Thousands of Jamaicans Benefit from Palladium Cares

Almost 70 people have earned HEART/NSTA Trust certification through a social outreach programme run by Palladium Cares.

The Palladium Community Training Programme is a partnership with HEART/NSTA Trust and the Hanover Municipal Corporation.

Under the initiative, at-risk youth in Hanover are trained to secure certifications, internships, and job opportunities.

Palladium Cares says so far, there have been 90 trainees, with 79 completing training and 69 earning certifications.

Further community outreach sees Palladium Cares sponsor various school projects, including the Green Island Primary School Garden Project, Cornwall College Spanish Club & Basketball Team, Claremont Primary School recycling initiatives, and Passion Basic School Day Care.

Overall, each year, social outreach efforts engage about 12,000 people across 145 activities through about 1,000 volunteers.

These include Labour Day and Christmas projects and tackling issues such as domestic violence prevention and male mentoring.

Palladium Cares is part of the broader corporate social responsibility push by the Palladium Group in association with the Abel Matutes Foundation out of Spain.

The initiative focuses on three pillars, the environment, the community and staff.

As part of the programme, staff of Palladium have introduced the Lactation Room where mothers can nurse young children.

Launched in November last year, mothers returning from maternity leave are also greeted with care packages as Palladium partners with local daycares to ease mothers’ transition back to work.

Palladium says it also engages in recycling, water bottle distribution to reduce single-use plastics and participates in global events such as Earth Hour, Earth Day, and Coastal Clean-Up, and educational competitions to foster environmental awareness among students.

“Palladium Cares is built on the principle of ‘Caring by Doing,’ blending global expertise with a deep understanding of Jamaican needs,” said Mitzie Smart, Social Responsibility Manager. “We work closely with government entities and local NGOs to meet the objectives of our pillars: Our Planet, Our Community, and Our People.”

This is the Abel Matutes Foundation’s first year of work with Palladium Cares. Abel Matutes was founded in Spain in the late 1970s with social purposes. Since then the foundation has significantly expanded its scope of action and multiplied its budget tenfold to finance initiatives with greater reach and impact through Palladium Cares, both in Europe and the Americas.

Palladium Hotel Group is a Spanish hotel chain with over 50 years of experience, owned by Grupo EmpresasMatutes (GEM). The group operates more than 40 hotels and over 13,000 rooms, distributed among eight countries: Spain, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Italy, Brazil, the USA and the UAE. It manages ten brands: TRS Hotels, Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts, Palladium Hotels, Fiesta Hotels & Resorts, Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel, The Unexpected Hotels & Residences, Only YOU Hotels, BLESS Collection Hotels, the Hard Rock Hotels Brand under license with three hotels in Ibiza, Tenerife and Marbella along with the ephemeral brand 45 Times Hotels.