Project STAR uses sports to engage young men in troubled communities

Young men in communities east of downtown Kingston who are experiencing conflict and ongoing gang warfare have been brought together under Project STAR, which is using sports as a vehicle for problem solving and conflict resolution.

Damion Hylton, senior technical project officer, said for the last four months since Project STAR commenced working in the communities of east downtown Kingston, they have been reaping success via implementation of sports programmes.

“We have been able to engage young people in the community by just playing sports,” he said, while noting that the pandemic as well as ongoing violence have hampered these activities in recent years. However, he said that now, the young men were returning to sport activities led by local community members and supported by Project STAR.

Hylton recently shared the positive impact of the sports strategy while addressing a town hall meeting organised by Project STAR at the East Queen Street Baptist Church in Kingston.

One direct result of the strategy, he added, was the camaraderie, which facilitated the opportunity for 30 young men from the community to tour and play games at Football Factory, Jamaica’s outdoor artificial turf football facility.

“For the first time in many of their lives, young men from Parade Gardens took a trip out of their community. That is the reality. Three of these young men said to me ‘I want to get a job’,” Hylton revealed, saying that this would be facilitated through Project STAR’s Employment Programme.

“So sports is not only a tool for exercise. It is actually a tool for engagement and a tool for development, and we plan to do much more of that through the use of sports development,” he said.

He also said that incorporating sports programmes is a tried-and-true strategy as seen in the case of several prominent footballers, who started by playing football on the streets.

“Imagine the opportunities that we can create in communities when we have green spaces and safe places where young people can go and play and not have to worry that they might be the next victim of a crime. That is the type of communities we want,” he said.

Geraldean Nohar, a resident from one of the communities, shared that it was through the sports programme that he was introduced to the employment programme and has been able to benefit from Project STAR’s work.

He is currently being trained with the aim of gaining employment.

Curtis Swyer from Parade Gardens said that he was also attracted to the employment programme through football. He is also being trained and will soon be placed in a job.

“Project STAR is a good initiative. If we had more initiatives like this one, we wouldn’t have so much crime and violence in the community,” he stated.

Hylton said that outside of sports, Project STAR will be working with other community groups – such as the Church – to assist vulnerable persons in the communities, including the elderly and others.

Project STAR is a social and economic transformation initiative created by the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force and driven by communities to bring about societal transformation through targeted interventions in underresourced areas of Jamaica.