Don’t just survive – Thrive! - Deaf Can! Coffee CEO encourages community-based organisations to be more effective in tackling youth crime

A number of community-based and grass-roots organisations in Kingston and St Andrew recently received certificates and plaques for completing a rigorous eight months in the USAID-funded Stepping Stone to Success training programme implemented by Rise Life Management Services.

Stepping Stone to Success was designed as an organisational capacity-building programme that equips organisations to become more effective and sustainable actors in tackling youth crime and violence in their communities. The event took place at the RISE Life East Street location in downtown Kingston.

Good success record

RISE’s Executive Director Sonita Abrahams pointed out that the 30-year-old organisation has had more successes than disappointments as its programmes of providing primary and secondary care reaches out to members of the community to prevent at-risk behaviours.

Blake Widmer, chief executive officer of the social enterprise organisation, Deaf Can! Coffee, said that his own organisation was a beneficiary of RISE’s training programmes and they held unto those words, which were the key steps towards their success.

“But we all know that success does not come without sacrifice and you need not look at it as [something] negative. Sacrifice is not something we should be afraid of because inherent within sacrifice is the belief that we are giving up something good to get something better,” he pointed out.

Among the testimonials given by participants about their experience during the eight-month training was Sandrina Davis of St Patrick’s Foundation, who said that her organisation was grateful for the opportunity to participate in a programme which, though rigorous, was the jolt they needed to assess whether their organisations were operating effectively, efficiently, or sustainably.