Search for:

A Better Jamaica

Main menu

Home
About

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 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.

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 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 all of its residents -- including its immigrant communities. Since 2015, The Delightful Festival has celebrated Jamaica’s vibrant immigrant communities by presenting The Delightful Festival -- a series of free evenings of music, food, and film – all tied to one of Jamaica’s immigrant communities. Past evenings have included Jamaican Delights, Indian Delights, Puerto Rican Delights, Ghanaian Delights, Haitian Delights, Trinidadian Delights, and more. 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.

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! The legacy of dance education in Jamaica, Queens is particularly rich. Launched in the Summer of 2016, The Jamaica Dance Festival pays tribute to this rich legacy of dance education by presenting four Saturday evenings of professional dance on a 40’x32’ stage erected in downtown Jamaica’s Rufus King Park. The festival is programmed with Jamaica's diverse population in mind.

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. Borough President Donovan Richards supported the effort as Council Member Donovan Richards. Then Borough President Melinda Katz also supported the effort. We recently led The Southeast Queens Music Education Taskforce. That effort examined the state of public school music education in southeast Queens middle schools.

Civic Duty - Civic Duty invests in Jamaica's 11th-grade young men by providing them with a hands-on civics education designed to let them see how everyday people are changing their communities and the world. Instead of reading about civics institutions, we visit them -- from local neighborhood associations to the United States Congress. We help our students explore college options by pairing civic institution visits with visits to colleges and universities.

Jamaica Funk - Strong communities feature news outlets that report on activities that take place in the community. Born in response to the dearth of local news sources, Jamaica Funk -- found at JamaicaFunk.com -- is a local news site focused on covering the collection of southeast Queens neighborhoods known collectively as Jamaica.