Dominic James Foundation relaunched

Three years after her son’s death, Denese James and other board members have relaunched the Dominic Alessandro James Foundation after a break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the foundation, which was first launched in November 2019, are now aiming to help tackle mental health among student athletes.

To get this message across, they have planned a school tour, with Dominic’s last school, St George’s College, being the first stop last week.“The aim of the tour is to highlight to the students at large, not just the athletes, the importance of living together in peace. You know you have heard on the news how many incidents of violence are in our high schools both among students and between students and teachers. So we are just hoping to guide them and to give them some information on the importance of having peace in our schools, and not just peace, but working together, and hopefully, it spreads to the homes and communities,” Denese James said.

“Right now we are starting with the two high schools that Dominic attended. St George’s is the first one. We haven’t confirmed the date with his other school, Jamaica College, as yet,” she said. “In the New Year, we will expand it, maybe even go out of town because our aim is not just for Kingston and St Andrew. We aim to go all over the island especially to schools that are in the daCosta Cup and Manning Cup competitions.”

Denese James said she hopes the foundation will continue to grow and have an impact on as many lives as possible.

“As we go along, we will develop on it, but this is the start of an introductory phase,” she said. “We are taking baby steps because we are new to the whole scenario, but we hope to also introduce them to some sort of competitions whether poetry, posters, some kind of activity to help them remember what was said and to put it into action and maybe give them some kind of incentive, a prize or something.”

Like every other institution, COVID-19 affected the foundation, but Denese James said they tried to work around the limitations it brought.

“Certain activities that we would have liked to have had around football especially, we weren’t able to do anything like have competitions, but we did have a virtual town hall in December 2020, (and) the topic was ‘COVID mash up wi sports,” she said.

She said she welcomes any help that will further develop the foundation.

“We are very open to donations in cash or kind. People can contact us at dellyfoundation@gmail.com, (and) we are on Instagram and Facebook,” she said.

Dominic James passed away on September 20, 2016, after he collapsed on the field during a Manning Cup match between St George’s College and Excelsior High at the Stadium East field, leaving the entire local football fraternity in mourning.

Denese James said Dominic’s last coach, Neville Bell, who is the current coach of the St George’s College Manning Cup team, is also the patron of the foundation.