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Violence reduction expert to address education at Central America Donors Forum
[/vc_column_text][/vc_coluna][/vc_row][vc_row][largura da coluna_vc=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Washington, DC. — A leading expert on gang violence reduction will present strategies to improve education and increase opportunities for at-risk youth during the Central America Donors Forum in San Salvador on Nov. 18-19.
Guilherme Céspedes, Creative Associates International’s Senior Citizen Security Advisor, will urge attendees to consider integrated, multi-sectoral approaches that blend violence reduction strategies with educational achievement initiatives.
“Violence in Central America is permeating families, escolas, economic growth and development efforts,” he says in anticipation of his speech in San Salvador. “This is an opportunity to discuss with our donor partners how we can foster a more integrated approach to this crisis.”
Cespedes—the former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles who successfully led the city’s gang violence reduction strategy—will be the keynote speaker at forum’s “Education and Opportunities for Youth” session.
The forum, which is hosted by the Seattle International Foundation, will bring together leaders in government, the media, the private sector and philanthropy to tackle some of the toughest challenges facing the region—from migration to education to an epidemic of violence, in which youth are both the main victims and perpetrators.
Proven strategies to reduce violence
Cespedes and the Segurança Cidadã team at Creative have supported high-risk communities across in O salvador, Guatemala, Honduras e Panamá in developing and implementing local violence prevention strategies—including evidence-based secondary prevention pilot programs in Honduras and El Salvador to reduce the risk factors of joining gangs among high-risk youth ages of 10 para 15.
The approach uses the Youth Service Eligibility Tool, which is a method developed in Los Angeles during Cespedes’ tenure to evaluate youth on a series of nine risk factors that account for individual, dimensões familiares e de pares.
Em criativos Honduras pilot of USAID’s secondary prevention program, chamado Proponente, esta abordagem reduziu significativamente os factores de risco dos jovens no final do período de um ano - incluindo um 77 queda percentual no fator de risco de crime e abuso de substâncias e uma 78 queda percentual nas tendências anti-sociais.
Integrating these targeted secondary prevention interventions, Cespedes led LA’s transformative gang violence reduction strategy, que reorientou a aplicação da lei para o policiamento comunitário e as prisões constitucionais e combinou-os com uma tapeçaria de programas sociais. With this approach, LA reduced nine different categories of gang-related crime by nearly 50 por cento.
The education-violence reduction connection
In high violence communities—where violence permeates daily life—school, educator and student security is tenuous. Against a backdrop of threat and risk, educational attainment suffers.
“Effective education is about mastery of content and context,” diz Céspedes. “The context of schools in many areas we work is one in which teachers and students are threatened, extorted, and even getting to and from school requires that families negotiate a variety of gang turfs.”
Nesse contexto, diz Céspedes, threats and fear impede teaching, learning and effective cooperation among families, alunos e professores. Integrating proven evidence-based violence reduction strategies with educational initiatives is essential.
Donors must also address school dropout and its connection to the violence, diz Céspedes, who will raise the issue at the forum.
“Dropout needs to be examined through the lens of content and context, and dropouts may be both a contributor and a consequence of violence,”ele diz.
While the inability to master academic subjects and skills often contributes to dropout, Cespedes says security in this region is also a major concern.
“I think in many cases, schools are not a safe environment and families are making a conscious decision to stay away from school and keep their kids at home. In many other cases it is a relief for teachers and school administrators to have students who have gang affiliations leave school,”ele diz.
Adicionalmente, at an age when youth are empirically most at risk of joining a gang (de 10 para 15 anos) and would benefit from quality education integrated with targeted violence reduction strategies, there may be no school to attend. In many high violence areas across Central America, the number of schools declines sharply between middle and high school.
Cespedes will bring these challenges to the fore in his discussion at the forum, with the aim of aligning donor efforts around integrated approaches that reach some of the most vulnerable youth and communities, reduce violence and make schools safer and more effective.
Sobre Creative Associates Internacional
A Creative Associates International trabalha com comunidades carentes, compartilhando conhecimento e experiência em educação, crescimento económico, governação e transições do conflito para a paz.
Com sede em Washington, DC, A Creative tem projetos ativos em mais de 15 países. Desde 1977, funcionou em quase 90 países e em quase todos os continentes. Reconhecido por sua capacidade de trabalhar rapidamente, de forma flexível e eficaz em ambientes afetados por conflitos, A Creative está comprometida em gerar soluções sustentáveis de longo prazo para problemas complexos de desenvolvimento.
Iniciado por quatro mulheres empreendedoras com experiências diversas, A Creative cresceu e se tornou uma das líderes entre os EUA. implementadores do setor privado de projetos de desenvolvimento global. A Creative pertence e é operada por minorias.[/vc_column_text][/vc_coluna][largura da coluna_vc=”1/12″][/vc_coluna][largura da coluna_vc=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar barra lateral_id=”barra lateral primária”][/vc_coluna][/vc_row]
