Abilities Foundation of Jamaica Empowering Persons with Disabilities

The Abilities Foundation of Jamaica has been empowering persons with disabilities to create their own income, thus live satisfying lives.

One such individual is 27-year-old José Allen, who is the owner of Powerful Stitches and TP Collection, a successful embroidery digitising graphic design business.

Diagnosed with intellectual disability at age 12, Mr. Allen attended the Carberry Court Special School in Kingston, before moving on to the Abilities Foundation at the age of 17.

“When I went to Abilities, I did the pre-assessment test, and based on my grade I would want to do fashion designing because I’m a lover of fashion, but a teacher told me that doing fashion at the school, you would not get a [HEART/NSTA Trust] certificate, so she said ‘come into my class’, which is data operations. So, I went into her class and did data operation level 2,” he told JIS News.

“The Abilities Foundation… is like the gateway to develop me for the working world. I was at Abilities for two years and based on the journey I learnt a lot, so when I get out there in the working world; based on my job experience and the course I did, I could keep up and live up to… what I learnt there,” he added.

During his time at the institution, Mr. Allen said he was always encouraged by Managing Director, Suzanne Hamilton, and another teacher at the school.

“[They were] always trying to motivate me, trying to push me because they say, ‘young man there is something in you that you don’t even see within yourself’, and they kept pushing… gave me techniques how to study,” he noted.

“I went into exam and I did that course in Data Operations with persons with CXCs, and a young man who don’t have a CXC and also diagnosed at 12 with intellectual disability went in that class with top students and I only failed one exam… and I resit the exam and I passed it and I get my certificate from there,” he added.

Following his time at the Foundation, Mr. Allen went on to the Garmex HEART Academy to further hone his skills.

“When I went to Garmex HEART Academy I went there to do embroidery, because based on fashion, I get to love embroidery, but the manager there at the time said, ‘you have a certificate in data operations, so you know about computers. I want you to split the six months that you are going to be here’. So, I worked in the office for three months and then I worked in the embroidery department for the next three months and after that they recommend me for full-time and I worked with HEART Trust for five years doing embroidery,” Mr. Allen said.

After completing his tenure at the Garmex Heart Academy, he worked in Mandeville for seven months, before deciding to start his own business in 2023.

Mr. Allen said he was inspired to start his own business, as “working for persons and stuff like that wasn’t really cutting it for me”.

“I always see myself owning my own fashion store and so, from there I start off with embroidery. I used to send my stuff to HEART Academy Garmex… to embroidery until I could get my machine. I got a car through my nine-to-five… and then from there I sell my car and buy a machine and from there my business kicked off,” he noted.

“So, now we do embroidery, we do digitising, we do printing and graphics, we do laser engraving and we do screen printing. Each time I make the money from the embroidery, I invest in something that have to do with branding because that’s the focus going forward,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Allen is encouraging persons with disabilities to believe in themselves, regardless of the challenges they are facing.

“Carberry Court is a school that persons with disabilities go. I went back and I share with them, believe in yourself regardless of your challenge and pursue your passion. Find something that you’re in love with and just pursue your passion. A lot of persons are really surprised to know that this guy who they diagnosed at age 12 with intellectual disability has reached to this level,” he said.

“Remember the top of one mountain is the bottom of a next, so the work never stops and that is my motto. I continue to push myself and I always tell persons that mind sight is different from eyesight. It’s not just how you view the thing, so when my opportunities come, I scale it and I approach it with the best of my ability, regardless of my challenge,” he added.

Currently, with only one employee at Powerful Stitches and home-based, Mr. Allen has his sights set on further growth and expansion of his business in the medium term.

“So, in the next five years we are seeing ourselves getting a shop and focusing on visual branding. So, whenever you hear about Powerful Stitches, it’s all about visual branding, and visual branding is… the face of your business, your logo, the colour scheme that you have chosen, everything like that, so that’s what we are currently working on,” he said.

Persons may contact Mr. Allen on Instagram and Tik Tok at Powerful Stitches or by telephone at 876-329-5964.