Jamaica Foundation and the Jamaica Music Institute (JaMin) music entrepreneurship programme in Trench Town, St Andrew.

The telethon, held over three days between December 16-18, had sought to raise approximately $33 million to assist the targeted projects in realising their individual objectives of facilitating mental health and suicide prevention, conflict resolution skills in schools and music entrepreneurship in volatile communities.

In dissecting the total funds, the lions share or some $17 million was earmarked for the Stop the Violence project with another $10 million for the Shalom project and the remaining $6 million for JaMin. The telethon broadcasted over the JSE’s Caribbean Business Exchange (CBX) platform and other media channels was widely supported by a number of large and small corporates, some State entities and members of the Diaspora.

Managing to raise only about 50 per cent or almost $17 million up to the end of December, manager of the JSSE Nora Blake told the Jamaica Observer that although the telethon has ended, an extension of the timeline for funding remains ongoing to allow more time for giving.

“We didn’t have a long time in the run-up to the telethon but in the short time we got, I think we did pretty well. I think we have been really blessed to have gotten the level of support we did even amid the distractions of the World Cup coupled with other Christmas preparations — so we are very thankful.

“Our articles allow us to fund the projects when they have attained a minimum of 80 per cent of the full amount. As such, it is our hope that by the end of January, we will at least get to the required mark and as a result we have extended the period of focused giving under the telethon up to January 31. We hope therefore that by then, we would have at least reached the target of the 80 per cent to be able to list them, after which we can start to operationalise the projects,” she further told the Business Observer.

“In the new year, we’re also now pushing to collect the funds, because a lot of what we have gotten were commitments,” she added.

The JSSE launched in 2019 with five initial projects across diverse project areas spanning music and culture, violence and suicide prevention and support for the disabled community has to date seen only the Deaf Can! project becoming listed on its exchange. This after the entity became the first to be fully funded after securing approximately $7.5 million in donations from the NCB Financial Group.

Targeting additional support in the new year, Blake said funds would also be solicited from other groupings across the chamber of commerce network, productive sector and religious community, a number of whose members she said were not fully approached or given the chance to participate.

“We’re therefore hoping that there might be a couple of key companies that we could tap in January, who would have wanted to support us but couldn’t at the end of the year [when the telethon was held],” she stated.

Managing director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Group Marlene Street Forrest, in her sentiments post-telethon, also said that she was heartened by the response despite the numerous challenges of the current environment. However, encouraged by the spirit of giving that has been witnessed, she welcomed more participation indicating that that the “doors remain open for donations” even beyond the Yuletide season.

Blake citing the upcoming calendar as a busy one for the JSSE, again referenced the listing of the Private Sector of Jamaica’s (PSOJ) Project Star as the next major social project on which it will give heavy focus this year following its completion of the current three.

Project Star, a social and economic transformative initiative seeks to eliminate crime and violence in volatile and marginalised communities across the island by building capacity to shape better social outcomes. Some $600 million of the over $2 billion in funds needed for this project is to be raised by the JSSE.

“We have a number of other projects in the pending file, mainly smaller ones, which we will also look at in our next round of project selection. So between these and the Star project we expect in this year to be very occupied,” Blake said.