Neville Spike, Business Writer
Dr Henley Morgan is committed to generating commerce and jobs in high-risk communities. - File
If one were looking for an ideal place to locate a management consultancy service, the first choice would not be the tough inner-city community of Arnett Gardens-Trench Town in the bowels of Kingston.
According to the police, there were more than 100 shootings and 30 murders in the community in 2006-2007.
Add to that the regular occurrence of drive-by shootings and gang warfare, and Arnett Gardens-Trench Town doesn't qualify as the safest place in which to locate a business.
But this is precisely the environment in which newspaper columnist and management consultant Dr Henley Morgan, 57, has his consultancy practice.
"If your entrepreneurship juices are flowing and you want to make a real difference, there is no better place to have your business than in an inner-city community," he says.
"It offers more exhilaration than operating on Wall Street or on Knutsford Boulevard."
From offices on West Road, in Arnett Gardens, Morgan consults with corporate clients on a daily basis, on topics ranging from organisational development and institutional building to strategic planning.
But by evening, Morgan changes gear.
Instead of corporate clients, he is welcoming community youths, advising on any number of issues ranging from how to apply for their first job to accessing capital for a promising business idea.
Articulate, passionate and opinionated, Morgan is reflective of a trend around the world which believes that huge benefits can accrue to a country and community when business principles are used to give a lift to the most socially disadvantaged groups within its midst.
Typically, social entrepreneurs help by creating access to educational opportunities, micro financing, vocational training and advise on business development.
And while mainstream entrepreneurs measure performance in terms of profits and return on capital employed, social entrepreneurs like Morgan judge success in terms of the impact they have on the community in which they operate.
In Arnett-Trench Town, Morgan's impact, since moving from the New Kingston business district, has been considerable.
Full-time work
His company, CATC, is now the biggest employer in the community, providing full-time work for over 100 persons, most of whom are contracted out to companies such as Lasco and Salada Foods.
In the area of education, over 30 community members have got full scholarships to the University College of the Caribbean to pursue associate or bachelor's degrees.
Harder to quantify, but equally important, Morgan and his team spend a great deal of time acting as referee between community groups who are in conflict with each other.
Left unresolved these disputes could spillover into deadly conflicts.
"Sitting in new Kingston and watching what was happening to my country, I felt I had to do something," said Morgan.
"Returning to the US where I had spent 18 years of my life was untenable to me. I gave myself one last chance. I knew I couldn't stay in New Kingston and make a difference. Location became very important."
It's been three years since his move to Arnett-Trench Town.
"I believe that in our own small way we have been making a difference," said Morgan.
No one is in a better position to judge the veracity of that statement than Donna Parchment, CEO of the Dispute Resolution Foundation.
"Dr Morgan and his team have brought a tremendous sense of energy and hope to the Trench Town-Arnett Gardens communities," says Parchment, who has known Morgan for over 10 years.
"Beyond giving of his time, talent and treasure (resources), he has also used his influence to bring in a number of other entities such as Churches Cooperative Credit Union, MoneyGram and others who are making a tremendous difference in those communities."
Tremendous impact
Dr Henley Morgan, pastor and 'social entrepreneur', is developing a business incubator programme for depressed communities. - File
Community resident, Otis White, 28, and member of The Miracle Club, an organisation founded by Morgan to provide leadership training and mentoring, also has no doubt that Morgan's impact has been tremendous.
"If it is one thing Dr Morgan has provided, it is hope to many young people who previously had none," he said.
"In The Miracle Club, of which I'm a member, we get training and exposure to different aspects of life, many of us would not otherwise be exposed to. Problem solving and globalisation are just some of the topics we have been exposed to at The Miracle Club."
White, who says Morgan's greatest impact is the opportunity he offers for a second chance, tells the story of a young woman, educationally qualified and desperate to get on with life but unable to land a job.
"He invited her to The Miracle Club and helped secure a job for her. Today she has a very good job with a well known company and doing very well. For someone like her, and many more like her, Dr Morgan has given them hope and most of all, a brand new start in life."
Outside of The Miracle Club, Morgan is using another vehicle to give community members a new start - AIR, or Agencies for Inner-City Renewal.
Working with partners like the Peace Management Initiative, theDispute Resolution Foundation and others, AIR tries to broker and maintain peace and trust within and among downtown communities.
But the focus is also heavily on small business development as a way of generating employment.
With assistance from the Inter-American Development Bank and others, Morgan and his team are hoping to establish a business incubation unit to spawn and grow community businesses.
Additionally, AIR is trying to persuade a number of companies like Mother's Patties and GasPro to offer franchise and dealer-ship opportunities to community members.
Sense of hope
"It's early days yet," says Morgan.
"We are hopeful that AIR and other initiatives will improve living conditions and give community people a sense of hope," he says.
"These people are no different from the man or woman living in Norbrook or Cherry Gardens."
Finding CATC's offices in Arnett-Trench Town isn't difficult - if you remember to ask for Morgan and not CATC.
From Spanish Town Road, travel all the way up Collie Smith Drive to the roundabout; take the first left at the roundabout and the first right after that - the first set of directions.
"You can't miss it," you'll be assured. But just in case you do, there will be no shortage of persons to assist you in getting back on track.
"Reverse and take the first left."
On the outside, the building which house CATC's offices hardly has the look of a thriving consultancy practice. But be prepared for a surprise when you step inside the 4,500 square-foot, air-conditioned building.
The office is modern in design with ceiling lights, plants and comfortable two person seats with magazine table and generous selection of reading material.
Your first encounter with a CATC staff is likely to be a young and pleasant receptionist.
She is likely to be seated around a neat, modern looking desk and chair and typing away on a flat screen computer or directing incoming calls from the small switchboard to the five stylishly furnished offices or to the boardroom complete with a 12-seat table and matching chairs.
The boardroom also has AC as well as white chalkboard and large screen TV with VCR player.
When not in use, it is used for monthly community meetings.
Morgan's office, positioned next door the boardroom, is of average size.
The small mahogany oval desk around which he sits is overflowing with letters, reports to be submitted to clients or correspondence to be proofed.
A small matching mahogany credenza with sliding glass door is situated opposite his desk and contains stacks of reports.
Book of books
Atop the credenza are citations received from various groups and organisations.
A matching medium-size book-case with books and dictionaries as well as photographs of his family, occupy an entire wall.
Henley, son of former St James member of parliament and pastor of Maldon Baptist Church, the Rev Dr Cyril Morgan, has one book in the bookcase which he values above all: How to Change the World - Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein.
Morgan pulls the book from the bookcase.
"This book," he says as he slowly turned the pages, "is very powerful and shows what can be achieved when business principles are applied to social challenges."
Trench Town-Arnett Gardens has more than its fair share of challenges, Morgan was to find - murders, rape and ongoing gang feuds.
But even for someone as exposed to brutality as he is, encounters with savage bloodletting can still be traumatic and gut-wrenching.
Like the time he stood rooted to the spot watching a community youth in the last throes of death.
"It was horrible. I have seen it all since coming to the community: marauding youths with guns, dead bodies," he says.
"Once I even watched a young man who had been shot until rigor mortis began to set in. It made no sense to me."
With all the challenges in the community, Morgan says he made the best decision by relocating.
His hope, he adds, for Arnett-Trench Town and places like that across Jamaica, "is this: that we will have less young men dying, less mothers crying, and less businesses shying away from these communities."
nevillespike@yahoo.com
