New York, USA -A wellness centre, believed to be the first of its kind at a Jamaican school, has been established at the Maverley Primary and Infant school in inner-city Maverley, St Andrew, at a cost of $2 million.

People Profile Foundation, the Florida-based non-profit behind the centre, said it will offer counselling and therapeutic services, and will be equipped with reading materials, a television, and games that will serve the entire community.

Plans for a wellness centre as a means of addressing behavioural issues and the effects of violence in the socially deprived community have been a long-standing goal of the school.

“The facility, named after past student Sandra Christie Brown, will benefit not just the 370 students who attend our school but the staff, parents, and the entire community,” a press statement from the foundation said.

Brown worked with the foundation, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daiell Cova, and several non-governmental organisations to raise the funds to finance the much-heralded wellness centre.

Principal of the school Valentine Lawrence told the Jamaica Observer he was excited about the decision to extend the services beyond the school, saying: “We recognise that the school is part of the wider community and that we all face the same set of challenges. Our guidance counsellors will be able to use the facility to assist those students with behavioural issues, trauma, and the like.”

Dr Allan Cunningham who founded People Profile eight years ago, said the organisation was “proud to have led the way in having the centre established at the school and we hope that it will act as a game changer in the community”.

Apart from its charitable work, People Profile also seeks to highlight the plight and achievements of people within the Jamaican community in the United States and elsewhere, Cunningham noted.

He said that people who had done and continued to do extraordinary things in the community are also recognised among them: Dwayne Wade, the former Miami Heat basketball star and husband of actress Gabrielle Union; legendary American singer Melba Moore; and Alcee Hastings, the late Democratic congressman.

Established in 1955 as an elementary school, Maverley Primary and Infant, located in a community which was built on the former estate of Briton John Maverley, has transitioned over the years since.

It first operated as an all age and later as a junior high school up to 2018, during which an early childhood department was added, the press statement noted.