From British boarding school to Trench Town

David Campbell, Contributor

Having grown up in quiet, rural Dorset (south-west England) in a farmhouse, half-a-mile from our closest neighbours, where the traffic only clogged the roads if one of the local farmers was moving his sheep, my first experience of inner-city Kingston came as quite a shock.

It was 1994 and I was 17 years old. I had just run away from a British boarding school in search of a more meaningful life.

My exposure to the inner city started when I worked as a volunteer for Mustard Seed Communities, where I cared for disabled children. That's when I saw at first hand some of the challenges of life in Kingston's inner-city communities.

In my first few weeks in Jamaica, I had my pockets picked twice; was held up and robbed at knifepoint twice; had the police run past me while shooting at a criminal, and also lost a new friend to a violent death.

No support for youth

During the first year in Jamaica, what struck me most about young people growing up in oppressed areas was the fact that they seemed not to have anyone who really cared for them while growing up. Their needs were so severe in comparison to my own privileged upbringing, and the desire to do something to make a difference in their lives became a motivating force in my life.

I returned to England for a few years, but found I couldn't stay away from Jamaica. So I came back in 1999 and began a programme to use basketball to provide a positive pastime and a way to build relationships, while teaching players the principles of life.

In 2003, I came across an Austra-lian charity named Fusion that had over 50 years' experience in the development of a highly effective method of working in tough communities with young people-at-risk. There were many similarities between their approach and what I had already been doing. However, as I studied their methodology, I became convinced that their approach could strengthen my programme in West Kingston, so I began to use their methodology in 2004. Two years later, I founded Fusion Caribbean, as a Jamaican charity.

Our mission is: "To help young people and communities discover their God-given purpose and pursue it with integrity."

Refine intervention models

Our vision for west Kingston is to refine practical models of community intervention that can be reproduced elsewhere, and to use these communities as a training ground for youth and community workers from around Jamaica and the world.

Fusion Caribbean now works in Trench Town, Rose Town, Tivoli Gardens, Majesty Gardens and Maverley, providing assistance through youth sports clubs, children's after-school programmes, youth and family day trips, youth-mentoring programmes, parenting support, reading programmes and major community celebrations that bring each of these communities together three times a year. All of Fusion Caribbean's programmes foster cooperation, healthy interaction, fun and positive personal and interpersonal development.

Having now worked in west Kingston for the past 17 years, I am conscious that the main challenge is to find people who are willing to carry the workload that the journey to positive change requires. That journey is just as challenging as it was when I began to walk those streets as a 17-year-old!

That is why I am looking forward to attending the Christian Com-munity Development Conference from June 23 to 26 at the Christian Life Fellowship Church, at 21A Gordon Town, where the world-famous advocate of change in inner-city communities, the US-based Dr John Perkins, will be the main presenter.