The Social Development Commission, through its Sports for Community Development Programme has successfully implemented its latest initiative dubbed “SDC 4 in 1 National Community Competition.” The inaugural staging of the competition began on October 4, 2022, where parish eliminations were completed. This phase, now complet, will see sixteen (16) teams advance to the national stage of the competition, where they will compete for the title of national champions.
SDC’s 4 in 1 National Community Competition has four (4) disciplines: domino, football, netball, and cultural / talent performance. A community participating in the competition must enter all four disciplines to form one complete team. Points are earned in each discipline for a given team, with the team amassing the most points across disciplines becoming the overall winning team. This winning team then moves on to represent the parish in the national phase of the competition.
The competition opened to all 775 communities island-wide, began with registration starting on August 30 and closed September 30, 2022. At the close of registration, analysis showed that sixty (60) teams satisfied the set criteria highlighted above, and as such, were categorized and given the status of full registration.
The strategic mandate and the primary aim of the organization, “To advance economic development of communities through the institution of an integrated community development strategy (ICDS) as a platform for local economic development” was fully infused at all tiers of the competition. Heavy involvement of community groups and volunteers from all tiers of the Participatory Governance Framework (PGF) was evident across the elimination phase of the competition across parishes.
Ms. Shanna-lee Archibald, Governance Coordinator at SDC shared the rationale for heavily incorporating aspects of the SPGF in this initiative. Ms. Archibald stated that “In continuation of our efforts as a Commission to rebuild the Participatory Governance Framework, the 4 in 1 competition is an excellent initiative that can be utilized to reinforce this process. As such, the respective CDC/Community, DAC/DA and PDC (verified/unverified) should be engaged in the planning and execution of the respective activities”. She continued by stating that “groups are encouraged to engage local stakeholders towards membership recruitment and display any other documents that will aid in publicity and awareness building of their respective organization.”
This year’s competition has several cash prizes, the champion teams at the parish level will vie for trophies, medals, and their share of the total cash prize of two million one hundred thousand dollars ($2,100,000.00). In addition, one million four hundred thousand dollars ($1,400,000.00) will be shared among the top fourteen winners at the parish level. This sum will be used as a partial contribution to a SDC approved community project, which is to be implemented by the community’s Community Development Committee.
The top 14 community teams that have advanced to represent their respective parish at the national phase are:
Kingston and St. Andrew – Mountain View & Maxfield
St. James Granville Trendsetter
Hanover Montpelier
St. Elizabeth Bull Sav
Manchester Mandeville
Clarendon Bucknor & Hayes
Portmore Westchester
St.Catherine Bogwalk
St. Thomas Port Morant
Portland Port Antonio
St.Mary Annotto Bay Elite
St.Ann Farm Town
Trelawny Jackson Town
Westmoreland Strathbogie
St.Catherine Bogwalk
With 14 parish champion teams having advanced to the national phase of the competition, they are joined by two additional teams who advanced based on the parish having the most teams registered and the best performing first runner-up team island-wide.
The National Finals phase of the SDC 4-in-1 competition will resume on Sunday, January 8, 2022, at the GC Foster College, St. Catherine, where all sixteen (16) teams will compete at this venue. The grand finals will be held on Sunday January 22, 2023 at a venue to be announced.
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