HEART/NSTA’s PARTNERSHIP WITH THE SPECIAL NEEDS COMMUNITY Inclusion, Empowerment, Life Employability Skills The HEART/NSTA Trust has consistently invested in specialized programmes designed to support vulnerable groups of persons with intellectual and physical disabilities to engage in meaningful work and participation in the Labour Force and Society. These programmes, especially the Empowerment Programme, are in alignment with the Vision 2030 Goal to increase accessibility and upliftment of persons with disabilities, such as: • Exposing participants to key life and employability skills in practical non-residential camps with specialist trainers focusing on personal development, life coaching, entrepreneurial and apprenticeship opportunities. • Identifying suitable work placement opportunities and maintaining relationships with the civic and business community. • Engagement of participants in 6 months of apprenticeship training in private businesses, the Public Sector and in NGOs. The Agency’s long-standing relationship with the Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disability is anchored in a Community-Based Art & Craft Training Programme providing skills development and certification for adults and children with intellectual disabilities in Kingston and St. Andrew. HEART/NSTA funds this unique programme and supports overall project management, in addition to recruitment, diagnostics and selection of trainees and assists in the preparation of trainees for work experience. L-R: Kaywana Guthrie, Lister Mair Gilby High School for the Deaf, Gavane Ferguson, Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disabilities, Terry-Ann Bernard, Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf (CCCD), Samantha Scott, student, CCCD, Andrea Cooke, St. Margaret Mary Basic and Preparatory School and Angela Bowen Stewart, Genesis Academy. 35
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