Over the past few months, we’ve been lucky enough to get to know the youth from our Margins to Mainstream bursary model. In order to best set the youth up for success and gainfully employed in careers they desire; we’ve taken a strong interest in further understanding their future goals and dreams.
Recently, we learned of the chance for a young lady to attend an educational trip to Jamaica. The trip awarded her with a unique experience to gain both professional and personal life long skills, along with two extra credits towards her Social Work Degree.
What inspired us the most was that she had done everything and anything to avoid asking us for help. After months of working multiple jobs, she had saved just over half the money needed for the trip. When she approached us to ask for help, she did not site the beautiful scenery or warm weather of the country of Jamaica, but instead highlighted the ever-lasting impact that it would have on her future career as a social worker.
We would like to thank the Jamaica Partnership Program for providing this youth with an opportunity we know she will never forget. We would also like to thank the donors that made this trip possible. Your generosity has helped empower youth through education and help take them from the Margins to Mainstream.
After the trip she sent us a letter expressing her sincerest gratitude for providing her with this opportunity.
In closing, we’ve attached a short summary of that letter.
“Due to this grant, I was able to be apart of this incredible opportunity, and learn so much. With this placement I have been able to work within the Social Work Department, and gain knowledge on different perspectives surrounding Mental Health, and how different cultures perceive it.
It has been a great opportunity to work with a different culture to be able to bring back different tools surrounding social work, and mental health. This project has allowed me to expand my knowledge, my imagination, and my heart. I have been able to learn more about social work, and gain so many tools on how to work with clients, and within this profession. Through working with the community, I have had the opportunity to learn so much from the leaders. I have been able to really learn how to utilize every resource we have, and if we are short on something, how to still make it work with what we have.
This partnership has opened my eyes to show me that living in a developed country gives me so much that I was never aware of. Although, being in a country like Jamaica, I have also learned that they are all capable of so much, and that those in developed counties should not think otherwise. If anything, I have learned and brought so much more home, then I was ever able to give
- Bursary Youth.