MSI/CIV-JAM held a Trainers’ Summit to bring together a number of Resource Partners as the first step of building a community of individuals who offer their expertise to CIV-JAM CSO partners. This group is committed to applying their talent to civil society endeavors in the areas of justice and human rights, and will play a key role in providing a variety of interventions on behalf of CIV-JAM.

CIV-JAM will offer more periodic Partnership Workshops to members of its partner organizations. These workshops will build on each other and on the partners’ progress as they outline the principles and practice of developing partnerships among individuals and organizations, and address the issues particular to Jamaican civil society organizations.

MSI/CIV-JAM will be conducting a series of Professional Development Workshops for its CSO partner organizations, and their affiliates beginning in June 2004. These workshops will cover strategic planning, proposal writing, leadership training, financial management, and other important topics. Two workshops will be held each month. MSI/CIV-JAM partners will be given the priority for attending these workshops, and one week prior to the workshop available spaces will be offered on a first-come-first-serve basis to members of other Jamaican organizations.

CIV-JAM held its first partners’ workshop at the Pegasus Hotel, entitled The Principles and Practice of Effective Partnerships, facilitated by Michael Silberman of MSI. | Read more |

The MSI/CIV-JAM Project Launch was held at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston beginning at 3:00 p.m. Chief-of-Party Ira Lowenthal opened the event with comments , and introduced the program. MSI was honored to have a variety of presenters, including Opening Remarks from USAID Mission Director Karen Turner, an Overview of MSI/CIV-JAM by Zeric Smith, and a Keynote Speech by Professor Edwin Jones of UWI. A press release was submitted to the press giving an overview of the event.

Several Jamaican CIV-JAM partner organizations compiled a response to the Terrorism Prevention Act, presenting it to Parliament on Thursday, February 26th. Attached is a brochure outlining the suggested changes

MSI/CIV-JAM staff and consultants met with prospective organizational partners to assist in administering the Institutional Development Framework (IDF) . The IDF enabled the project and its partners to better understand the individual institutional needs, so as to begin planning the series of Professional Development Workshops that the project offers its partners.

MSI held a one-day workshop at Strawberry Hill, assembling the potential partner organizations to solicit feedback on the project design as it was submitted to USAID/Jamaica for approval. During this one day of discussion, the organizations also talked about their potential contributions to the project, and were introduced to MSI’s Institutional Development Framework tool—as noted in the workshop report.