New court to help change Majesty Gardens’ story

Long before the speeches ended, the newly renovated multipurpose court in Majesty Gardens had already begun attracting the attention of residents.

The refurbished playing surface stood in sharp contrast to the worn and delaminated court the community had grown accustomed to over the years. To many it was a renewed recreational space. But to 24-year-old Jaheim Mitchell, president of the Majesty Gardens Community Development Committee, it represented something bigger: an opportunity to rewrite the story of a community too often defined by crime instead of its people.

“Being in an inner-city community where you hear so much bad things, but your experience is totally different, you don’t just want to say it, you want to show it,” Mitchell told THE STAR.

“That’s where my passion started, and I can say that we’re going to be doing a lot of work to ensure that our image is changed.”

Mitchell said community development has become a personal calling.

“Growing up, community development has done a lot for me, so it is like giving back,” he said. His commitment has been so strong, that although he was accepted to pursue a bachelor’s degree in communication arts and technology at the University of Technology, Jamaica, he has not yet enrolled.

Growing up in Majesty Gardens, Mitchell said he became increasingly frustrated by the disconnect between how outsiders viewed the community and the life residents experienced. One of his main goals is dismantling the stigma attached to the area, which is also known by the nickname “Backtu”.

“People don’t know where the name comes from, so when they hear it, they think of violence, uneducated youth, unattached youth and teenage pregnancies, and we are working assiduously to fix this,” he said. At the centre of that effort is the newly renovated court. Mitchell said the facility has long served as a gathering place for sporting events and other positive activities, despite deteriorating from years of constant use.

Majesty Gardens is one of four communities benefiting under the Community Resilience and Transformation (CREATE) Project, which is renovating shared public spaces as part of a wider effort to strengthen community resilience, promote youth engagement and address social conditions linked to crime and violence. Mitchell believes improving recreational spaces can help interrupt the cycle of violence affecting some young people.

“Gang violence is there. It’s in their range, it’s in their homes, so they resort to it quicker than anything,” he said.

“When they miss days out of school, what they see is what they amount to, and sometimes they see it as better because they don’t have better. Children live what they learn, so we have to change what they see.”

Opining that the court “will definitely be the change”, Mitchell’s vision extends beyond physical infrastructure. He said he hopes to attract meaningful community-based organisations capable of creating lasting programmes rather than temporary interventions.

“This has to be something that sustains and that is monumental, so that when they come back in the next five or 10 years, they can say, ‘Yes, this project has done what it was supposed to’,” he said.

He said residents have shown greater interest in taking responsibility for the development of the community.

“We have a lot more engagement. We have better representation than the last five years. Everybody just has a sense of community to know that it is time for us to get the job done, and nobody is going to do it for us,” he said.

Residents expressed pride in the court’s new appearance and what it could mean for the area.

“We need the upliftment, as long as them nuh tek it back from we, because we never have nowhere fi enjoy weself,” said longtime resident Steve. He said the court has created space for basketball, netball, exercise and other recreational activities.

“A morning time, the big people dem go over deh go exercise and come back and gone to work,” he said. He said the facility could also help keep more young people off the streets.

“This is just one step towards a better community. You would be surprised how much basketball talent comes from this community. This is where talent starts.”