Fundraising The Kingston & St. Andrew Action fundraising team has initiated and will continue to host several fundraising activities to offset our Administrative cost, to support our programmes and to provide a cushion for the organization. Over the years, KSAAF have hosted a number of fundraising events, namely, fish fry, raffles and the Ward theatre evening of excellence. In addition, we have and will continue to submit project proposals to local and international donor agencies and to corporate Jamaica to seek funds to maintain our programmes and projects.

 American Friends of Jamaica 

(AFJ) The Kingston and St. Andrew Action Forum, in May 2008 received a grant for one year period from AFJ to increase our community capacity building. The aim of the project was to facilitate opportunities, partnerships, linkages, community generated initiatives and other activities for transformational community development. Another area of focus was to provide information technology training for 200 inner-city members. Additionally we would have focused on placing a facility that would assist tertiary level students from inner-city communities with their studies as well as other persons sitting major examinations. Due to the amount received for the grant the main focus of the AFJ project focused on providing information technology training to our members. The Board usually comprises of Community Development Practitioners and Professionals. Board members and many of the members were trained in information technology..

 The Government and Democracy Proj Governance and Democracy Projectect focuses on expanding the capacity of the Secretariat and creating a Business and Information Centre, which will sustain the organization. This project is being sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and will last for three years. KSAAF primary partners in this project are the Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC), People‟s Action for Community Transformation (PACT), the International University of the Caribbean (IUC), Dispute Resolution Foundation (DRF) and the Peace Management Initiate (PMI). The overall goal of the project is to create self-sufficient and safe communities which find and develop local skills and talent, and mobilize the necessary resources through advocacy, wealth creation, facilitation, volunteerism, and knowledge sharing. The purpose is to create an independent and sustainable urban leadership body, with the capacity to facilitate opportunities, partnerships, linkages, community generated initiatives and other activities for transformational community development. One of the major objectives of this project is to employ fourteen persons to the organization, who will be working in the Secretariat and the Business and Information Centre.

 Guns off the Street 

The purpose of the “Get the Guns off the Street Campaign” is to increase the capacity of the institution and to prevent armed violence and increase community safety. This will therefore strengthen relationships among NGOs and draw lessons from Peace and Justice Centres in the context of a National centre. We will be targeting communities in conflict. Subsequently we will be conducting a feasibility study on National Peace, Justice and Community Development Centre, expand MOUs with NGO partner stakeholders such as {WROC, Young American Business Trust (YABT), DRF}.

The main reason why KSAAF initiated the Guns off the Street Campaign is because Jamaica is at risk of becoming a crisis country unless urgent action is taken to address crime and violence in the country. Insecurity and armed violence are major obstacles to sustainable development and the situation has worsened significantly in recent years. In 2005, Jamaica had the highest recorded per capita murder rate in the world. The death rate from violence in Jamaica is higher than in many high intensity violent conflicts. There are several activities being undertaken under this project are the Monday Night Forum and Town Hall Meetings. These meetings are geared at engaging the communities and looking at possible solutions to tackle crime and violence in mainly inner-city communities. KSAAF realize that like the problem, the solution is multi faceted and as such we will also be having dialogues with parliamentarians, Churches, CBOs, Community Activists and Informal groups. We have created a “Get the Guns off the Street” Flyer which is being distributed across Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine. The information coming from these Forums and dialogues will then be published in our newsletter, so as to inform our member communities and our partners as to the proposed solutions and seek the assistance of our partners as well as the parliamentarians in implementing these proposed solutions.

 Summer Camp

Kingston and St. Andrew Action Forum in collaboration with the Ministry of Education Citizenship Education Programme, Crime Observatory Group of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Healthy Lifestyle Project of the Ministry of Health, and the Institute of Sports facilitated six summer camps within the Kingston Western Police Division and its environs. The aim of having these camps is to enroll the youth in a structured programme thereby reducing the probability of their involvement in criminal activities. This region was chosen due to the high level of violence that exist in communities as well as the cordial relationship that was forged with citizens. Additionally, statistics received from the Jamaica Constabulary Force indicates that a large percentage of perpetrators of crime and violence are youths. Research has also shown that structured programme providing youth development and skill building activities with an emphasis on social skills and character development reduced delinquent behaviour. Based on this we decided that we could organize these camps to assist in changing delinquency among out youth. The target age group for the camp was persons ranging from 7-18 years of age attending schools as well as “corner youths”. There were over 1200 participants in the summer camp expanding the six camps. The areas of focus were sports, citizenship education, healthy lifestyle issues along with literacy training. Additionally, participants from some of the camps were taken issues along with literacy training. Additionally, participants from some of the camps were taken The camp spanned from July to August and the camp sites were Arnett Gardens Sports Complex, Boys Town, Maxfield Park Cricket Ground, Torrington Park, Donald Quarrie High School and Alpha Boys Home.