The Jayar Charitable Trust (JCT) was established to invest funds for future distribution into the community through the JR McKenzie Trust (JRMT). Inspired by the late Peter McKenzie, who had a large hand in setting up JCT and was its Chair until 2011, the JCT and the J R McKenzie Trustees have jointly agreed to spend Jayar’s capital and income over approximately 20 years. The JCT’s funds are to be invested in a specific programme or area of focus with appropriate evaluation, to achieve visible, measurable positive social change.
This document is an abridged and amended version of the options paper which was provided to the JRMT Board to inform their decision making processes as they carry out initial scopping and prepare to decide the specific focus and the approaches to be used. It brings together information from a number of sources including interviews with about 50 informants and a review of relevant literature.
Generally, informants and the literature favoured the challenge of a complex social problem, the prioritisation of appropriate monitoring, research and evaluation, and a
strategy for helping initiatives to spread to achieve greater impact. Many expressed a preference for the project to work upstream although it is useful to keep in mind there are challenges associated with this work. Informants believed that the timeframe for the project should be led by the project area chosen, and that we shouldn’t rush a decision ordspread its resources too thinly.
On this basis, the paper sets out a range of options which the Peter McKenzie Project could pursue.