Area Youth Foundation receives endorsement from World Justice Forum

Jamaica’s Area Youth Foundation ‘s (AYF) project “Due Process: Engaging Youths in the Rule of Law” has been selected by the World Justice Project (WJP) to receive funding through its ‘Opportunity Fund’ and will be implemented in Jamaica later this year. The WJP indicated its decision to support the AYF’s proposal to the Chief Executive Officer of the AYF, SheIla Graham, based on the Forum’s recognition that the Area Youth Foundation’s extensive experience in working with vulnerable, at-risk youths who see themselves at odds with the law, could provide valuable lessons for everyone tackling what has become a growing and troubling global phenomenon.

The World Justice Forum is the biennial convocation of the World Justice Project, a U.S. based organization whose mission, according to WJP President William H. Neukom, “is to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the rule of law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.” The Forum III was designed to accomplish several goals: 1) to stimulate and incubate projects which participants will lead themselves for implementation for advancing the rule of law in their respective communities; 2) to build new multidisciplinary partnerships and expand network of leaders; and 3) to exchange and disseminate lessons-learned.
Graham was a participant in the caucus on ‘Educating Youth about the Rule of Law’ at the World Justice Forum III, which was held from June 20 - 23, 2011 in Barcelona, Spain. Over 450 diverse leaders including heads of state, Supreme Court justices, medical doctors, school teachers, engineers, business owners and artists, among others, came together to develop projects to advance the rule of law across disciplines, for implementation in countries across the world.

The Area Youth Foundation is a charitable, non-governmental organization which, since 1997, has been changing the lives of young people and building bridges of friendship between the divided, marginalized communities of Kingston.