Women’s Resource And Outreach Centre, A Beacon Of The Inner-City

The Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC) has been just that for the women of the surrounding communities of Beechwood Avenue in Kingston, a rock. For the past 20 years, the centre, situated at 47 Beechwood Avenue, has been one of the pillars of the community, providing needed medical resource and guidance for families and women, especially, in the troubled surrounding inner-city communities.

Coordinator for Women’s Programmes at the Centre, Joan Grant-Cummings told JIS News that the weekly clinic services, inclusive of a cancer-screening test, specifically for women, along with the part time counselling support had been a blessing over the years. She says the issues of violence, incest and sexual assaults were major and common ones especially amongst the younger women and that the Centre had done its best to provide the necessary psychological and medical assistance as needed.

She points out that because the Centre is operating on limited resources, it is not fully able to deal with the community’s needs. However, they are moving toward providing a full week clinic, she says adding that, “the people love the way in which the service is provided. The doctor who is here is someone they really relate to, someone who offers advice and really spends time with them.”

Mrs. Grant-Cummings says the Centre also needs to develop a health programme for men, but noted that, “we need to provide the service in a way that make sense.it has to be men, women and children, each of them need special attention. The Centre wants to act more from a developmental perspective, not a welfare perspective”.

The WROC is also trying to develop an adolescent reproductive health programme to deal with the issues of teenage pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). With a combination of international and local grants from agencies such as Christian Aid, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the Ministry of Health, which has allowed access to medication and provided support for the clinic, Mrs.Grant-Cummings says the WROC has managed to maintain its significance and resourcefulness in the community.

She says other funds are sourced from fundraisers such as local entertainment productions including a National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) performance last year and proceeds from one showing of the ongoing popular Patrick Brown play “Cinderellisha”. She emphasizes that the community has always protected the centre because, “they respect the work being done here”.

The Centre currently houses the Beechwood Home Accessories project, which employs 10 women from the community. The project has received major funding from the Ministry of Labour through the Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC), under the Income Generating Enterprises Project (IGEP).