Fundación Compromiso, Argentina have been working with Fundación Loma Negra in developing a program that allows non-profits, the company and the local government to work together towards a common goal.
What are the Community Development Councils (CDC)?
The CDC are meeting points for every community mamber to talk about the issues that interest or concern them and establish a plan of action to solve those issues. They are specific environments for grassroots activities aimed at local development.
How did the CDC in Cañuelas and Zapala, Argentina, come about?
It began through an initiative from the Loma Negra Foundation, which had been developing a program of Project Contests. They were financing a number of projects from different social organizations in both Zapala and Cañuelas. The CDC proposal is taking individual organization financing one step further.
One of the main issues regarding local development that was being addressed in both communities was youth. The Loma Negra Foundation then decided to establish a council in which all members of the community linked to this issue would be able to work on a project common to all organizations. It would also give a chance for young leaders and the local government to participate and thus develop a much larger project, with a bigger impact on the community.
Who takes part?
Non profits, youngsters and adults with no institutional affiliation, and representatives from both the local government and the company. Fundación Compromiso and Fundación Loma Negra provide the space for these activities.
How was the common project built?
The main problems that society sees regarding youth were identified through collaborative diagnosis. In response to those problems, Compromiso set out to collect hard data. To do this, a Youth Movement Group was formed within each CDC by young people with or without institutional affiliation. They were in charge of implementing polls, collect Government information and bring data from the outside to the inside of the CDC. A lot of field work was done. In addition, Fundación Compromiso performed data research and collection to complement the efforts of this young people.
In accordance to the agreements and compilation of hard data, ideas were developed for a common project. This meant choosing the direction to follow before formulating a formal project with all the details.
One of the challenges was to convert the identified problems into specific problems that could be tackled by a social project so that the project would be feasible. Each CDC put a lot of effort into this because, as it is to be expected, each organization sees reality and the possible solutions from the perspective it is familiar with and is best at.
After some modifications, the project idea was finally completed and each CDC formed three commissions in which every person can participate according to their interests, skills, resources and time.
Which are those commissions and what are they in charge of?
The Communications Commission is in charge of putting the CDC on the map, so that people know what is being worked on, why the Council believes in the importance of participating, rally more people and build a legitimate place in the community.
The Commission of Public Relations is in charge of developing alliances, from mapping, contacting, appointing meetings and fortunately closing deals.
Finally, the Writing Commission is the one which is now finishing up the writing of the project and making a workshop for the final project consensus.
How do the different participants interact?
There were times in which every person spoke as a citizen, stripped of their institutional belongings. And we let that happen because it was a way to accomplish the horizontal exchange of ideas and value each participant’s contribution without pondering about educational resources, institutional backups and that sort of thing.
Most importantly, it was evident how much the average citizen knows about local issues and how much they can bring to others. Ultimately, what is talked about has to do with your children, your friend’s children; it reaches deep down inside everyone. And the problems are described and talked about by those who are going through them.
The organizations are discussing issues with the people they work for. The people have their municipal representative sitting right in front of them, giving rise to questions and conversations that are not possible in other contexts. There’s a link between representation and legitimacy which is sometimes not clear weather it really exists. There is also an interpellation between the young people and the organizations and municipal representatives which makes the debate all the richer.
On the other hand, when dealing with very specific issues, each participant’s social network became very evident. There was a great deal of exposure regarding each participant’s resources as well as awareness of the value of those resources in terms of social capital.
What does opening up spaces such as this one mean?
Basically, it means to place all of the participants of the community on equal ground, even if just for a moment, so that they can really debate weather what one person says that needs to be done, is actually what needs to be done and if that satisfies the whole of the community.
It also implies placing value on each persons experiences: there are some with great technical knowledge who have a lot to bring to the table, and there are others who are going through the discussed social issues and have a lot to say about those subjects.
A few facts…
The objectives of the CDC are:
- To establish alliances between the different organizations in favor of the synergy of everyone involved, not just financially, but also on a human, cultural, scientific and technological level.
- To create social networks in the community to influence on local public politics of youth.
- To accomplish a transforming impact on each community’s youth, through the use of workshops for the strengthening of organizations and young people.
- To create a common program where all juvenile leaders in every environment can gain protagonism and have participation in generating ideas an resources for their future, by participating in the diagnosis, design and planning of this initiative.
Some of the numbers for this program:
- 2 CDC formed with 59 signed letters and rules of cohabitation of the CDC developed and consensuated.
- 2 mappings of participants and allies for CDC development.
- 10 in-depth interviews to key referents
- 35 active participants (meaning they take part in every step of the process), including 17 youngsters
- 50 youngsters who benefited directly from CDC activities
- 150 people qualified in project formulation and colaborative leadership.
- 800 polled people by the CDC in Zapala
- 2000 youngsters benefited indirectly (estimate)
For more information contact:
Mariana Brandeburgo
Communications Officer
Fundación Compromiso
www.compromiso.org
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
+ 54 9 11 3229 2499
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