WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — Residents and stakeholders of the Savanna-la-Mar communities of Cooke Street, Seaton Crescent, Harmony Town and New Market Oval are drafting a community transformation plan that will guide the work that will be delivered under Project STAR in their communities.

Some 30 individuals comprising educators, entrepreneurs, parents, youth and members of the Savanna-la-Mar Community Transformation Board (CTB), hammered out the plan at the final of a series of working sessions facilitated by Project STAR at the Source Centre on Barracks Road in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

Saffrey Brown, project director of Project STAR, said that the planning sessions provide an outline of the community transformation plan, which will state what the strategies are and form an action plan for the communities.

“Once the plan is fully prepared, the community members and stakeholders involved in its formation will present the action plan to the community to get consensus and sign off and the aim is to start implementing the community transformation plan within the next 60 days,” she said.

Brown further noted that across the STAR communities there are similar issues highlighted by the community members, including weak family structures and high levels of unemployment.

“What we find is that the community members recognise that weak family structures need to be addressed in a real and comprehensive way and to make sure that families are getting the support and the services they need in order to develop and thrive for themselves,” she said.

“The other issue has to do with economics and the difficulties around unemployment and entrepreneurship, and again, to ensure that we find pathways that individuals feel that they can participate in,” continued Brown, noting that unemployment in STAR communities is significantly higher than the national average.

Clayton Parchment, founder of the Westmoreland Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre who participated in the session, said that he was happy to contribute.

“The community knows itself. The stakeholders have suggestions and ideas, but there must be a convergence of those two, and the community must be the central focus in terms of contributing what their true needs are and how best they can be implemented,” he said.

Betram Johnson, a member of the CTB, said that it is important to have stakeholders on board.

“I think this is a very good initiative. I hope other persons will come on board and support the work of Project STAR. You don’t necessarily have to be living in the community to be a stakeholder, you just have to have an interest,” he said.

For Parchment, the long-term outcome that he wishes to see following the implementation of strategies developed is a positive imprint on the communities that will last beyond the life of Project STAR for many generations to come in the communities.

“The long-term outcome is that persons will have a renewed mindset, social transformation will be guaranteed, and persons will now have a high sense of valuing themselves so that they can give back positively to the community,” he said.

The session was a continuation of a series of planning consultations held with community members to develop the draft action plan. All of the sessions were informed by data on the communities, such as their profile and make-up, infrastructural needs, employment levels and other challenges they face.

During the consultation process, armed with the data collated by the STAR team, participants identified 17 challenges faced by their community, the priority areas, solutions, and an action plan for moving forward.

Ruth Jankee, who is facilitating the community transformation planning process, spoke about the importance of empowering community members.

“For me, that is a major factor. If they can see actions being planned that reflect what they have said, that is really something very powerful in terms of empowering them to be involved in the process,” she said.