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Family Movies in the Park - Strong communities provide ample opportunity for children and families to gather for shared 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. A Better Jamaica’s Family Movies in the Park addresses the shortage of these community building opportunities by exhibiting 16 free family-friendly movies across four local parks. In doing so, we strengthen the community by providing an inexpensive opportunity for the renewal of community ties. The films are exhibited on a 25’ inflatable screen and begin at dusk.

Jamaica311.com - Strong communities provide various means by which information can be disseminated in and throughout them. The internet and social media have become key to the information dissemination mix. Prior to 2008, Jamaica lacked a community wide internet based means by which information could be disseminated in and throughout it. Since 2008, Jamaica311 has served to inform Jamaica’s residents about activities taking place here in Jamaica's neighborhoods. A weekly e-blast of events – e-mailed to 1,000+ subscribers – complements the web site and is key to keeping Jamaica311 at the top of user’s mind. Posting activities on Jamaica311 is free to organizations.

Classic Film Fridays - 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. Family Movies in the Park was A Better Jamaica’s first effort to create more of these shared experiences. In the summer of 2009, A Better Jamaica launched a second film series – Classic Film Fridays. This series presents five classic films curated around a theme like Classic “Psycho” Film Fridays. The films are exhibited on a 25’ inflatable screen and begin at dusk – between 8:00 pm and 8:30 pm.

Jamaica Reads - Strong communities provide ample opportunity for non-related adults to support the educational needs of neighborhood children. These solutions are particularly efficient when they tap the underutilized adult resource of neighborhood senior-citizens. This solution not only provides a needed supplemental educational resource to children, but provides an opportunity for seniors to add another meaningful dimension to their lives. Since the 2010/2011 academic year, Jamaica Reads has paired senior-citizens with first graders struggling with the acquisition of their reading skills. The goal of the intervention is to have the struggling students catch up with their peers.

Jamaica Solutions - Strong communities provide the opportunity for local organizations to share best practices. On Wednesday, November 17th, 2010, A Better Jamaica hosted Jamaica Solutions – a first conference designed to give the leadership of locally based/focused non-profits the opportunity to discuss their efforts and share best practices so that we can individually and collectively better serve our organizational constituents and the community. The first Jamaica Solutions featured youth sports; health; and arts roundtables. The 2013 Jamaica Solutions featured local workforce development organizations. The 2016 Jamaica Solutions featured community gardeners.

The Jamaica Ball - Strong communities provide the opportunity for local non-profits to support each other. Since 2012, A Better Jamaica has given local non-profits the opportunity to support each other through The Jamaica Ball – a collective fundraiser for over 25 local non-profits. Tickets for the Jamaica Ball are $60 each. Participating organizations keep 90% ($54) of the $60 ticket price. Generous corporations – like founding sponsors jetBlue and Resorts World Casino underwrite the bulk of The Jamaica Ball's costs – allowing us to pass on the bulk of the ticket sale price to the participating non-profit. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to cancel The Jamaica Ball in 2020 and 2021.

JAC’s Holiday Music - Strong communities understand that the arts play a critical role in the health and well being of any community. A Better Jamaica’s “Jamaica Arts Council” (JAC) is a grass-roots arts service effort dedicated to supporting the growth of the arts in Jamaica. The first of JAC’s programs was “JAC’s Holiday Music” – a seven night live music performance series that takes place on the token booth level of the Jamaica Center subway station leading up to and including Christmas Eve. JAC’s Holiday Music premiered in December of 2013 and has returned every year since then. The Valentine's Day version of JACs Holiday Music was launched in 2019 and features several singers on one night.

Jamaica Shoots - Strong communities not only understand that much of what teenagers do is designed to get attention, but they encourage positive attention-getting behavior by celebrating it. Since the Summer of 2014, A Better Jamaica’s Jamaica Shoots! program has put high-end digital cameras in the hands of teens and charged them with “shooting” their peers engaged in positive activities like sports/dance. In documenting and sharing positive teen behavior, we are endeavoring to encourage as many youth as possible to engage in similar activity.

The AirTrain Jazz Festival - Strong communities celebrate their legacies by paying homage to their past. Jamaica has a rich legacy of jazz. Since the Fall of 2014, A Better Jamaica has joined forces with the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District to pay tribute to Jamaica’s rich jazz history by launching The AirTrain Jazz Festival. The festival presents live jazz on Thursday evenings on the concourse level of Jamaica’s AirTrain Station – the transfer point between the JFK AirTrain, the Long Island Railroad’s Jamaica station, and the New York City subway system’s Sutphin Boulevard station. Recent seasons have witnessed twenty-eight performances on Thursday afternoons/evenings – from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm – from October to May.

The Delightful Festival - Strong communities celebrate the cultural contributions of its immigrant communities. Since 2015, The Delightful Festival has celebrated Jamaica’s vibrant immigrant communities by presenting a series of free evenings of music, food and film – all tied to one of Jamaica’s immigrant communities. The Delightful Festival maintains a website at http://thedelightfulfestival.com and a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheDelightfulFestival/.

ABJ’s CASA - Strong communities understand that participation in the arts is critically important to the growth and development of young people in particular. A Better Jamaica is proud to provide arts training to the young people of P.S. 40, M.S. 355, and I.S. 59 via the CASA programs that we run. Key to the program’s success is the fabulously talented Kerri Edge and her team of teaching artists.

The Carver Scholars Program - Strong communities understand that scholarly pursuits should begin in the earliest of grades. A Better Jamaica is proud to have piloted The Carver Scholars Program in the Spring of 2016 at P.S. 48. The program – designed to encourage a love of science, technology, engineering and math among kindergarten students – is presented In partnership with the NASA MUREP Aerospace Academy (MAA, formerly SEMAA) Program at York College. Key to the program’s success is Ms. Kyshia Lawrie and her team of STEM teachers.

SU-CASA - From March through May of 2017, A Better Jamaica will conduct a SU-CASA program at the Rockaway Boulevard branch of the Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults. We’ll deploy Master Weaver Oke Ofiaeli to lead a group of seniors in an exploration of weaving on a Schacht 15″ Cricket Loom. Participants will weave – among other things – household goods and apparel accessories.

The Jamaica Dance Festival - Strong communities celebrate the arts in all its forms – including dance! Launched in the Summer of 2016, The Jamaica Dance Festival pays tribute to the rich legacy of dance in southeast Queens by presenting four Saturday evenings of professional dance on a 40’x32’ stage erected in downtown Jamaica’s Rufus King Park.

The St. Albans Craft Walk - On Saturday, July 15, 2017 -- from 4:30 pm to 10:00 pm -- the 15th Annual St. Albans Jazz Festival was presented in Saint Albans Park in Jamaica, Queens. Approximately one thousand jazz lovers attended the free jazz festival. A Better Jamaica and the Jamaica Arts Council used the occasion to launch what will become an annual event – The Saint Albans Craft Walk. The intimate group of six artisans that participated in the inaugural Saint Albans Craft Walk ranged from painters to authors to jewelry makers.

Art to the People - Since the Fall of 2017, A Better Jamaica has partnered with the Jamaica Arts Council to present “Art to the People” -- a public art effort that brings the art of Jamaica based/focused artists to the people of Jamaica via the eighteen LinkNYC Links that line Jamaica Avenue from Sutphin Boulevard to 168th Street.

Morning Drum Circle - In the Spring of 2021, A Better Jamaica’s piloted Morning Drum Circle -- a program that provides free hand percussion (congas, djembes, blocks, maracas, triangles, etc) instruction to elementary school students at a local elementary. An in-person version of that program will be offered in Spring of 2022. You can learn more about Morning Drum Circle by visiting http://www.morningdrumcirdle.com. This effort is designed to begin the return of robust music education in southeast Queens public schools. The ultimate goal is to expand the program to as many schools as possible.

Jamaica Advocacy - A Better Jamaica advocates for a number of one-off projects throughout southeast Queens. We are happy to have taken the lead on the development of southeast Queens' first-ever skatepark at Laurelton Playground - just off the Belt Parkway. Borough President Donovan Richards supported the effort as Council Member Donovan Richards. Then Borough President Melinda Katz also supported the effort. We are currently leading an advocacy effort called The Southeast Queens Music Education Taskforce. That effort is taking a look at the state of public school music education in southeast Queens middle schools.

Civic Duty - Strong communities work to ensure that the next generation of leadership is in place. Civic Duty invests in young men in the 11th grade by providing them with a hands-on civics education and helping them develop/hone their leadership skills. We also help them explore college options and apply to college.

A Better Jamaica, Inc.
114-73 178th Street
Jamaica, New York 11434
(718) 657-2605
info@abetterjamaica.org

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