Inner-city entrepreneurs graduate from LASCO Chin Foundation programme

Outstanding students receive $125,000 in cash prizes

KINGSTON, JAMAICA: Three inner-city Kingston entrepreneurs walked away with prize monies and goods during the LASCO Chin Foundation’s Sustainable Socio-economic Intervention (SSI) Entrepreneurship Programme graduation ceremony at the Spanish Court Hotel on Sunday, January 27, 2019.

The three — Deidre Dixon from Ray Town, Kevon McLeish and Roland Andre Griffiths from Majesty Gardens — shared a total of $125,000 in award money for their excellence in the programme.

Dixon walked away with $75,000 in cash towards developing her juice shop, PKID, while outstanding community influencers Griffiths and McLeish received $40,000 in goods and a spur-of-the-moment cash donation of $50,000 to be split between them, from LASCO Affiliated Companies Founder and Executive Chairman the Honourable Lascelles Chin.

Speaking at the event, which graduated nine individuals from a six-month intensive entrepreneurship training programme, Chairman Chin told the participants that their “small start” was reminiscent of his own beginning.

“This entrepreneurship programme is very close to my heart because it reminds me of my early experience in business as a salesman. I understand how important it is to know how to sell and so we have designed a programme that starts with learning how to sell. We understand that your family and/or community environment may not be as supportive as you want. So, we are prepared to lend a helping hand where possible,” Chin said.

“You are now a business owner. You must remain positive and work together in our continued partnership, forging new partnerships that can assist us in achieving our goal to break the cycle of poverty and crime in Jamaica,” he told the graduates.

Mentorship Matters

Dixon who was lauded for making the most sales in one day, netting a profit of $60,000, rushed to hug her mentor after hearing her name called for the top honour. “She is the backbone of everything,” the mother of five said of her mentor Carrolyn Lewellyn, a key account manager at LASCO Distributors. “The late-night calls, there was no giving up with Ms Lewellyn as a mentor. She was behind me through thick and thin. I could call her any time of the night, text her any time of the day. I could talk to her about everything and anything even within my personal life.”

Dixon also spoke highly of the less-than-a-year-old foundation, which she said treated them with dignity. “[There have been] other programmes that I have been a part of where you felt like they treated you like you were an inner-city person versus a part of a team. I felt a family connection from day one and from the entire team,” she said.

In addition to the six months of training, which comprised a three-day intensive entrepreneurship workshop, monthly meetings and progress reports, and most recently, a “Business In A Box” workshop courtesy of student volunteers from the Miami Business School at the University of Miami, the participants received free LASCO juices and igloos valued at $30,000 each to start their venture.

Steady Income

“Now, mi know what Friday look like,” said Griffiths. Before starting the programme, the father of three sustained himself on what he could get from the sea, funds sent from family or odd jobs. Thanks to the foundation’s SSI programme, Griffiths said he is now able to sell, send his kids to school, give his dad pocket money and still buy stock to sell.

While happy with his award, McLeish also spared a moment to reflect on those who failed to complete the programme. Only nine of the 21 participants who started the programme got their certificate of completion for phase one of the two-phase project on Sunday.

“We lost more than 50 percent of our group. But those who stayed saw something,” he said. McLeish said the value for him was not just in the training he received but in the mentorship and the push he got whenever things became challenging.

“People will come and give you things. When you live in the ghetto them keep treat. Them give wi treat every year we a grow,” he said. “They give you the freeness and gone like the scramble money. But LASCO did not come and scramble money. They came with a process. They came with a plan, you know, a plan that had room for us.”