JAYECAN Youth Empowerment Awards,

About the event

1. As part of our mission, JAYECAN team members work assiduously to bring highlight to the work of young people in Jamaica who are leading others to change by using the arts, our culture and civic pride. We are of the view that in order to do well, young Jamaicans must find their passion, develop that passion into competence and use it as a tool to push our country forward. The Youth Empowerment Awards was designed to highlight emerging beacons in areas of arts, culture, education and volunteerism in Jamaica. Our hope is that by recognizing their efforts, we will further encourage them to work harder and inspire others to do the same.

   There is no doubt that our country needs innovation. Truth is, our education system and real culture doesn’t enable an atmosphere for free thought and imagination. Instead, many young persons are coached into accepting success as pursing an elitist profession. We want others to know that they can excel as young artists, social action leaders, advocates and historians just the same! Sure, there are efforts at the national level to normalize professions that are based on talents, like our sports men and women. However, the reality is, at the micro level, young dreamers are heavily challenged by parental expectations and the status quo. So by using this project, we want to reach out to eat the graphic artists, designers, dancers, choreographers, young inventors and heritage ambassadors to show them that we appreciate their talents and that we want to see them develop into world class leaders in their area of talent. 

   The Youth Empowerment Awards is an awards gala and is expected to unfold in November during the National Youth Month Celebrations. We will also have a series of events leading up to the show which is expected to run from November 26 – 30, 2016. These events include, an intensive art gallery, essay competition, Arts and Culture Symposium featuring the YEA Honouree and closes with the YEA Gala on the last night.

   The project is guided by the following objectives:

2. To identify and endorse outstanding youth in areas of the visual and performing arts, culture, education and volunteerism.

3. To link shortlisted nominees to mentorship so that they will move forward to pursue their passion with confidence.

4. To highlight the work and expertise of other young leaders who may not have applied.

5. To honour an outstanding patron who has contributed significantly to Jamaican Arts and

   Culture.

6. To enable a culture that is appreciative of talents unique to the individual. 

Why should you sponsor?

Essay Competition (Deadline Monday November 14, 2016)

We want to include everyone in the YEA project. From Morant Point to Negril Point! The essay competition is specifically geared towards high school and primary school children. The aim of this competition is to learn from our young writers; their perspectives on issues that are affecting our culture and the role of young Jamaicans in preserving and endorsing what is ours. The winners in all categories will be awarded at JAYECAN’s 3rd Anniversary Celebrations and featured as speakers at the Arts and Culture Symposium.

Arts and Culture Symposium (Monday November 28, 2017)

The Arts and Culture Symposium’s aim is to drive conversations about needed programmes and policies that will not only enhance young talents, but further help young people to find their talent. The symposium will feature key speakers including the Minister of Culture, Principal and Directors at Edna Manley College and several young leaders who are key stakeholders in the areas of Arts and Culture. The highlight of this event will be a live sofa talk with our honouree of the year. The honouree will be a veteran in arts and culture who we have handpicked to be endowed with a special insignia on the night of the awards gala. The honouree is not awardee of the project that requires special nomination. The location is still to be decided on. 

Intensive Art Gallery (November 28-29)

The Arts and Culture Gallery will be opened for two nights running from November 28-28, 2016. The gallery will feature the talents of young and upcoming artists in various areas of the visual and performing arts. Special highlights include:

1. Mounted Art

2. Live Sculptures – Youth groups across Jamaica will be asked to create a live still scene

   that depicts a story in Jamaica’s heritage.

3. Dub/poetry/songs/dances – At various intervals, audiences will be asked to direct their

   attention to performances by young poets and performers.

4. Fashion exhibition

   YEA Awards Gala

The YEA Awards Gala is an awards show that will recognize the efforts of youths in different areas of arts, culture and nationalism. Prospective nominees may go to our website http://www.jayecan.org/yea/ in order to sign up. Participants may self-nominate or nominate another person. Once the nomination period has closed, all nominations will be reviewed by a select panel of youth leaders in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean. Winners will be announced in two weeks and invited in for a debrief session with the National Coordinator. In the following weeks, the awardees and other participants will attend a series of production rehearsals.

On the night of the show. Awardees and guests will arrive and walk on our grand purple carpet while stopping for shots before our grand step and repeat banners. They will enter the designated arena and be entertained by early performances. The Honouree will be introduced and a citation be read in his/her honour. The Honouree will then be invited to give his/her acceptance speech. The event will proceed with the 2016 YEA finalists be introduced and awarded in four different segments, based on the categories of Arts, Culture, Education and Volunteerism. After each segment, there will be a performance that will highlight the work done in Jamaica in 2016 in that area. 

Albert Anderson

JAYECAN stands for Jamaican Youth Empowerment through Culture, Arts and Nationalism. It was established on November 27, 2013 by three university students. There is a need for empowerment among the youths of Jamaica. Although there are macro level policies to address youth development, a lot of these polices do not readily address the needs of various sets of vulnerable groups in Jamaica. The pioneers of JAYECAN believe that true empowerment is helping young people to realize and operationalize their inner resources and environment to make their own lives better. We use the performing arts, the Jamaican Culture and nationalism to deliver this message. We draw together young volunteers from across the island and train them in our own models of social planning and project designs. They are then placed into teams where they create and execute themed projects to reach specific groups of youth. Each project is carefully aligned with our three main tenets and we try to create effective evaluation tools and intervention strategies. Primarily, we want Jamaican youths to understand the role they play in the advancement of our country by helping them to identify their individual niche and working within that niche to make Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business.

Our activities prepare young people for life and work, by combining and strengthening elements of volunteering and social action. Our focus is to generate within young people a sense of responsibility and ownership for their projects that will later help them to realize their role in the total development of our country. JAYECAN encourages the involvement of young people from all sections of the society (especially those who are at risk of social exclusion through disability, mental health issues and economic deprivation) and ensure that all have equal opportunity to participate regardless of gender, religious and ethnic background, disability or sexual preference (or any other factor that may result in discrimination and prejudice). To date we have a team of 40 members who together created more than 10 projects and have interacted with more than 600 Jamaican youths in physical and virtual space. 

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