{"id":8140,"date":"2021-08-23T14:31:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/40.117.174.162\/?p=8140"},"modified":"2024-11-21T14:32:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T14:32:36","slug":"jamaican-entrepreneurs-receive-funding-in-the-dia-lab-pitch-tank-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/jamaican-entrepreneurs-receive-funding-in-the-dia-lab-pitch-tank-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"JAMAICAN ENTREPRENEURS RECEIVE FUNDING IN THE DIA LAB PITCH TANK COMPETITION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2021\/08\/23<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kingston, Jamaica<\/strong>.&nbsp;For&nbsp;the last&nbsp;6 years,&nbsp;<strong>The Trust for the Americas<\/strong>, in partnership with&nbsp;<strong>Citi&nbsp;Foundation<\/strong>,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;<strong>Institute of Law and Economics (ILE)<\/strong>, has held&nbsp;a&nbsp;series of&nbsp;Pitch Tank Competitions&nbsp;as&nbsp;part of the DIA&nbsp;program&nbsp;to promote solutions that generate livelihood opportunities and good governance in the Caribbean by bringing together academia, civil society, government officials, private sector entities, entrepreneurs, and young innovators.&nbsp;The initiative\u2019s goal&nbsp;also aims to&nbsp;continue&nbsp;nurturing innovation&nbsp;and entrepreneurship&nbsp;in Jamaican youth.&nbsp;On August&nbsp;12th,&nbsp;the best&nbsp;22&nbsp;endeavors&nbsp;were presented with certificates and funding&nbsp;of&nbsp;up to USD 1,000&nbsp;during a virtual event.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>High level public and private representatives attended the&nbsp;virtual event including,&nbsp;Ms. Jamie-Ann Chevannes,&nbsp;Senior Director of the Youth &amp; Adolescents Policy Division (YAPD)&nbsp;from Jamaica&#8217;s Ministry of Education, Youth &amp; Information; Mrs.&nbsp;Linda Eddleman,&nbsp;Chief Executive Officer&nbsp;at&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas;&nbsp;Rodrigo&nbsp;Iriani,&nbsp;&nbsp;Senior Program Manager DIA;&nbsp;Quimey del Rio, Senior Program Officer DIA;&nbsp;Dwayne Gutzmer, CEO&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Institute of Law &amp; Economics; and&nbsp;Shanae Owen, Project Officer and Lab Coordinator&nbsp;of ILE.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms. Chevannes,&nbsp;Senior Director of the Youth &amp; Adolescents Policy Division&nbsp;from Jamaica&#8217;s Ministry of Education, Youth &amp; Information&nbsp;Youth&#8217;s Division,&nbsp;commented:&nbsp;\u201c<em>I embrace all efforts done by the participants, especially&nbsp;in the field of sustainable agriculture.&nbsp;Due to&nbsp;the food security crisis that we face in Jamaica, we&nbsp;seek to&nbsp;encourage our youth to get involved and invest in activities that support agricultural production, capacity building, goods and services, logistics and value addition as service providers and entrepreneurs.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Linda Eddleman,&nbsp;Chief Executive Officer&nbsp;at&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas,&nbsp;stated:&nbsp;\u201c<em>Our DIA program&nbsp;has been fostering innovation and empowering new generations to engage in social and economic ventures for 6 years. And this competition&nbsp;is one of the most popular and highly anticipated events of&nbsp;the work done in Jamaica.&nbsp;All&nbsp;the participants&nbsp;have gone through weeks of rigorous boot&nbsp;camp training sessions to polish&nbsp;their&nbsp;venture concepts, presentation skills, and pitching abilities.&nbsp;We applaud all winners for producing&nbsp;out-of-the-box ideas that will boost and support&nbsp;their&nbsp;community development.<\/em>\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DIA program has supported more than 100 participants with funding for their projects. Over USD 44,000 has&nbsp;been granted to kick start enterprises related to renewable fuel alternatives, data collection software, gender equality, sustainable agriculture, recycling, digital marketing, beauty and self-care, and more in the last two years&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodrigo&nbsp;Iriani, Senior Program Manager DIA at The Trust for the Americas shared:&nbsp;<em>\u201cI am glad to say that&nbsp;this year&nbsp;14&nbsp;projects received USD 1,000.00 in seed-funding grants&nbsp;and other 8 initiatives received re-investment to take their ventures to the next level, which demonstrates the immense potential we have in our Lab, and how the&nbsp;guidance&nbsp;and leadership from the experts at the ILE team can have a positive impact in transforming an idea&nbsp;into&nbsp;reality. It also&nbsp;reminds&nbsp;us&nbsp;of&nbsp;how important&nbsp;it&nbsp;is to keep working despite&nbsp;the challenges we\u202ffaced with the&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;pandemic.\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through access to technology, collaborative spaces, training, and competitive seed funds, the DIA Innovation Lab, Citi Foundation, and The Trust for the Americas have benefited the lives of over 2,238 youngsters.&nbsp; Since 2016, Jamaican youth have acquired tools to develop their business ideas or create social projects to address local challenges.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About&nbsp;The\u202fTrust for the Americas:\u202f&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trust for the Americas is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS). It was established in 1997 to promote public and private sector participation in social and economic development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our initiatives, implemented through local partner organizations, seek to improve access to economic opportunities as well as to foster innovation in vulnerable communities in the hemisphere. To this end, The Trust also promotes social inclusion and good governance. The Trust has offices in Washington, D.C., Colombia, and Canada.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More information:\u202f<a href=\"http:\/\/www.trustfortheamericas.org\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.trustfortheamericas.org<\/a>\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facebook:\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheTrustfortheAmericas\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Trust for the Americas<\/a>\u202f Twitter:\u202f\u202f\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Trust4Americas\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Trust4Americas<\/a>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trustfortheamericas.org\/static\/webpage_app\/insumos\/projects\/icon-map-marker.svg\"> Jamaica<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2021\/08\/23 Kingston, Jamaica.&nbsp;For&nbsp;the last&nbsp;6 years,&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas, in partnership with&nbsp;Citi&nbsp;Foundation,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;Institute of Law and Economics (ILE), has held&nbsp;a&nbsp;series of&nbsp;Pitch Tank Competitions&nbsp;as&nbsp;part of the DIA&nbsp;program&nbsp;to promote solutions that generate livelihood opportunities and good governance in the Caribbean by bringing together academia, civil society, government officials, private sector entities, entrepreneurs, and young innovators.&nbsp;The initiative\u2019s goal&nbsp;also aims to&nbsp;continue&nbsp;nurturing innovation&nbsp;and entrepreneurship&nbsp;in Jamaican youth.&nbsp;On August&nbsp;12th,&nbsp;the best&nbsp;22&nbsp;endeavors&nbsp;were presented with certificates and funding&nbsp;of&nbsp;up to USD 1,000&nbsp;during a virtual event.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; High level public and private representatives attended the&nbsp;virtual event including,&nbsp;Ms. Jamie-Ann Chevannes,&nbsp;Senior Director of the Youth &amp; Adolescents Policy Division (YAPD)&nbsp;from Jamaica&#8217;s Ministry of Education, Youth &amp; Information; Mrs.&nbsp;Linda Eddleman,&nbsp;Chief Executive Officer&nbsp;at&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas;&nbsp;Rodrigo&nbsp;Iriani,&nbsp;&nbsp;Senior Program Manager DIA;&nbsp;Quimey del Rio, Senior Program Officer DIA;&nbsp;Dwayne Gutzmer, CEO&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Institute of Law &amp; Economics; and&nbsp;Shanae Owen, Project Officer and Lab Coordinator&nbsp;of ILE.&nbsp; Ms. Chevannes,&nbsp;Senior Director of the Youth &amp; Adolescents Policy Division&nbsp;from Jamaica&#8217;s Ministry of Education, Youth &amp; Information&nbsp;Youth&#8217;s Division,&nbsp;commented:&nbsp;\u201cI embrace all efforts done by the participants, especially&nbsp;in the field of sustainable agriculture.&nbsp;Due to&nbsp;the food security crisis that we face in Jamaica, we&nbsp;seek to&nbsp;encourage our youth to get involved and invest in activities that support agricultural production, capacity building, goods and services, logistics and value addition as service providers and entrepreneurs.\u201d&nbsp; Linda Eddleman,&nbsp;Chief Executive Officer&nbsp;at&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas,&nbsp;stated:&nbsp;\u201cOur DIA program&nbsp;has been fostering innovation and empowering new generations to engage in social and economic ventures for 6 years. And this competition&nbsp;is one of the most popular and highly anticipated events of&nbsp;the work done in Jamaica.&nbsp;All&nbsp;the participants&nbsp;have gone through weeks of rigorous boot&nbsp;camp training sessions to polish&nbsp;their&nbsp;venture concepts, presentation skills, and pitching abilities.&nbsp;We applaud all winners for producing&nbsp;out-of-the-box ideas that will boost and support&nbsp;their&nbsp;community development.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp; The DIA program has supported more than 100 participants with funding for their projects. Over USD 44,000 has&nbsp;been granted to kick start enterprises related to renewable fuel alternatives, data collection software, gender equality, sustainable agriculture, recycling, digital marketing, beauty and self-care, and more in the last two years&nbsp; Rodrigo&nbsp;Iriani, Senior Program Manager DIA at The Trust for the Americas shared:&nbsp;\u201cI am glad to say that&nbsp;this year&nbsp;14&nbsp;projects received USD 1,000.00 in seed-funding grants&nbsp;and other 8 initiatives received re-investment to take their ventures to the next level, which demonstrates the immense potential we have in our Lab, and how the&nbsp;guidance&nbsp;and leadership from the experts at the ILE team can have a positive impact in transforming an idea&nbsp;into&nbsp;reality. It also&nbsp;reminds&nbsp;us&nbsp;of&nbsp;how important&nbsp;it&nbsp;is to keep working despite&nbsp;the challenges we\u202ffaced with the&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;pandemic.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp; Through access to technology, collaborative spaces, training, and competitive seed funds, the DIA Innovation Lab, Citi Foundation, and The Trust for the Americas have benefited the lives of over 2,238 youngsters.&nbsp; Since 2016, Jamaican youth have acquired tools to develop their business ideas or create social projects to address local challenges.&nbsp; &#8212; About&nbsp;The\u202fTrust for the Americas:\u202f&nbsp; The Trust for the Americas is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS). It was established in 1997 to promote public and private sector participation in social and economic development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our initiatives, implemented through local partner organizations, seek to improve access to economic opportunities as well as to foster innovation in vulnerable communities in the hemisphere. To this end, The Trust also promotes social inclusion and good governance. The Trust has offices in Washington, D.C., Colombia, and Canada.\u202f&nbsp; More information:\u202fwww.trustfortheamericas.org\u202f\u202f&nbsp; Facebook:\u202fThe Trust for the Americas\u202f Twitter:\u202f\u202f\u202f@Trust4Americas\u202f&nbsp; Jamaica<\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":8141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8142,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8140\/revisions\/8142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}