Monthly Report: March 2021 - Positive Pathways Activity in Jamaica

The activity began in 2021 and is implemented by Democracy International, Inc. under Contract No. 72053220C00001. In March 2021, Positive Pathways staff conducted over a dozen outreach meetings with community leaders, political leaders, private sector groups, and faith-based organizations to facilitate the entry of the activity into Jamaican communities and solicit future collaboration and support of implementation activities. These meetings were designed to promote the activity's goals and objectives, which focus on preventing community violence and promoting positive youth development. Positive Pathways is working in collaboration with the USAID Local Partner Development Activity to design and introduce family-based training modules to organizations. Staff from both projects met three times in March to discuss the development of these modules. The activity is also working with Making Cents International to establish the framework for the administration of the Positive Youth Development (PYD) curriculum. During March, the combined team conducted the first of several scheduled listening sessions with Jamaican organizations and leaders to gather feedback on the curriculum. The grants team advanced plans to issue a Request for Application (RFA) for community peacebuilding grants in April. Details are being finalized, and the formal release of the RFAs is pending USAID approval of the Grants Manual and the statement of work. Staff met twice with the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA) team to finalize the co-design of a proposal for additional funding for the X-Change Program, which aims to target youth who have been in gangs or have been in conflict with the law. In late March, staff completed and released the statement of work for the community baseline assessment. The assessment will focus on at least one target community per parish and incorporate feedback from USAID to meet Mission needs for a youth assessment. The activity also welcomed six new staff members in March, bringing the total staff count to 11. The Positive Pathways Jamaica and DI Program Management Unit staff began a four-part Roles, Responsibilities, Expectations, and Teamwork workshop on March 29, which focused on setting workshop goals and expectations, major responsibilities per unit, and expectations of other units.