Janet Richards Foundation ends seven-year run of outreach

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Janet Richards Foundation has announced that it has ceased operations due to funding and administrative challenges.

The foundation, the brainchild of former banker Janet Richards, began operating in 2019.

“It is with teary eyes and profound sadness that we, the directors of the Janet Richards Foundation, have discontinued operations as a foundation since July 2026. The decision arose due to new stringent regulations and costly administrative work and times,” Richards said in a press release.

“In addition, coming in October, new regulations and legislation will be added that may cripple small charities. However, this will not stop my passion of volunteering to the many persons who I and the foundation have impacted for most of my life, persons who cannot help themselves,” Richards explained.

Over the past seven years, the Janet Richards Foundation has conducted several on-the-ground outreach activities, including provision of aid to autistic and physically challenged children, and to residents of the St James Infirmary, as well as the St James-based Melody Girls’ Home. The organisation has also provided breast-cancer screening and education for women.

Richards noted that the foundation also hosted annual Christmas dinners for the residents of the Mustard Seed Children’s Home in Adelphi, St James, and back-to-school treats for children in Richards’ native community of Kendal, Hanover.

Most recently, it carried out post-Hurricane Melissa relief work across St James in February, including the distribution of clothes and other needed items to residents of Chatham, Adelphi, and other affected districts in the parish.

Richards, who launched the foundation as a tribute to her mother Joyce Ennis, said that its closure will not prevent her from continuing to personally help others wherever she can.

“I do extremely well at executing projects and will do administrative work well. However, my preference is spending quality time with the less-fortunate,” she said. “Thank you to all my sponsors, directors, support team, well-wishers, prayer partners, and everyone that gave me and the Janet Richards Foundation the chance to impact your lives. You will still be seeing me out there serving, which is a passion from my late mother, Joyce Ennis, that I must continue.”

Richards, who began her personal charity work in 2008, received the Jamaica 55 Commemorative Medal of Appreciation from Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness at Jamaica House in 2018 – a year before she founded the Janet Richards Foundation.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com