From the boisterous group drum circle and dancing outside the 15^th of September neighborhood Outreach Center you would never know that residents in this very community were once shuttered inside—hiding from the gang violence that plagued their neighborhood.

“There was common robbery, there were gangs, drug sales. There were a lot of things that were not healthy for our kids,” says Teresa Benjarano, head of the community’s Board, known as the Patronato in Spanish.

The scene today is dramatically different. Children and adolescents flock to their neighborhood Outreach Center to play music and board games, practice English skills, take part in dance clubs and learn about healthy ways of resolving conflict.

The Outreach Center is part of a youth-focused crime and violence prevention program called Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID (Youth Alliance Honduras-USAID) that has helped to galvanize communities across the country, as well as the government and private companies to join efforts to prevent violence and expand opportunities for young Hondurans.

The five-year project, which began in 2012, is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by Creative Associates International.

For residents like Benjarano in at-risk communities, the project has mobilized critical resources and energy to make their neighborhoods safer. It has placed violence prevention at the top of everyone’s agenda—including families, officials and companies—from the local to national level.

“The arrival of the Outreach Center was a door of opportunities that is like water when you put out the fire,” says Benjarano. “The arrival of the Outreach Center has not only been a door of opportunity, it has been a blessing in our community because it incorporated and strengthened actions that we had already started.”

Communities own the progress

The transformation happening in the 15^th of September community is not unique. In seven cities across the country, Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID has helped to launch and support 64 Outreach Centers in vulnerable communities.

The Outreach Centers are established in partnerships with local, religious or community-based organizations, often with support from the Government of Honduras and the respective Municipal Governments. The National Foundation for the Development of Honduras (FUNADEH in Spanish) is the project’s “legacy” partner and has been working alongside the Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID to ensure the gains and centers are sustained when the project officially closes in April this year.

At the heart of the Outreach Centers’ success is community leadership and ownership.  Community volunteers and coordinators help to organize and run the center’s activities. The Outreach Centers have even created a certification system, through which volunteers demonstrate mastered skills and earn “Five Star Volunteer Certificates” for their service.

For many youth, the transition from Outreach Center beneficiary to volunteer can provide a critical sense of purpose, explains Salvador Stadthagen, Director of Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID.

“You see that the most powerful transformation when a youth goes from being just a beneficiary of prevention to being a volunteer in which there is youth-to-youth help and assistance,” he says.

Margarita Blandin, a coordinator at the Las Ayestas Outreach Center in Tegucigalpa, has seen the powerful effect the Outreach Center can have on young people in these neighborhoods.

“They all live in this environment that doesn’t allow them to accept that there is a different opportunity or chance or life for them,” she says. “I think that from the moment they [enter] they are offered a different space, where they move away from their reality.”

Inspired by the changes, more than 1,900 volunteers across the country, from youth to heads of community boards, have joined Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID’s efforts at Outreach Centers and through prevention campaigns.

Companies recognize a smart investment

Another key to the project’s success has been to make violence prevention everyone’s business, including the private sector.

Companies from telecommunications giant TIGO to commerce chains Lady Lee and PriceSmart have joined forces with Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID to supply Internet to Outreach Centers, to repair or construct Outreach Center facilities, donate gym equipment and sponsor national campaigns, among other initiatives.

Myriam McCormick, manager of Telamar Resort, which recently joined this list of private partners, says that supporting Honduran communities to thrive also helps Honduran businesses.

“If we work with the young adults right now, they are the future, future employees of the hotel. If we don’t give them the tools that they require to grow and to be exceptional, our companies don’t have a future. I think it’s a plan for sustainability, and we as a community, as Hondurans, also need to help each other to grow better,” she says.

One these private sector initiatives is investing in the future by providing youth marketable and in-demand workforce skills. Microsoft has teamed up with the project to develop seven “Microsoft Academies” in Outreach Centers with computers, software and instructors. Youth can earn certificates in Microsoft Office as a Specialist or Microsoft Technology Associate. Since their opening in December 2016, more than 220 youth have been certified and many more are taking courses.

For many of these youth, access to technology and workforce training is very limited, says Stadthagen, the project’s director.

“Bringing Microsoft Academies is a way that a youth can receive a certificate that is recognized internationally and valued by the private sector here in Honduras. It becomes a very valuable asset for these kids,” he says.

Another initiative the private sector supports, community gyms based out of the Outreach Centers, provide a safe space for neighbors to exercise and, for example, take group Zumba classes, something that wasn’t available in many of these communities before.

The program has made arrangements for several Outreach Center gym instructors to complete internships in private gyms and bring that experience back to their neighborhoods. Other Outreach Center gym instructors have been trained through an arrangement with local representatives of the American Aerobics Association.

Jader Soriano, a gym instructor at the Jardines del Carrizal Outreach Center in Tegucigalpa, says the gym is a positive distraction for the neighborhood youth.

“Instead of going to the same routine where they go see their friends or where they go to some corner to consume drugs or to have negative thoughts, they can come here to the gym and have better attitude, take care of their mind and take care of their body,” he says.

Prevention as a government priority

From the beginning, the project has found some of its biggest allies in the Government of Honduras, which has placed the issue of youth crime and violence prevention at the top of the national agenda.

From President Juan Orlando Hernández down to the municipal level, government entities have provided whole-hearted support to the Outreach Centers, contributing funds for their construction, providing stipends to volunteer coordinators and championing national campaigns and prevention methodologies.

Next year, for example, the National Prevention Program through the Secretariat of Education will introduce successful methodologies used by the Outreach Center for teaching conflict resolution and goal-setting through life-planning into the public school curriculum.

Residents in at-risk communities who once felt neglected and under-resourced have been buoyed by this strong investment in their neighborhoods.

“It’s incredible the effect of having the President come in and inaugurate an Outreach Center or the ministers coming in or important people like the mayor or the private sector coming in and saying: ‘We are here to help,’” says Stadthagen. “It creates a great feeling of not being excluded. It creates a feeling of inclusion that is extremely important.”

These committed government partners have taken notice of the changes in at-risk youth and vulnerable communities thanks to project-supported activities. They are committed to continuing the progress, in partnership with local communities and organizations, long after the project officially ends.

“The truth is that through these types of alliances we achieve greater investment in youth issues. These methodologies and programs proven… It is already a program that we know produces results,” says Youth Minister Feryd Bascha. “I think that when combined actions are taken in cooperation between government and civil society, and that all are interacting together and systematized, that is the moment when indicators are going to be moved because joint efforts are being made.”

With reporting by Emanuel Rodriguez

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47th Honduran Outreach Center opens to support 500 at-risk youth

 

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Comayagüela, Honduras — More than 500 children and youth in this Central District city now have a new safe space to access opportunities to learn and grow, thanks to the opening of the Las Ayestas Outreach Center

Funded primarily by a $42,000 grant from the PriceSmart family foundation Price Philanthropies, the Outreach Center will provide programs for young people in this crime-plagued area—including tutoring, sports clubs, life skills and job training.

With additional funding from the Government of Honduras, the Municipality of the Central District and the U.S. Agency for International Development, Las Ayestas is the 47^th Outreach Center established in the country through the USAID-funded Alianza Joven Honduras program.

Speaking at the opening, Vice Minister for Security and Prevention Alejandra Hernandez said the Outreach Center methodology is a “very successful prevention initiative,” noting that the government will continue investing in them.

Hernandez said her office is delighted to see the private sector, other partners and the communities so involved.

Click here to read stories and watch videos from the special report “Honduras: Young Lives in the Balance.”

Private sector invests in youth

For PriceSmart, the Outreach Center is an investment in a violence-free future for a country that has witnessed one of the highest murder rates in the world.

“We believe that these Outreach Centers like this one in Las Ayestas are an important initiative that will provide a safe and enriching environment for young people to become socially-responsible citizens and avoid street violence and gang activity,” said Robert Price, Chairman of the Board of PriceSmart, speaking at the center’s inauguration on Aug. 30.

More than 200 community members, government officials, private sector representatives and others attended the event, including Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura, Stewart Turtle, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy and Father Giuseppe Leo of the San Juan Bosco parish, among others.

The Las Ayestas Outreach Center is the second such center funded by PriceSmart; the first is the10 de Septiembre Outreach Center in the Chamelecón neighborhood of San Pedro Sula.

With it contributions to crime and violence prevention and youth development in the country, PriceSmart joins a growing list of private sector partners of Alianza Joven Honduras, including TIGO and the Lee Foundation Lady among others.

Communities take ownership

The Las Ayestas Outreach Center will operate in a previously vacant space provided by the Maria Auxiliadora parish, which is part of the Catholic Salesian Order. With support from the Price Philanthropies, the space was renovated in just six weeks. This is the third Outreach Center in the Central District implemented in partnership with the Salesian Order, as part of a broader project effort to involve community- and faith-based organizations.

The Outreach Center’s communal gym that will serve as microenterprise to generate funds for the sustainability of the Center.

Like the 46 Outreach Centers that precede it, Las Ayestas’ activities will be sustained by community volunteers who serve as program coordinators and mentors for at-risk youth. Volunteers in the neighborhood have already proved critical to the renovation of the building leading up to the Outreach Center’s opening.

Along with the continued support from the Government of Honduras, community members in Comayagüela and across the country are taking ownership of their Outreach Centers and, in the process, revitalizing neighborhoods and restoring hope to their youth.

“We congratulate the government and people of Honduras for the remarkable progress they have made in reducing violence and improving the lives of its citizens,” Price said during the launch. “We look forward to continuing our support and other opportunities for future cooperation.

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Initiatives to reduce crime and violence —including community-focused outreach centers—are having an effect in certain neighborhoods in Central America, though much more work and time are required before anyone can claim victory, according to experts at the Regional Conference on Prevention and Education in Tegucigalpa.

“It is not enough to suppress the crime,” according to the declaration of the Regional Conference on Prevention and Education in Honduras. “It is essential, in the medium and long term, to work toward peace and coexistence in order to prevent violence.”

Approximately 350 elected officials, policymakers, program implementers and the media attended the Regional Conference on Prevention and Education, organized by the Honduran Ministry of Security of Honduras. The conference, an initiative of the Honduran Pro-tempore Presidency of the Central American Integration System, drew together national, regional and international experts to share their experiences of what works in crime and violence prevention and discuss how to strategize implementation elsewhere.

At the conclusion of the two-day conference, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández told participants: “We are sending a message that we are waking up and are committed as a generation to take on one of the challenges we have faced through history. We will not stay silent and with our arms folded, as has happened in the last 15 or 20 years, before the issue of safety and prevention.”

Of the 350 participants, most of who stayed for both days of the conference, 100 came from outside Honduras, mainly from Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. There were also representatives from the US, South America and other parts of the world.

Creative’s outreach centers play a critical role

In the struggle to ensure safety and prevent violence, Latin America experts at the conference emphasized the need to reach children and youth before they became involved with gangs, as well as the importance of empowering the community to be involved and take action.

Salvador Stadthagen, Director of USAID’s Alianza Joven Honduras program, told conference attendees how Outreach Centers were designed to do both.

In Honduras, 46 Outreach Centers serve more than 28,000 youth and empower communities to engage and protect children and at-risk youth. At least 16 new centers will be opening this year. Through education and professional training programs, these Outreach Centers are breaking the cycle of violence for many Honduran communities.

These centers have received a great deal of support, particularly from the Deputy Secretariat of Security for Prevention, and by the local governments of the municipalities in which they are located.  The Mayor of Tegucigalpa, Nasry Asfura, has recently committed to building more of them in the Honduran capital.

In El Salvador, Outreach Centers are reaching an estimated 51,045 children and youth, Juan Jose Hernandez, a representative from Creative’s Crime and Violence Prevention Project in El Salvador, said at the conference.

“The centers are places of opportunity and hope in the hearts of communities,” said Hernandez, “and seek the development of children and youth.”

Similar centers have been set up in other countries like Panama to support efforts in violence prevention and provide opportunities for children and youth. The Outreach Centers are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, host governments, communities and the private sector.

In his speech, Stadthagen noted in particular the importance of empowering individuals in at-risk communities with the capacity to foster positive change:

“There are a lot of great people in the most at-risk communities in the region,” he said. “We need to unleash their potential and look for strategies to engage them to participate and become protagonists of the positive changes those communities require. Developing volunteerism and training volunteers at the community level is one key strategy to achieve this.”

Creative’s Outreach Centers provide opportunities to engage young people and foster volunteerism.

President Hernández publically recognized the importance of Outreach Centers in his closing remarks. He also praised Youth Against Violence, and requested that the other Central American governments support the youth movement in their own countries.

Creative co-sponsors & helps organize the conference

In addition to Hernandez and Stadthagen, other experts from Creative spoke at the conference to share best practices and experience in the field. Creative has been working in communities throughout Central America to develop tools, techniques and practices that engage both policymakers and communities in the prevention and reduction of violence.

Creative also co-sponsored and helped organize the conference. By sharing its network of contacts working in education and prevention activities in the region, Creative helped ensure that the conference was comprehensive and inclusive.

The conference provided the opportunity to share a variety of experiences and lessons learned, deepen alliances and create new alliances between attending organizations. The Conference also allowed Creative’s staff, partners, and allies to further their knowledge on Prevention and share their successful approaches.

“Creative has a very solid Education practice. Joining our experience in prevention and citizen security with our experience in education issues such as [school] drop-out, an important risk factor for violence for example, is important for developing more effective prevention programs,” explains Stadthagen. “The fact that this Conference explored the nexus of prevention and education was a great opportunity.”

Guillermo Céspedes, former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and currently the Deputy of the Proponte Más program, spoke about Creative’s secondary prevention project in Honduras.

Funded by USAID, Proponte Más will identify and work with 800 families and 8 to 17 year olds who are empirically at the highest risk of joining gangs. It is based on a successful pilot of 100 families in the Honduran capital.

During a separate panel session, Fabian Bendersky, a clinical psychologist from Argentina and Creative consultant, discussed the large and untapped potential of sports for prevention and reduction of violence among youth.

Soccer programs Bendersky has organized in El Salvdor have proved effective in teaching empathy, developing self-discipline, improving critical and reflecting thinking, increasing self-confidence, decreasing violence and absenteeism and improving young peoples’ ability to meet the challenges of daily life.

Thirteen Outreach Centers catering to at-risk youth will receive $83,000 from the Tegucigalpa, Honduras, government, the USAID-Honduras Youth Alliance program announced.

The funding will support the Outreach Centers through the 2016 year by enabling repairs and improvements to the buildings, supporting expanded operations and services and increased volunteers, as well as assisting with the implementation of Microsoft Academies.

The agreement was signed by Nasry Asfura, Mayor of Tegucigalpa, and Salvador Stadthagen, Director of USAID-Honduras Youth Alliance, and represents a first step for deeper and longer-term support from the municipal government for Outreach Centers’ violence prevention activities in the city.

“The current Tegucigalpa municipal government has made a remarkable improvement to the infrastructure of the capital of Honduras, and also now wants to concentrate efforts in the social development of the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods,” says Stadthagen.

With the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Alianza Joven Honduras uses grants and technical assistance to enable the government, private sector and affected communities to address violence and reform the justice system. Alianza Joven Honduras focuses on six cities— San Pedro Sula, Choloma, La Ceiba, Tela, Puerto Lempira and Tegucigalpa—that are experiencing the most violence. It is implemented by Creative Associates International.

Violence remains a serious issue in Tegucigalpa, where homicide rate in 2015 was 73.3 per 100,000 people. The World Health Organization considers 10 per 100,000 an epidemic.

Tegucigalpa’s Outreach Centers are designed prevent violence by providing support and opportunities to vulnerable youth in the city’s most at-risk communities. Each Outreach Center benefits an average of 300 children and youth and guides them in their transition towards adulthood.

The network of Outreach Centers in the capital is doubling in size this year, as a seventh new building has been developed with support from Price Philanthropies Foundation, a foundation associated with PriceSmart, a U.S. wholesaler with a strong presence in Honduras. Six of the 13 Outreach Centers are currently in development, joining the seven currently operating in the city. The private sector has been an active supporter of the Outreach Centers.

The support provided through the agreement with the Tegucigalpa municipal government, which will be disbursed in two parts in July and October, makes possible the implementation of Microsoft Academies in three of the new Outreach Centers.

These Microsoft Academies and the Outreach Centers themselves give children and youth opportunities for creative uses of free time, as well as academic and career support.

In addition to helping establish Outreach Centers, other programs in the country are focusing on preventing crime and violence, including Proponente Mas and Jovenes Contra la Violencia.

The USAID-Honduran Youth Alliance, has developed valuable and close partnerships for the prevention of violence with the Municipalities of San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, Choloma, Tela and La Lima.

Although the USAID-Honduran Youth Alliance had worked with the Municipality of the Central District in one Outreach Center (Nueva Capital), this is the first comprehensive agreement covering the whole of the Outreach Center network in the capital.