The Griffin Trust had already been working on the volatile, gang infested streets of Kingston for seven years, empowering young people through grassroots training and education projects, day care and home care for the elders, gang mediation and peace initiatives when our first home The Sanctuary, was born.

Out of the needs expressed in the community, it was necessary for a safe space to be established for lone elders no longer able to manage, for women escaping domestic violence, for young girls escaping sexual predation and for children in need of care and protection.

Beginning in a small 2 bed house in Kingston, The Sanctuary opened it's doors to 2 elders in need of life end care, 4 children at risk, including 3 siblings and 1 mum with 2 children escaping domestic violence, peaking at a household of 2 seniors, 12 children and 3 mothers fleeing violence.

The unaddressed needs of children in foster care, their natural and foster families, though weighing heavily on our hearts, seemed an unattainable dream, until now.

Having always operated from rented premises, a local Corporate body Digicel Foundation, made a commitment of a donation of equiv. Euro 72,000 (yes Seventy Two Thousand Euro), to assist us in purchasing our own property. This gives us the opportunity to create the first of its kind in Caribbean, The Children's Oasis, a multipurpose care space for children in need of care and protection and child centred, family friendly contact space for those in foster-care, reaching up to 400 children a year.

We have secured our permanent home at Knightsville, St Thomas!!!!!

A 4 bedroom,3 bathroom main house with a 2 bedroom cottage attached, set on 1/2 acre
By enabling the elder owner to remain in the side cottage for life, we were able to get a huge discount and buy within the Digicel Foundation budgeted gift, but we are short on the closing / completion costs and need to raise another £2,500 over the next 45 days to enable us to complete the purchase.

Please buy a brick, or two or more....... buy 1brick and your name will be entered in the Donors Book, buy 10 bricks and we'll paint your name on a rock in the Memory Garden, 50 bricks and your name goes on a large rock, 100 bricks and it goes on a seat, 200 bricks it goes on a bench................... help us to keep touching lives....


For more information please check out our website http://thegriffintrustjamaica.org/a-place-to-call-home/