THE Cari-Med Foundation recently donated $600,000 to the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Civic Affairs Inner-city Development programme. The money will be used to conduct the 53rd Cohort Training Programme for February 2012.

The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC), Civic Affairs inner-city Development Committee, provides community leadership training to 150 Inner-city residents and 30 police officers per annum.

There have been over 3,000 graduates from the programme over the last 20 years.

The participants are youth from diverse political persuasions residing in inner-city communities, and front-line police officers, who join forces for a six-week training programme that helps them break down political barriers and remove the tension that exists between the police and the youth of the inner-city communities. The Inner-city Development Employment Agency & Liaison Service (IDEALS) has provided over 300 job placements, while encouraging and assisting the participants to start their own business. Here, Gregory Christian (centre), director of Cari-Med, makes the presentation to Sameer Younis (left), past president and chairman of the JCC Civic Affairs Committee, and JCC first Vice-President Francis 'Paco' Kennedy.