Youth Unemployment01
Digital Livelihoods and Online Earning
Uganda has one of the youngest populations on earth, and far too few formal jobs to absorb it. We take graduates of our digital and AI training one step further, int...
Kansanga, Kampala, Uganda · Est. 2026
Where technology, wellbeing and community meet.
We help communities close the gaps that hold them back, in digital skills, mental health, child protection and climate resilience, using their own strengths.
Community-Led. Evidence-Driven. Technology-Enabled.
- 6+
- University and institutional partners
- 8
- Connected programme areas
- 10+
- Years of social-work leadership
- 2026
- Founded in Kampala, scaling nationally
Digital & AI Skills
Mental Health
Child Protection
Climate Action
Research
Who we are
A centre built where technology, wellbeing and community meet
JM Centre for Community Engagement and Research (JM-CCER) is a Ugandan non-governmental organisation founded in 2026 and based in Kansanga, Kampala.
Most development problems in Uganda are treated one at a time. JM-CCER was founded on a different reading of the problem: these needs are connected, communities already hold much of the answer, and the right combination of evidence and technology can multiply what a community can do for itself.
We bring in-demand digital and AI skills, accessible mental health support, strong child safeguarding, climate resilience and rigorous research together in a single, community-led model, already backed by partnerships with more than six universities and institutions.
Legal status
Registered NGO, Uganda
Year founded
2026
Headquarters
Kansanga, Kampala
Geographic reach
Greater Kampala, scaling national
Our objectives
We work collectively with community members to address the social, economic, environmental and cultural challenges that shape their welfare.
- Strengthen the resilience of individuals, families and communities through mental health tools, and through training caregivers and local structures to nurture, protect and care for vulnerable children, youth and refugees.
- Close the digital gap and prepare the workforce for changing technology by equipping people with in-demand computer and AI skills.
- Strengthen community structures to prevent and respond to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence, so that every child is safe and well.
- Support community members to make informed, independent choices about the care and education they need to manage their reproductive health safely.
- Generate evidence-based solutions to social problems by studying behaviour, attitudes and social conditions in a systematic way.
- Promote inclusion and full participation for persons living with disabilities, so they can take part, thrive and contribute.
- Bridge the gap between academic theory and real practice through hands-on skills, professional networks and structured internships that build career readiness.
What drives us
Vision, mission and the goals behind them
Our vision
Empowered, supported and resilient communities that work in an inclusive way and use their own resources to drive their long-term development.
Our mission
To support individuals and communities facing systemic, economic and environmental barriers, and to harness community resources through culturally inclusive interventions for sustainable community wellbeing.
Our core values
Service
We exist to be genuinely useful to the communities we work with, measured by what changes for them.
Ubuntu
We are because others are. Care, sharing, respect and compassion guide how we treat every person.
Social and Environmental Justice
We stand with the people who carry the heaviest burdens, and we work to shift the conditions that put them there.
Human Rights
Dignity and rights are not negotiable. They are the floor under everything we design and deliver.
Collective Action
Lasting change is built together with communities, not handed down to them.
“We do not deliver services to communities. We build the capacity of communities to deliver for themselves.”
Our approach
How we work, and why it lasts
When we equip communities with skills, mental health support and protective structures, ground that work in evidence, and extend it with technology, communities gain the means to drive their own development. Four principles hold that chain together.
01
Community-Led
We train local residents as facilitators, peer supporters and community child defenders. The people closest to a problem lead the response, which builds trust and keeps the work alive long after a project ends.
02
Evidence-Driven
Research and monitoring are built into our programmes, not added afterward. We design from data, learn as we go, and can show partners what is working and what is not.
03
Technology-Enabled
We use digital tools, AI and online channels to reach people far beyond a single office, to lower the cost of delivery, and to give communities skills that open real economic opportunity.
04
Ubuntu-Rooted
Care, sharing, respect and compassion are not slogans for us. They are working principles that shape how we protect children, support wellbeing and treat every person we serve.
What we do
Eight connected programme areas
Each one stands on its own, and each one strengthens the others. A young person can learn digital skills, find psychosocial support and join a research or internship pathway within the same Centre.
Digital and AI Skilling
We close the digital gap and prepare people for a workforce reshaped by technology, from first contact with a computer to applied artificial intelligence.
Language and Communication
Lessons in English, French and Kiswahili build confident communication for study, work and opportunity, covering grammar, fluent speaking, comprehension and professional writing.
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support
We make mental health support accessible, local and free of stigma, increasing access and equity, reducing stigma and building partnerships across the health system.
Climate Action
We champion youth-led, digitally enabled climate solutions, promoting low-carbon, climate-resilient approaches and protecting the populations most exposed to climate stress.
Child Safeguarding and Protection
Built around empowerment, prevention, protection, partnership and accountability, following the INSPIRE global package and family-centred case management.
Leadership Development
A structured learning experience strengthening strategic thinking, emotional intelligence and ethical decision-making for emerging leaders, managers and executives.
Fieldwork, Internships and Mentorship
We give social work students and early-career professionals a place to apply their training, following Uganda's Minimum Standards and global social work standards.
Research and Innovation
Evidence is the engine of everything we do. Our research generates the understanding that better policy and practice depend on, across a deliberately wide field.
Flagship initiatives
Bold answers to Uganda's hardest gaps
Six flagship initiatives translate our programmes into measurable change, from online livelihoods to tele-mental health and refugee inclusion.
Youth Unemployment
The Mental Health Treatment Gap02
Tele-Mental Health and Community Helpline
Uganda has only a handful of psychiatrists for a population of tens of millions, and most people in distress never reach professional care. We are building a low-ban...
Africa's Largest Refugee Population03
Refugee Digital and Psychosocial Inclusion
Uganda hosts more refugees than any other country in Africa, in settlements such as Nakivale, Kyangwali, Kiryandongo and Bidi Bidi. We bring our combined model of di...
Leadership
The experience behind the Centre
JM-CCER is founded and led by John Mary Ssekate, a professional social worker whose career sits at the centre of Uganda's social work and child protection systems. The Centre carries his name, and the standards he has spent more than a decade setting for the profession.
As National Coordinator of the National Association of Social Workers of Uganda (NASWU), and a member of national child protection, health and education committees, his work reaches from the classroom to national policy. This combination of practice, teaching, research and policy is the foundation JM-CCER is built on.
Founder and Board Chairman, National Coordinator of NASWU
Meet the full teamOur partners
A growing network of universities and institutions
We already work with more than six universities and institutions on internships, research, training and placements.
KIUKampala International University
MUKMakerere University
CavendishCavendish University Uganda
UCUUganda Christian University
IALInstitute of Advanced Leadership
Why partner with us
A sound investment in community resilience
For donors, government and partners deciding where to place resources, JM-CCER offers a rare combination of reach, rigour and credibility.
01
A model that connects rather than fragments
Most partners fund one issue at a time. We address digital skills, mental health, child protection, climate and research through a single coordinated model, so one investment reaches a person's economic, emotional and protective needs at once.
02
Senior leadership with national policy reach
Our founder is the National Coordinator of Uganda's social work association and sits on national child protection, health and education committees, giving our work direct lines into the systems that decide whether change holds.
03
Community-led and cost-effective
By training local facilitators, using task-shifting models and delivering through technology, we reach far more people per shilling than facility-based or staff-heavy approaches allow.
04
Evidence at the core
Research and monitoring are built into our design. Partners receive clear evidence of what their support achieves, and the sector gains knowledge it can use.
05
Aligned to national priorities and the SDGs
Our work maps onto Uganda's development agenda and onto the SDGs for poverty, hunger, health, education, gender, clean energy, climate and life on land.
06
A clear path from pilot to scale
We are designed to grow from our Kampala base to national coverage, giving early partners the chance to back a model at the moment it is most able to multiply impact.
Voices from the centre
The people behind the work
I have been involved in climate change activities for the last two years, through community outreach and planting trees to promote climate justice. I am currently interning at the National Water and Sewerage Corporation to help provide clean and safe water for healthy lives in my community.
Nansubuga Lydia GillianYouth Leader and VolunteerI believe every life is worth restoring. We do not just treat symptoms, we walk with people until they are whole. My focus is simple: break stigma, build resilience, and make healing practical, because restoration is possible.
Sarah NayebareMental Health DirectorPartner with a model built to multiply impact
Whether you fund, collaborate, refer a participant or join as a volunteer, there is a place for you in this work. Let us build resilient, technology-enabled communities together.