The Social Justice Foundation (SJF) was launched in 2007 as a non-profit organization with the guiding principle of “creating equity through training of vulnerable youth in rural and at risk communities in information and communications technologies (ICT)”. Its main activities are:
1. Youth Training Youth in sustainable skills- opening pathways to future media employment opportunities, as SJF trainers themselves or their own businesses
2. Building self-esteem and selfhood by telling the story of youth and rural/ at-risk communities with their own voices and images
3. Bridging the digital divide in rural communities
From 2008 SJF ran The Good News (TGN) video production training programmes in several rural locations including Toco/Matelot, Carlsen Field, Mayaro/Guayaguayare, Tunapuna/Curepe (for orphan homes), Rio Claro, Siparia and Penal. Over 600 young persons were trained. Some TGN graduates were hired as interns and full time staff at TV stations, other media houses and NGOs.
SJF has also created a suite of content- including films selected for the T&T Film Festival such as ‘The Mystery of the Soucouyant’ (2013), the ‘Glorious Childhood games of back in De day ’(2012) and ‘Life of a Young Farmer’ based on the real life story of a TGN trainer and ‘Tales from the House of Smoke‘ of the Warao Amerindians in Siparia.
In 2013 SJF was the recipient of a UNDP SFP GEF grant partnered with WASA Adopt A River, EMA, Cashew Gardens and Siparia communities to run T&T first community based river water quality testing program giving 1 year data of Caparo and Coora rivers respectively.
In 2017, with the media industry going digital, SJF was transform to a digital youth-oriented media organization. SJF was one of six awardees of the IDB Global Skills Services Program that gave basic digital media skills training in graphic design, photography, video and animation to over 150 young persons from 2018 to 2019 in the communities of Laventille, Mayaro, Pt Fortin, Matura, Cashew Gardens and Wallerfield.
The SJF main future goal is to become a certified Caribbean Digital Media Youth training academy to continue empowering young persons to tell the social, cultural and environmental stories that affect them and their communities.