Projects
The approach of CRAF to Reparatory justice is to identify areas of the nation's life which remain significantly damaged by the colonial slavery project and its persisting legacies.
The 7-point Plan is the template through which the spheres of life are identified and programmes and projects are developed to contribute to healing the damage as identified. CRAF has begun to pilot some of these projects with the expectation that with continued work of healing of relationships between local churches in the UK and other parts in Europe strong partnerships will evolve or the full roll-out of these projects and programmes towards increased societal benefit.
Three of the areas in which projects have been identified under the 7-Point Plan are Education, Spatial Markers and Honoring of Ancestors and Sharing Citizen Property Ownership. Below are snippets of project profiles designed to address these areas.
Reimaging Education
School Library Reserve Collections
The school library reserve collection is developed from a catalogue of titles generated by participating educators. The collections will be established in twenty (20) secondary school libraries. The history book rental scheme is focused on grade twelve (12) and thirteen (13) students whose history syllabus and exit examination increasing are including these relevant areas of study.
Visual and Performing Arts Competition in Schools
The visual and performing arts competition will initially focus within 9 United Church secondary schools. The competition will begin within each school with inter-school contests following. The creative expressions will be in a range of forms, to include, music, poetry, prose and multimedia visual arts.
Freedom Schools
Education is one of the most vital instruments of repair both at the individual level and for the development of communities and societies at large. The history of under-development in our society runs parallel to the withdrawal of resources by colonizing forces well into the post-colonial history of the former colony.
An educational institution which, by design reflects to the fullest extent the value of freedom and the potential released in people who are liberated in all aspects of life form the basis of Freedom schools.
It is a secondary school operating as a beacon of hope for an abundant future for generations who live in a post-colonial, formerly enslaved society.
Its mission will be to contribute to the formation of graduates who enter into young adulthood brimming with self-confidence, consistently acting with self-respect and respect for others and their community and nation and its heritage. They will enter the workforce or tertiary educational institutions with a sharp focus on personal development and acquisition of skills towards community transformation and national development.
From its inception, the school will be known for its hybrid form of delivery of its educational services. It will remain in the forefront of technological advances in administration, delivery and research.
A flexible, innovative programme will proved for students who may access a combination of face to face and online approaches. It will pride itself in providing a welcoming, inclusive learning environment, with high academic standards encouraged through full student participation. Students will be taught and encouraged into setting personal goals and understanding their personal motivations while sharing responsibility for their own success.
Administration at all levels will reflect the opportunities provided by procedures and practices forged in a liberating spirit and atmosphere.
Though consistent with the age appropriate curriculum standards of the ministry of education, the freedom school’s curriculum will have a unique infusion of heritage studies, civics, ethics, environmental sustainability and food security and entrepreneurship.
A range of co-curricular options will be made available to engage to a maximum, the student engagement in activities which positively shape attitudes to family life, interpersonal relations, community development and citizenship.
Establishing Spatial Markers and Honoring of Ancestors
Gardens of Justice, Reconciliation and Peace
Post-colonial societies are too often replete with monuments and other spatial markers which commemorate the colonizer to the detriment of any positive reference to the formerly enslaved and oppressed.
Reparatory action in this era would engage communities in the process of establishing spatial markers which reflect the contribution and struggle of the majority of the ancestors. Their courage and resilience would be celebrated as gardens, art installations and other poignant spatial markers provide continual reminders of their contribution to their community’s existence. One such example dubbed ‘Groves of Remembrance’ is developed. “Gardens of Justice, Reconciliation and Peace” would be developed as sacred community spaces provided by churches and their schools for the benefit of their communities.
Churches and schools in this moment should be places where we plant groves of trees with the names of the departed displayed. Those groves would be tended and cared for and become places for comfort, contemplation and healing.
Gardens of Justice, Reconciliation and Peace will be distributed across the nation to ensure that at least one per parish is established and maintained. Each space will feature indigenous plants and natural elements and simple, poignant symbols which affirm the ancestors’ worth? The professional artistic design will ensure that the spaces are inviting and constructed to be child-friendly environments.
Sharing Citizen Property Ownership and Wealth Creation (5)
New Free Village Movement
Among the most devastating legacies of the colonial, slave debacle is the continuing landlessness of large swathes of these post-colonial populations. It is perhaps the most significant factor which has hindered formally enslaved people in their drive to generational wealth creation.
In this era, a renewed commitment to repair would include churches offering church-owned land resources for the resettlement of landless persons, community resources for training in financial literacy and exposure for improved attitudes to investment and wealth creation in all levels of society. It is in this context that the suggestion of the establishment of New Free Villages emerges.
Churches could seek resources to allow for the survey and subdivision with necessary utility infrastructure of acreages for settlement of community members who would for the first time become legitimate owners of real estate. Collaboration with state agencies would allow for timely development of housing solutions and other appropriate land use.
The vision is of a Jamaica in which opportunity for ownership of real estate is so wide that all members of the population and their families could gain access to, at minimum, an affordable housing solution.
The New Free Village movement is on a mission for churches to take the lead in contributing to land redistribution and the facilitation of the more economically challenged members of society to access viable housing solutions for themselves and their families.