Creative Play-Writing Workshops
Tax deductible
We are The Jamaica Project, a registered non-profit organisation who believe that every child has a right to an excellent education, and also that the more we share our knowledge, passion and culture with others, the more we all grow and benefit from the experience.
Our mission is to use the arts as a vehicle for enrichment, boosting academic performance, as well as providing emotional, cultural and community growth.
This year, we have been offered an exciting opportunity! Actor and playwright Terrell Green reached out to us through Instagram and offered to teach playwriting classes to our Jamaican students.
Terrell has an impressive resume that includes an education at Marymount College in Manhattan and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he studied Shakespeare. He is now based in Philadelphia where he teaches playwriting to a wide range of youth groups. In Terrell's own words, playwriting classes aim to
"use theatre arts to build a bridge of compassion, understanding, and knowledge about other cultures, communities, histories, stories, and ways of life that are beyond the everyday experiences of my students. In practicing drama, the students will also develop a deeper connection to their own creativity and imagination and thus encourage further exploration and expansion of their own artistic appreciation, interests, and pursuits. Using creative writing to enhance literacy skill and theatre performance to acquire confidence and public speaking skills."
We are also lucky this year to be partnering with a local organisation to reach more schools - our aim is to reach between 4 and 8 schools in the week in which we are in Jamaica, teaching at least 2 sessions to each school. Our goal is to have the children work on acting their work as well as writing it, and capturing the work on camera, so it can be shared with their peers in the United States, thus opening up a deeper avenue for dialogue and connection.
Terrell has generously offered to donate his skills and his time to us at no charge, and we very much want to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. However, we still need to cover the costs of transport and accomodation for the trip.
Our aim is to be in Jamaica in late October which gives us around a month to raise money for this trip, and make this dream a reality. We need to cover the costs of flights for Terrell and a Jamaica Project representive/teaching aide, which will probably run between $400-$700 per flight. We are budgeting $560 for accomodation for 2 people for 7 nights. Car rental, which is a necessity in such a rural area comes to another $500. As you can see we are hoping to raise $2500 which will help cover variation in flight cost, as well as the fees that GoFundMe takes. Any extra money will go towards gas and supplies for the students such as paper and pens.
Opportunities like this are very rare for the students in St. Elizabeth, as the schools themselves are focused on a strict academic curriculum, and many of them do not have the budget, or necessarily the access to arts teachers, to do more. If you read below you will see some of the projects we have already brought to one school in the area. This year we have the opportunity to do more and reach more students than ever before.
Please help us! Your donation will take us a long way on this 'awfully big adventure' and we hope you will all follow along with us and see just what life, excitement and creativity your donation will bring.
Below is a short synopsis of some more of the work we have already accomplished...
In our first several years, projects we have completed include:
Song-swap: children in rural Jamaica shared folk-songs with their peers in a New Jersey school. Here we are in our makeshift recording studio at Bigwoods Primary in St. Elizabeth, recording the songs.
Photo project: the children documented and shared their daily lives through photographs. Below you can see students admiring the work of their peers at the end of year photo show. You can see more of their work on The Jamaica Project's Instagram
We have also been providing ongoing logistical support in the form of a school breakfast program in the parish of St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, (hungry minds can't learn - art, or anything else). Also last year we were able to send (hopefully the first of many) volunteer teachers down to assist a school for a few weeks - which was a wonderful area for growth and enrichment for all parties involved. Here is the wonderful Kim Heiter with her students. More of her adventures are chronicled on our blog .
As you can see, so much is possible! Future plans include dance and drumming classes, ongoing teacher exchange programs, more photography workshops - for young adults as well as children, and much much more. It has been humbling how many talented and creative individuals have come forward and offered to share their knowledge and expertise with a new generation.
Please help us to help them make our projects a success.
Thank you.
Our mission is to use the arts as a vehicle for enrichment, boosting academic performance, as well as providing emotional, cultural and community growth.
This year, we have been offered an exciting opportunity! Actor and playwright Terrell Green reached out to us through Instagram and offered to teach playwriting classes to our Jamaican students.
Terrell has an impressive resume that includes an education at Marymount College in Manhattan and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he studied Shakespeare. He is now based in Philadelphia where he teaches playwriting to a wide range of youth groups. In Terrell's own words, playwriting classes aim to
"use theatre arts to build a bridge of compassion, understanding, and knowledge about other cultures, communities, histories, stories, and ways of life that are beyond the everyday experiences of my students. In practicing drama, the students will also develop a deeper connection to their own creativity and imagination and thus encourage further exploration and expansion of their own artistic appreciation, interests, and pursuits. Using creative writing to enhance literacy skill and theatre performance to acquire confidence and public speaking skills."
We are also lucky this year to be partnering with a local organisation to reach more schools - our aim is to reach between 4 and 8 schools in the week in which we are in Jamaica, teaching at least 2 sessions to each school. Our goal is to have the children work on acting their work as well as writing it, and capturing the work on camera, so it can be shared with their peers in the United States, thus opening up a deeper avenue for dialogue and connection.
Terrell has generously offered to donate his skills and his time to us at no charge, and we very much want to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. However, we still need to cover the costs of transport and accomodation for the trip.
Our aim is to be in Jamaica in late October which gives us around a month to raise money for this trip, and make this dream a reality. We need to cover the costs of flights for Terrell and a Jamaica Project representive/teaching aide, which will probably run between $400-$700 per flight. We are budgeting $560 for accomodation for 2 people for 7 nights. Car rental, which is a necessity in such a rural area comes to another $500. As you can see we are hoping to raise $2500 which will help cover variation in flight cost, as well as the fees that GoFundMe takes. Any extra money will go towards gas and supplies for the students such as paper and pens.
Opportunities like this are very rare for the students in St. Elizabeth, as the schools themselves are focused on a strict academic curriculum, and many of them do not have the budget, or necessarily the access to arts teachers, to do more. If you read below you will see some of the projects we have already brought to one school in the area. This year we have the opportunity to do more and reach more students than ever before.
Please help us! Your donation will take us a long way on this 'awfully big adventure' and we hope you will all follow along with us and see just what life, excitement and creativity your donation will bring.
Below is a short synopsis of some more of the work we have already accomplished...
In our first several years, projects we have completed include:
Song-swap: children in rural Jamaica shared folk-songs with their peers in a New Jersey school. Here we are in our makeshift recording studio at Bigwoods Primary in St. Elizabeth, recording the songs.
Photo project: the children documented and shared their daily lives through photographs. Below you can see students admiring the work of their peers at the end of year photo show. You can see more of their work on The Jamaica Project's Instagram
We have also been providing ongoing logistical support in the form of a school breakfast program in the parish of St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, (hungry minds can't learn - art, or anything else). Also last year we were able to send (hopefully the first of many) volunteer teachers down to assist a school for a few weeks - which was a wonderful area for growth and enrichment for all parties involved. Here is the wonderful Kim Heiter with her students. More of her adventures are chronicled on our blog .
As you can see, so much is possible! Future plans include dance and drumming classes, ongoing teacher exchange programs, more photography workshops - for young adults as well as children, and much much more. It has been humbling how many talented and creative individuals have come forward and offered to share their knowledge and expertise with a new generation.
Please help us to help them make our projects a success.
Thank you.
Organizer
Elizabeth Doughty
Organizer
Jersey City, NJ
Jamaica Project Inc
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
