The Dudley Grant Memorial Trust (DGMT) was established in 1989 to commemorate the work and significant contribution of the late D. R. B. Grant to Early Childhood Development.

The DGMT’s mission  is ‘To be a centre of excellence whose primary function is to advocate on behalf of Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Jamaica’. Governed by a board of trustees who represent various early childhood development agencies, both government and private, this voluntary organization employs strategies such as project management and evaluation, research and documentation, development of curriculum support materials, public education and welfare support for retired early childhood practitioners.

For more information on DGMT's recent initiatives, click here.

 Recent Projects include:

LEARNING THROUGH PLAY PARENTING PROGRAMME

 The Dudley Grant Memorial Trust (DGMT) has been involved in parenting programmes with the Ministry of Education, Early Childhood Unit through the Early Childhood Resource Centres for the last six (6) years. In 2008, DGMT started working with the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre in Toronto, Canada on a parenting programme called ‘Learning Through Play (LTP)’. The main purpose of the programme is to improve the health and well being of children and their long term mental health development.

 The objectives of the LTP programme are: (a) to provide parents with information on the healthy growth and development of young children (birth to 6 years), focussing on the physical, intellectual, linguistic, and socio-emotional aspects of development; (b) to teach parents play activities that enhance child development; and c) to promote attachment through active parental involvement in their child's development.

The programme: (a) emphasises parent-child play as a means to promote learning and attachment; (b) uses a hands-on approach that emphasizes learning through demonstration and practice; (c) utilizes a simple, low-literacy, pictorial format that presents information about successive stages of child development; and (d) is culturally sensitive with respect to illustrations, language, concepts, and values.

The Learning Through Play (LTP) resources are pictorial "calendars" that depict the successive stages of child development, along with brief descriptions of simple play activities that show parents what they can do to promote healthy child development. They are called "calendars" because parents literally hang the materials on the walls in their homes to allow for easy reference.

DUDLEY GRANT MEMORIAL TRUST EARLY CHILDHOOD EXPO 2011

The Dudley Grant Memorial Trust (DGMT) has hosted the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Expo for the past two years. The event focuses on children birth to eight years. The purpose of the Expo is to showcase ECD resources and services that support effective implementation of the new Early Childhood curriculum. It brings together practitioners, parents and suppliers interested in the upgrading of the learning environment.

This year the ECD Expo 2011 was held over two days, July 14-15, 2011 at the Wyndham Kingston Hotel. The theme of this year’s event was Children Learn Through Play.

Every year an opening ceremony is held where children entertain the guests and the exhibitors as well as a guest speaker. This year’s guest speaker was Mrs. Patricia Chorney Rubin, Director of Community Services and Early Childhood at George Brown College, Toronto, Canada.

During the ECD Expo a number of workshops were held for practitioners and parents. The topics covered this year were: Children’s Health (The Health Passport) – Dr. Yvonne Munroe, Ministry of Health, Behaviour Management and the Young Child – Ms Yakeisha Townsend, University of the West Indies, Indoor and Outdoor Play and Best Practices in Early Childhood – George Brown College, Toronto Canada. The ECD Expo 2011 had a total of 35 exhibitors and approximately 3000 ECD stakeholders including practitioners, parents and children visited and participated in the workshops.

The sponsors were the Wyndham Kingston Hotel, Jamaica National Building Society and the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica.