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Family Movies in the Park |
Background Strong communities provide ample opportunity for children
and families to gather collectively to share experiences. These opportunities usually present themselves in the form of activities
with few, if any, barriers to participate. These shared experiences are what knit the fabric of a community together. Jamaica
has too few of these opportunities.
A Better Jamaica's Family Movies in the Park addresses the shortage of these
community building opportunities by exhibiting free Family Movies in Park. In doing so, it strengthens the community by
providing an inexpensive opportunity for the renewal of community/family ties.
Summer 2007 The summer of 2007 witnessed the pilot season of Family Movies in the Park.
Two Films -- "Happy Feet" and "Pride" -- were shown in St. Albans Park on July 26th and August 2nd respectively.
Summer 2008 In the summer of 2008, Family Movies in the Park returned
to St. Albans Park with the screening of two films – "The Wiz" and "The Great Debaters" –
exhibited on August 14th and August 28th respectively. The success of additional fundraising efforts allowed for Family Movies
in the Park program growth that included expansion to a second Jamaica park. On August 23rd and August 30th, "The Wiz"
and "The Great Debaters" were exhibited in Baisley Pond Park.
Summer 2009 In the summer of
2009, Family Movies in the Park was significantly expanded in terms of both the number of parks as well as the number of films
exhibited in each park. Brookville Park was added to the list of parks that exhibited regularly scheduled Family Movies in
the Park. Films included in the 2009
line-up included: "Akeelah and the Bee", "Chicken Run", "Claudine", and "The Karate Kid".
Summer 2010In the summer
of 2010, A Better Jamaica's Family Movies in the Park expanded to include a fourth park -- Cambria Park. Movies were exhibited
in Cambria Park on Monday nights, Brookville Park on Tuesday nights, Baisley Pond Park on Wednesday nights, and St. Albans
Park on Thursday nights. Films included in the 2010 line-up included: "Happy Feet"; "Pride"; "Lemony
Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"; "Jaws"; "Shrek"; "The Wizard of Oz"; "Love
& Basketball"; and "Sherlock Holmes". Four movies were shown in each park.
Summer 2011
In the summer of 2011, A Better Jamaica's Family Movies
in the Park returned to: Cambria Park on Monday nights; Brookville Park on Tuesday nights; Baisley Pond Park on Wednesday
nights; and St. Albans Park on Thursday nights. Movies featured in the 2011 line-up included: "Home Alone"; "Raiders
of the Lost Ark"; "The Great Debaters"; "Toy Story"; "Sounder"; "E.T."; "The
Dark Knight"; and "The Incredibles".
Support for Family Movies in the Park
has been provided by:
Strong communities provide ample opportunity for individuals to gather collectively to share experiences. These opportunities
usually present themselves in the form of activities with few, if any, barriers to participate. These shared experiences are
what knit the fabric of a community together. Family Movies in the Park was A Better Jamaica's first effort to create more
of these shared experiences. Classic Film Fridays continues A Better Jamaica's effort in this regard – this time, through
a series of classic films for adult audiences.
Summer 2009 The summer of 2009 witnessed the inaugural season
of Classic Film Fridays. The line-up for the summer included six films -- "The Taking of Pelham 123"; "Working
Girl", "Serpico", "Moonstruck", "Do the Right Thing", and "Saturday Night Fever"
-- to be exhibited in downtown Jamaica's Rufus King Park.
Summer 2010
In the
summer of 2010 Classic Film Fridays returned to Rufus King Park and presented Classic “Song/Dance” Film Fridays.
Films in the 2010 line-up included: "Top Hat"; "Purple Rain"; "Saturday Night Fever"; "Moulin
Rouge"; and, "West Side Story".
Summer 2011 In the summer of 2011, Classic Film
Fridays returned to downtown Jamaica's Rufus King Park under the banner of Classic "Boxing" Film Fridays. Films
featured in the 2011 line-up included: "The Set-Up"; "When We Were Kings"; "Rocky"; "Raging
Bull"; and "Cinderella Man".
Support for Classic Film Fridays has
been provided by:
Strong communities provide multiple means by which information can be disseminated in and throughout them. Increasingly
key to the information dissemination mix, is the internet. Jamaica has heretofore lacked a community wide internet based means
by which information can be disseminated in and throughout it.
A three phase rollout of a web site found at http://www.Jamaica311.com
addresses Jamaica’s previous lack of an internet based community communication vehicle. Phase 1 of Jamaica311’s
rollout is a relatively static web site that features information and resources particularly useful to those living in or
near Jamaica. Though intra-community resources are the focus of the Phase 1 site, where relevant, extra-community resources
are featured as well. A weekly e-blast of events complements the web site and is key to keeping Jamaica311 at the top of user’s
mind.
Click Here to Visit Jamaica311
In the Fall of 2010, A Better
Jamaica held the first Jamaica Solutions -- a conference designed to give the leadership of locally based/focused non-profits
the opportunity to discuss their efforts and share best practices so that they can individually and collectively better serve
their organizational constituents and the community.
The first of these annual conferences, Jamaica Solutions 2010, featured leadership roundtables of locally based:
youth sports/recreation organizations; arts educating/presenting organizations; and, health advocacy organizations. Jamaica
Solutions 2011 will feature a set of three new roundtables. 2010 roundtables are likely to be revisited in 2012.
Strong communities provide ample opportunity for non-related adults to support the educational needs of
neighborhood children. These opportunities are particularly efficient when they tap the underutilized adult resource of neighborhood
senior-citizens. These opportunities not only provide needed supplemental educational
resources to children, but also provide an opportunity for seniors to add another meaningful dimension to their lives. In the
Fall/Winter of 2010/2011, A Better Jamaica conducted a pilot season of Jamaica Reads. Using active neighborhood senior-citizens
from a local senior residence, Jamaica Reads placed 5 seniors in each of two 1st grade classes at a local elementary school
– for three mornings a week from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. These “Senior Reading Buddies” were paired with the
five weakest readers in each class with the goal of moving the participating children further along the reading/decoding path
than they might otherwise progress. Each of the students was at risk of being held over –
some for a second time – or being moved to special education. The
seniors were trained by Learning Leaders – the leader in volunteer training for New York City public schools –
and were paid a modest stipend for their time and energy. Ongoing
funding for Jamaica Reads is currently being sought.
Support for Jamaica Reads has been provided by: |
