La Familia

Saint James is a parish on the island of Jamaica located on the westside of the island. This is where the vision for La Familia Movements was born.

Over the years poverty, crime and violence have increased drastically throughout the communities in Saint James, Jamaica. In the year 2013 residents held a general parish meeting in our capital city Montego Bay and we decided that working together to alleviate the issues we were facing was the only solution. The meeting went well and everyone was very motivated to make a change. 

Five men; Joval Stewart, Clayon Reid, Andre Rutherford, and Worrell Moxam responded decided to be the change. Three schools; Somerton All-Age, Sudbury Primary, Dumfries Primary agreed to facilitate our dream. We scheduled a meeting Summer 2013 in which we created our name, vision, and mission statement. The mission statement we created is to “set free disadvantaged communities from indifference, lack of knowledge and opportunities”.

In the next few months, we held three events throughout Saint James, Jamaica and we were able to attract approximately 50-100 families from multiple communities. Everyone had a great experience and at each event, we hosted more families began to attend. The positive atmosphere that we created during this difficult time was a major factor in attracting mothers, fathers, and their children. We provided free food, music, live performers, and educational awards for students from the schools we partnered with. 

The programs that we have created are developed so that each member of the household is able to reach their maximum potential for personal growth, and realize their dreams in a healthy environment. We strongly believe if a child’s social needs are met, that child is likely to develop into a healthy, confident, responsible, productive, competent, and independent adult.

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 We are currently partners with seven schools and have impacted the lives of over ten thousand households. Sports programs, educational awards, community building blocks, senior care programs, job training, college preparation, lunch programs, after-school tutoring, youth advocacy, and arts programs.