A Community Development Plan for a Sustainable Highgate Community
Over the last twelve years we have established the United Friends of Highgate (UFOH) as anall-volunteer, 501 (C) 3 non-profit organization. We have dedicated our hearts, time and money to help Highgate, St. Mary become one of the best places in Jamaica to work, live and play. We are determined to make the community a nucleus for expansion and develop our island into the great nation it truly is. To this end we created two chapters; the Founding chapter in Florida and the Ground Zero chapter in Highgate.
During the last twelve years, we supported the Highgate community in education, health, social welfare and helped care for the old and indigent. Now, we’ve began the second stage of our mission, which is to make Highgate economically, environmentally and socially healthy and strong. We will meet this challenge through planned and consistent solutions. This means, focusing on both the present and future, without being influenced by government budgets, politics, orelection cycles.
Money is the lifeblood of any community and currently Highgate is hemorrhaging; very little goods and services are produced locally to facilitate the circulation of the small amount of incoming funds. While remittance, small farmers exports and individuals working outside the community are the largest money earners; supermarkets, restaurants, bars and roadside higglers are the primary spenders.
Business Entities in Highgate
Many businesses are owned by the fastest growing group of immigrants; the Chinese. They, for the most part, do not purchase local products, nor spend money in the community. Hence, consumers spend incoming funds in their businesses which quickly filters out without ever circulating.
Whereas, it seems the Chinese are helping develop the community they are expanding their holding by purchasing properties, while providing goods and services to residents without truly assimilating themselves in the community. In the meantime, Highgate’s residents become more dependent on their products and services without getting the opportunity to develop themselves as owners and providers of goods and services themselves.
Our issue with Chinese owned businesses and property acquisition is not to prevent the Chinese from operating in Highgate. Rather it is about our own preservation; preserving the birthright of Highgaters and their future generations. The Chinese address the issue of self-preservation within China in many different ways. According to CNN, in some sectors, Beijing will only let foreign firms operate through joint ventures in which Chinese partners have the majority stake.
Again, for their own preservation, China has a very complex method by which foreigners can own property in their country. The Chinese government owns all property; no one – not even Chinese citizens – can own property. The government leases residential property for 70 years and commercial property for 50 years. By the end of the period, the government can choose not to renew the lease. According to a Western Union Blog “3 Key Steps to Procure Foreign Property in China”, a Chinese consultant, Dr. Hong Yang, said that only about 0.8 percent of property in China is acquired by foreign citizens.
A Sustainable Highgate
Building a sustainable Highgate community rest on helping residents create goods and services that generate income while keeping it circulating, a number of times, before leaving. This can be done if the citizens, community leaders, local government, nonprofits and non-government organizations work together to create a community operating as a planned township.
This collaborative effort will not only generate a comprehensive plan but acquire the resources to implement the plan without dependency on government budgets, politics, or the influence of election cycles. The cooperation of officials such as the Member of Parliament, Mayor, Custos,Parish Councilors and Police personnel are critical to this process.
Highgate’s Political Culture
Jamaica’s political culture, and by extension Highgate’s, present a serious challenge to development by collaboration because Jamaican communities are extremely influenced by government budgets, politics and election cycles.However, the possibility of changing the political culture of Highgate is strong. Highgate is a small, close-knit town; its leaders are familiar with each other (in some cases are friends) and may cooperate easier than those in other Jamaican towns. Further, UFOH as a non-political organization is an excellent platform for accommodating this alliance.
Community Development Plan: A Strategy
Our strategy is to create a database of members in our target group and use emails to inform them of our suggestion for community development. This way we’ll learn of their own plans, their agreement, disagreement and concerns. We will host a cocktail party and invite our guests to join our organization. Thus, we gather in one place, the human resources capable of planning and implementing plans for the town’s future.
While some community leaders and local citizens are already members of the United Friends of Highgate others may not respond favorably to our request because they lack interest or are hindered by the pervasive political culture. In the event that only a few respond, we will create a strategy to obtain further support over time.
As we progress, we will host a series of Town Hall meetings and use the internet, print media, email, local cable and other available marketing and publicity media to keep the public informed. We will continue to support the region by providing aid in areas such as healthcare, education and social welfare. By ensuring no individual or group outside our organization benefits from our work we believe, as we grow, others will join us.
We will also organize a suitable place for meetings and social gatherings in Highgate. This will include a comfortable room (air condition with suitable décor) with a conference table to seat at least twelve individuals in comfortable chairs. We expect this and future strategies will lead to the development of a Highgate township with a strong and capable leadership that will create a comprehensive plan to meet our community development goal.
However, this is but the first part of our community development Plan. Once the narrative is created we will need to address the major challenge of funding. The answer lies in taxes, grants, loans, fundraising and donations. We believe the task of procuring funds in the huge amounts needed is not as difficult as it appears, once Highgate is organized properly. Please readFunds for building a Sustainable Highgate Community.