Agitate Media is a dynamic young company with a specialization in—and a proven track record of—NGO and small business capacity building in the USA and Trinidad and Tobago. It is a d.b.a/subsidiary of MAM Squared LLC/Limited, a company registered in both countries in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Agitate’s recent clients/partners include RBC‐Caribbean, Digicel Foundation, JB Fernandes Memorial Trust II, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), Youth Business-Trinidad & Tobago (YBTT), the Citizen Security Programme (CSP-T&T Ministry of National Security) Civil Society Working Group and the Ministry of Community Development.  

The company’s core management team members, Melissa Matthews and Michele Matthews-Morancie, have 30 plus years of combined experience (work and volunteer) in community development, NGO management and capacity building of civil society organisations. The Agitate core team is often joined on projects by “agitators-at-large”—a pool of  other seasoned capacity-building professionals who consult nationally, regionally and internationally. Collectively, the Agitate team has been involved in building the capacity of well over 400 local, regional and international NGOs, community-based organisations, and resource users (such as community and public health workers, fisherfolk, public sector employees and craft organisations).

Agitate has pioneered the concept of an NGO curriculum in Trinidad and Tobago through its Agitate Academy Programme—specialising in NGO and small-business capacity-building and strengthening.

The unique combination of competencies and experience on Agitate’s team makes the company exceptionally well-placed to design and facilitate  innovative, interactive and inclusive discussions and workshops. For more detail on the team, see our management team bios below.

Michele Matthews-Morancie—Agitator-in-Chief (managing director and chief strategist)—has been a communication professional for the past 10 years, and a tried and tested volunteer in the field of communication for more than 14 years. Her academic background is in mass communication with a concentration on print journalism and the media.  She has spearheaded over ten strategic communication campaigns for diverse causes in the past five years, from healthcare to environmental sustainability and the arts, in both the USA and Trinidad and Tobago.  In several of her US campaigns, Michele acted as an intermediary and liaison between non-profit organisations and policymakers, the media and the general public.  She also trained over a dozen non-profit service providers (hospices) throughout the country to be more effective communicators and to build relationships with media and members of Congress.  In Trinidad and Tobago, Michele has acted as a consultant, coach/trainer and guide helping organizations to learn and implement more effective communication, media relations and stakeholder relations strategies, for organisations such as the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA), Veni Apwann, Sustainable Living Trinidad and Tobago (Sustain T&T) and Vitas House Hospice,  to name a few.  In her work with all of these organizations and the growing list of groups she works with day in and day out. Additionally, Michele has successfully developed and implemented  and continues to develop and implement capacity-building training in the way of communication, fundraising,  proposal writing, advocacy and social entrepreneurship to NGOs and non-profit organisations both here in T&T and throughout the U.S.

Melissa Matthews, Head Agitator of Content Design and Client Engagement has 11 years of experience as a capacity-building professional, and well over 14 years experience as a volunteer in the sector.  Her academic background is in fine arts which informs her unique approach to the work that she does. Melissa is an integral part of the content design and facilitation of Agitate Media trainings. She has played a critical role in the work Agitate Media has done in Trinidad and Tobago with RBC, Digicel Foundation, T&T NGO Professionals and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to further their respective corporate social responsibility and community development objectives through trainings for local NGOs in a myriad of areas. To date, she has assisted well over 400 Trinidad & Tobago based NGOs including, but not limited to: Down Syndrome Family Network, Cerebral Palsy Parents Association, Adult Literacy and Tutoring Association (ALTA), Mamatoto, Cause an Effect, The Allen Prize, Caribbean Books Foundation.  Melissa is also the creative mind behind some of the firm’s most innovative interventions and plans—a testament to her work as a capacity builder and to her past work in arts-based community development.