Ten leaders from five communities in Kingston, St Mary and St Thomas have confirmed their attendance on the next two Tuesdays (March 18 & 25), at the Social Planning and Project Development course offered in the Department of Sociology, Psychology & Social Work.  This activity coincides with the global observance of World Social Work Day (WSD) on Tuesday March 18, when schools of social work organise events to highlight the contribution of social work to personal and collective problem-solving and development.
 
The ten community leaders, from Annotto Bay, Windsor Lodge, Rae Town, Mona Common and August Town, will join the final year undergraduate Social Planning and Project Development course to learn how to write proposals to secure funding for projects they wish to implement in their communities. Their participation follows their completion of a 24 hour Leadership Development and Organisational Strengthening Programme. That programme was run by Mrs Aldene Shillingford, a specialist in community organisation and development in the Social Work Unit within the Department and the Lecturer for the Social Planning course. Social Work students supervised by Mrs Shillingford are also working with the named communities as part of their professional training.
 
The leaders emerged from work that was done to identify the communities’ priority areas for development. The students developed community profiles which now provide the basis for the project proposals to be developed by the community leaders in the classes that they will attend. They will continue to work with the leaders and their organisations through to the implementation of the proposals.
 
The current group of community leaders are the most recent participants in the outreach and service programme which has been implemented by the Social Work Unit at the UWI Mona for more than 10 years.  Communities which have previously received assistance to realise their development vision include Bluefields in Westmoreland, Woodford and Irish Town in the hills of St Andrew and the Golden Grove Cluster in St. Thomas.