Netball Jamaica Foundation has joined forces with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Community Empowerment Transformation Project Phase 11 (COMET11) to execute the U'tz Shine project, which is aimed at at-risk, youths across the island. The focus is on five parishes - Clarendon, Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and St James, and the programme is intended to reach at least 1000 males and females over an 18-month period.

U'tz Shine is a Netball Jamaica youth leadership programme designed to equip at-risk youth, ages 15-29 years, with marketable leadership skills, including sports-officiating skills and sports-entrepreneurship training. The core objectives are designed to increase their exposure to personal, economic, and social-development opportunities as well as empowering them to take ownership of disaster risk reduction in community space.

Three parishes (Kingston, St. Andrew and Clarendon) have already staged two-week camps since mid-July. St Catherine has just completed its camp which ran from August 15-28. The programme will now move on to St James.

The St Catherine camp attracted 45 males and females, and featured netball training, employment skills (such as resume-writing and interviewing skills) and entrepreneur skills and the vocational skills of fruit carving and salad making as well as interpersonal-skills training.