BURCHELL YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

Our goal is to work shoulder to shoulder with local Jamaican churches to provide educational and spiritual support to deserving students so they can build better lives for themselves, their families and their communities. Through our work we seek to promote Christian unity as we work together to equip students with the tools they will need to sustain success and have an uplifting effect on their country.

We fund the programs we support through donations from individuals and interested religious and secular organizations in the US. We provide our support through partnerships with Jamaican Christian churches. We jointly develop the guidelines and objectives for the programs with our Jamaican committees. The committees implement the programs on a day to day basis and provide oversight and accountability to ensure the integrity and relevance of the programs are maintained. We are in regular communication with the committees, and visit in person 2-3 times per year to promote the partnerships and establish meaningful person to person connections.

Our leadership team is comprised of people from multiple Christian traditions and business backgrounds. The team combines a strong faith-based approach to our mission with a business-like focus on good stewardship of our donor's contributions. We are proud to be applying 93% of our annual expenditures directly to programs even as we continue to build out our basic infrastructure. we expect to improve on this ratio in 2017.

Our organizational model of close partnerships with our Jamaican Church volunteer committees provides the unique opportunity for us to keep administrative costs low, while scaling programs up to meet the identified needs of our beneficiaries.

Our primary focus for the past two years has been on the scholarship program and helping to alleviate the financial burdens on families as we enable deserving students to focus on academic success. We have had rapid growth in the program, and estimate in 2017 we will have over 30 students participating, from more than six different church congregations, attending more than 12 schools.

This year we will expect to see impacts from our expansion into tutoring services and support of the Hart Street project, most likely in the areas of Sunday School establishment, and provision of school supplies and support to younger children from that neighborhood.