Kitson Town to Get $15 Million Community Centre

Ground was broken on Thursday, December 3, for the establishment of a resource and empowerment centre to serve Kitson Town and surrounding communities in the rural St. Catherine area.

The $15 million project is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under phase two of its Community Empowerment and Transformation Project (COMET II).

The Kitson Town Community Resource Centre (KTRC), to be located on lands which house the Kitson Town Baptist Church, will have space for an office, police post, meetings and social events, economic enterprise activities, and for training of community members.

Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony, USAID Mission Director to Jamaica, Denise A. Herbol, said the facility will serve as a hub for community interaction, empowerment, transformation, and will achieve greater development, and improved security for the citizens.

“This resource centre will focus on development of social enterprise…the community will be better positioned to create more social value. The existence of a commercial space in the centre will also improve the economic viability of the Kitson Town Community Development Council, and the wider stakeholders of the Kitson Town community,” Ms. Herbol said.

Senator Dr. Christopher Tufton, who represented Member of Parliament for West Central St. Catherine, Dr. Kenneth Baugh, at the function, encouraged the residents to continue working together, noting that “this is the start of something good, but it is going to require continuity.”

He said that once the centre is up and running, “it is going to require volunteers to provide support in a homework programme, or to resolve disputes.”

Deputy Mayor of Spanish Town, Councillor Ralston Wilson, said the resource centre will be very important in any development initiatives that the community charts, and urged the residents to care and protect the facility.

The USAID is providing J$330 million (US$3 million) in grant assistance to support targeted community activities under COMET II.

The small grant programme provides direct funding support to community groups, faith-based, non-governmental, and civil society organisations, to assist in strengthening local governance structures, and improving safety and security, particularly in volatile and vulnerable areas.