Writing for resilience: Young Salvadoran authors share their stories

September 13, 2018

By Gerson Lara and Evelyn Rupert

4 min read

At a town hall in La Libertad, El Salvador, a group of youth authors proudly hold their newly printed books, flipping through pages they wrote themselves.

For five months, 89 youth wrote, edited and illustrated these books, putting stories and experiences from their own lives down on paper. Josué wrote about a birthday. Rebeca wrote about friendships, both good and bad. Others wrote about love, soccer, family, school and “An Unforgettable Day.”

The authors, ranging in age from 9 to 29, were guided through the writing process by ConTextos and its Soy Autor (“I’m an Author”) initiative, with support from the El Salvador Crime and Violence Prevention Project.

Rene Flores, a Soy Autor participant, says he was motivated to join by the prospect of publishing his own book – and sharing his story as a way to help others.

ConTextos participants celebrate the printing of their books. Photos by Gerson Lara.

“It pushed me forward and allowed me to open up my mind and get to know the other people in the workshop,” he says. “I hope that people who read by book can relate and see that whatever they’re going through, they can get past it.”

The Crime and Violence Prevention Project is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by Creative Associates International. The project, in partnership with municipalities, has established more than 160 Outreach Centers across the country to provide opportunities to local youth – in sports, music, art, skill building and more.

The Soy Autor program was brought to five of these Outreach Centers, all in the municipality of Apopa, which has historically been a hotspot of violence in the country.

Rene says that through the 22 writing workshops that took place at the Apopa Centro Outreach Center, he was able to work through the initial difficulty of putting his own words down on paper.

“I overcame some fear I had about speaking, about letting people get to know me and writing about my personal life,” Rene says. “It takes courage to face those challenges and use writing to get things off your chest.”

A safe space to share

For many youth, the writing process provides an opportunity to speak openly about traumatic experiences in a safe space and empathize with others. Soy Autor instructor Jenny Knapp says that in communities that see high levels of crime and violence, she has read stories about youth who have lost loved ones, seen parents incarcerated or witnessed friends being killed.

“Soy Autor provides an opportunity for youth to express those difficult things and to develop their capacity for expression, critical thinking and vulnerability,” she says. “They can share what they often hide, and ultimately turn sadness into something that can be valuable for others.”

That’s exactly what Rene hopes will be the impact of his book when his friends and peers read it for the first time.

“I want to dedicate this book to certain people so that they can be inspired and see that despite the obstacles, you can move forward,” he says. “And that even if they’re going through something difficult, they can overcome it … You fall, but you always get back up and dust yourself off.”

A young boy holds his book. — Josué Gómez receives his book, which he wrote about a birthday.

Jonatan Trujillo Garcia, coordinator of the Apopa Centro Outreach Center, says that those participants with tough stories to tell had the support they needed to keep going when the writing got challenging. With the encouragement of the instructors, he was also able to participate and write a book about his graduation – a story that he says helped him recommit to the goals he had set for himself.

“What helped me the most was having that support from the workshop’s instructors, who gave us the strength and the encouragement to be able to tell these stories, because there are some stories that are really difficult, and it’s not easy to have that courage to write them,” he says. “Thanks to this opportunity, we have broken negative ways of thinking and have more courage to be able to talk about our experiences.”

The Crime and Violence Prevention Project’s Karen Duarte, who leads efforts on innovative prevention, says that more than 90 percent of the Soy Autor participants had a high exposure to violence, which can contribute to them continuing the cycle of violence in the future. But the writing initiative helped them cope with those traumatic life events, which can be a risk factor that contributes to the cycle of violence.

“Soy Autor developed in young people the skills to write their own narrative, communicate their life stories and generate empathy,” she says. “Additionally, it’s a form of therapy to address and understand the stresses they’ve experienced and help reduce the risk factors of traumatic events, which, if left unaddressed, can influence that young person to become part of a gang.”

Building empathy and peer support

A girl works on her book. — A young girl gets some guidance on illustrating her book.

Jonatan says that at Apopa Centro, he saw firsthand the transformation that occurred as youth were able to remove the “masks” that they often wear and open up to one another and to themselves.

“They supported one another to write the stories and get things off their chest, leaving behind some of those fears that they had, that sadness, and converting into a positive force with which they can help others,” he says.

By introducing youth to a creative outlet, means of self-expression and tool to work through traumatic experiences, Soy Autor equips them with a means of addressing challenges for the rest of their lives.

“We know that Soy Autor is a step,” Knapp says. “We try to turn these youth into readers and writers for life, so that it’s a habit and they know that throughout the course of their lives, no matter what happens, they can find refuge in pencil and paper, and they can tell their experiences and share them.”

After-school programs create safe spaces for Saint Lucian youth

September 5, 2018

By Evelyn Rupert

4 min read

As the school bell rings at the end of the day at Soufrière Comprehensive Secondary School in Saint Lucia, students hastily pack up their books and supplies and rush out the door to head home or meet up with friends. But for a group of more than 50 students, the bell means it’s time for their fencing lesson.

Pinky Fontenelle, 15, and her classmates put on their protective pads, gloves and masks and pick up slender fencing swords, called épées. After learning some basic moves, they practice in pairs, swords clinking together in mid-air.

The introduction to fencing is just one part of the Sacred Sports Foundation’s Beyond the Bell After-School program, where students participate in an array of organized sports, get help with homework, and build life skills. The program is receiving support from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Community, Family and Youth Resilience program (CFYR), which is implemented by Creative Associates International in Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and Guyana.

Pinky says the activities at Beyond the Bell have done much more than teach her how to wield an épée.

Three students in fencing gear. — Three students don their fencing gear at Beyond the Bell. Photo courtesy of Sacred Sports Foundation.

“This program has benefitted me in so many ways: it has taught me good sportsmanship, leadership, teamwork, and how to cooperate with others,” she says.

USAID, through the CFYR program, is working to support 13 similar after-school programs across the three countries that serve a total of 570 boys and girls. The initiative supports family networks, communities, service providers and government agencies in implementing successful approaches to reduce crime and violence and increasing opportunities for vulnerable youth.

Programs focus on positive youth development, utilizing community activities, sports, arts and workforce readiness initiatives that seek to build social and leadership skills in youth like Pinky.

Putting education first

The after-school programs offer a wide range of activities – including creative arts, life skills building, sports, drama, dance, gardening and music – but homework assistance is a primary focus of each one.

The rate of secondary school completion in Saint Lucia is about 80 percent, but drops to 54 percent among the poorest students. In Guyana, only 56 percent of all students complete secondary school, and the completion rate among the poorest youth is just 26 percent.

Many students arrive home from school in the afternoon while their parents are still at work, so parents are unable to supervise or encourage them to do their schoolwork. But at Beyond the Bell, students set aside time to study and also have support from a team of about a dozen tutors and mentors.

“When I heard what the program was about, I wanted to go every afternoon,” says Yoanne Murray, 15. “It’s helpful because in the afternoon I get to sit and do my homework. It’s not very often when I go home that I can focus and do it right away.”

Nova Alexander, director of the Beyond the Bell program, says that for the 25 girls and 31 boys enrolled, the additional support provided for a few hours every evening is giving students a better outlook on school.

“This program has allowed us to be able to deliver everything that the child needs to go home with a better attitude toward school,” Alexander says. “That will allow them to continue their homework and their education, while benefitting from important social and life skills that will add value to their lives. It has just been incredible.”

Creating safe spaces

In Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, Eliza Victor runs an after-school program called Building the Future, run by local cultural organization Ti Mamai, which means “Little Children” in creole. Victor says the program not only offers homework help, sports, arts and music, it also provides a safe space for students who otherwise might be spending time out on the streets.

“We ask the children what their hobby is, and they don’t really know … after lessons end at 3 p.m., they’re just hanging about, and it’s not safe,” she says. “So the program is providing a kind of safety net for these children as well, and it keeps them away from trouble. When they go home, their parents are home already.”

A girl shoots a basketball. — A young girl shoots a basketball at Ti Mamai after-school program. Photo by Kathy McClure.

Alexander further notes that after-school programs, like Beyond the Bell and Building the Future, are also helping students build resilience to challenges they may face within their own homes.

“Of the 56 children in our program, only 11 of them have both parents,” she says. “A lot of these young children between the ages of 11 to 16 are doing quite poorly in school and are having issues at home or social issues. In some cases, they are sexually active, drinking alcohol, and either themselves or their families, have a history of crime and violence and issues with dealing with conflict.”

But whether studying for an exam, playing music, putting on a dance performance, or learning how to fence, students are learning the skills they need to overcome obstacles, work with others and stay focused on setting and achieving their goals.

“The transformation has been quite incredible,” Alexander says. “When the bell rings, they know it’s a good program. I think a lot of the young people might not realize how much they’re developing, becoming more mature and better equipped to handle challenging situations.

“The whole idea of youth, family and community, working as a unit, is going to have a big impact. I think it’s an excellent model and we love how it’s working.”

With reporting by Kathy McClure in Saint Lucia.

The face of a youth anti-violence movement

August 3, 2018

4 min read

In the gang-dominated neighborhoods of Honduras, Santiago Avila is a force to be reckoned with. To the youth in his group, he is family. But if you breach his code, you can’t claim to be a member.

Avila, General Director of the country’s Youth Against Violence Movement (Jovenes Contra la Violencia in Spanish), operates a parallel structure to the gangs, recruiting youth, giving them a sense of belonging and purpose, and allowing then to put in time and climb the ranks. With successive volunteer hours, youth earn t-shirts, then caps, then polo shirts, all emblazoned with the group’s revered symbol: three soundwaves representing family, neighborhood and community.

“The metaphor [to gangs] is very emblematic,” says Avila. “These youth feel they can count on Jovenes Contra la Violencia for anything. That’s exactly what the gangs do.”

Santiago Avila (right) stands with fellow Youth Against Violence Leaders. — Santiago Avila (right) stands with fellow Youth Against Violence Leaders outside of their main Honduras office. Photo by Jillian Slutzker.

But as opposed to gangs, what binds this group together is a strict code of nonviolence and a dogged commitment to bringing hope and opportunity to their hard-hit comunities.

With more than 300 permanent members in seven high-violence cities, plus on an online community of 10,000, the Youth Against Violence Movement in Honduras has become the go-to advocacy group and thought leader on the country’s violence epidemic.

While the nation’s homicide rate dropped 26 percent in 2017 from 59.1 to 42.8 homicides per 100,000 residents, it is still among the highest in the world. Last year, 3,791 people were murdered, according to Insight Crime. Youth Against Violence Movement research reveals that typically 80 percent of homicide victims are ages 14 to 26.

The movement won’t stop until those numbers drop to zero.

They have consulted mayors and ministers, led nationwide campaigns and broadcast television programs that have elevated the issue of violence prevention in the halls of government and in living rooms across the country.

From a meeting to a movement

The success of the Youth Against Violence Movement today, however, is something Avila couldn’t have foreseen when he joined the budding group in 2010, just a year after it began in neighboring Guatemala as part of the Guatemala Youth Challenge Program, which was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by Creative Associates International.

Having lost his own brother to gang violence, Avila channeled his energy into the movement, which began as a close-knit team of youth with a big idea.

“For me, it was at first a family,” says Avila. “A family in which volunteers invest their time, their ideas and their talents and began to propose ideas that at one point we saw as a dream.”

A natural leader, Avila assumed second in command for the Honduras chapter behind the group’s then-leader Alejandra Hernandez, who now serves as the country’s Vice Minister for Security and Prevention.

With support from the private sector, the government and a youth violence prevention program funded by USAID and implemented by Creative called Alianza Joven Honduras (Youth Alliance Honduras), the movement quickly caught fire in Honduras.

Today it boasts chapters in in seven Central American countries.

Youth problems, youth solutions

Behind the movement’s success are a couple of simple, yet powerful ideas: 1) It is run by youth and for youth, the demographic bearing the brunt of the violence epidemic; 2) Even in the darkest of situations, there can be redemption and hope.

When Avila works with youth who have been branded “bad kids” or “criminals” from an early age or with the younger siblings of gang members—family gang affiliation being a known risk factor for gang-joining—he imagines something different and more positive for their lives than what most of society sees.

“We try to counter risk factors with protective factors,” says Avila. “Each person has the opportunity to construct his own future and life and that depends on attitudes. Always, even if there is very little, there is one opportunity.”

For these youth, the Youth Against Violence Movement is that opportunity. In their bright t-shirts, caps and polos—the uniform of nonviolence—the always-visible community volunteers offer an open invitation to those looking for a different cause to pledge allegiance to. The gangs see the group, keep tabs on their activities and largely leave them alone.

In their eight plus years, Avila and his movement have much to be proud of and much to celebrate. This year, new policies on prevention, arms and juvenile justice, on which the group advised lawmakers, are expected to be enacted. And the group is essentially a household name in the most high-violence neighborhoods, Avila says.

But perhaps one of the biggest achievements of the movement is something less tangible, but nonetheless profound and evident to those who matter most.

“We have changed the mentality of youth,” says Avila. “And that is important for them.”

Transforming towns together

July 25, 2018

By Jillian Slutzker

9 min read

Inside the collective strategy to prevent violence in El Salvador.

Alexis de la O Romero, 15, shakes hands with his teacher and bumps fists with a friend before sliding into a desk at school and pulling his notebook and pencils from his backpack. He hands in homework and is attentive to the lesson. But not so long ago, he’ll tell you, he was a different person.

“I was always on the streets. I wouldn’t listen to my family. I wouldn’t go to class,” he says.

In Cojutepeque, a city as renowned for its crime rates as for its world-famous chorizo, these behaviors can be an indicator of risk for engaging with the local ecosystem of gangs and violence. Concerned Alexis would fall into the same pattern as so many other youth in Cojutepeque, a teacher referred him to a family counseling program, part of the El Salvador Crime and Violence Prevention Project.

The project, which is funded by USAID and implemented by Creative, evaluated Alexis – and 1,040 other youth – on his level of risk using a method known as the Youth Service Eligibility Tool. The tool assesses youth risk across individual, peer and family level domains using a series of nine risk factors—such as a critical life events, substance abuse and negative peer influence.

Of the more than 1,000 youth the project assessed in that cycle, 142, including Alexis, displayed factors placing them at high risk for violence, referred to as secondary level risk. Of that group, 105 opted into the secondary violence prevention program.

Over the course of 18 months, Alexis and his family worked in close partnership with a trained family counselor to address problem-solving, change negative family dynamics and lower risk factors for joining a violent group. After just the first six months, 92 percent of those 105 youth, including Alexis, no longer demonstrated four or more risk factors, placing them below the threshold of risk for violent behavior or joining gangs—a service to the youth, their families and communities.

“It’s a lot of help, both for them [the youth] and for us parents and, in addition, for the family environment and even with neighbors,” says Alexis’s father, Víctor Manuel Marroquín.

He says he and his son’s relationship changed as they worked together to address issues within the family and those his son confronted. Alexis became more open with his family, and his behavior outside the home improved too.

“I was always getting into fights. I would disrespect professors,” says Alexis of his past. “But the program helped me understand that that wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Well, I thought about it and I started going to class. I would pay more attention to my teachers. I would no longer disrespect them. I calmed down.”

As he thinks about the possibilities for his future, he is grateful to have been given the tools and opportunity to change.

Alexis and his father Victor outside their home. — Alexis de la O Romero (right) and his father Víctor Manuel Marroquín (left), have grown closer through family counseling. Photos by Erick Gibson. Photo by: Erick Gibson

“If I hadn’t joined the program, I don’t know where I would be right now,” he says.

But imagining where he may go and what he may achieve is becoming easier as his community also undergoes a transformation—through the recovery of public spaces, crime data collection that makes streets more secure, skills and jobs for youth, and innovative measures to reach youth just like him.

Diagnosing the problem, focusing on the hot spots

As youth like Alexis work within their own homes to build resiliency to violence, communities like Cojutepeque are taking action in the streets, informed by improved access to crime data.

Pulling information on crime from a range of actors like police, hospitals and schools, the Cojutepeque Municipal Crime and Violence Observatory discerns patterns in violent activity that can and have helped the municipality take practical steps so families can venture out, kids can walk to school and vendors can sell their goods in more secure environments. With details about types of crime, weapons used, time, location and more, the municipalities have implemented measures including posting more police in locations where theft is more likely or installing lighting to illuminate streets.

The observatory is one critical piece of a multi-part effort in Cojutepeque and 54 other high- and medium-risk municipalities, from bustling San Salvador to coastal Conchagua, to bring all hands and resources on deck to reduce crime and violence and expand opportunity for residents.

Two tandem philosophies guide these efforts of the Crime and Violence Prevention Project to create what is known as a place-based, public health approach.

Viewing violence as a public health risk much like a disease, the project uses data to define and diagnose the problem, identify and evaluate levels of risk for violent behavior, implement treatment or interventions and evaluate the results. To interrupt the spread of violence, the project focuses on youth at three levels of risk – the general population living in a dangerous area, those most at risk for participating in violence, like Alexis, and juvenile offenders on the path to rehabilitation and reintegration.

And by targeting strategic hotspots of violence like Cojutepeque, the project can more effectively reduce violence nationwide starting at the local level. It brings together citizens, national government and city officials, police, youth, the private sector and the media.

Outreach Center staff play hopscotch. — Outreach Center staff play hopscotch on a newly painted street.

“Severe gang-related violence deeply marks everyday life in semi-rural Cojutepeque,” says Javier Calvo, Chief of Party for the project. “To address violence more effectively, we believe that our efforts must be rooted in a multilevel and evidence-based strategy that promotes bottom-up community engagement, where the general public can work together with the police, local leaders and other stakeholders to collectively develop strategies to lower risk factors and increase resilience and social cohesion.”

Based on a municipality’s needs, the project supports local leaders to deploy a combination of its more than 40 prevention tools as part of six interactive strategies that address everything from a lack of jobs to limited local capacity to track and prevent crime.

Now in its sixth year, more than 98,600 Salvadorans have participated in project initiatives, including 1,444 young musicians playing in neighborhood philharmonics instead of spending idle time on the streets; more than 29,200 youth beneficiaries and 1,700 volunteers keeping neighborhood Outreach Centers buzzing; and 1,558 members of Municipal Crime and Violence Prevention Committees leading community security initiatives.

Safe spaces that help transform communities

On any given day, in Cojutepeque and municipalities across the country, 166 neighborhood Outreach Centers are bustling. Kids, teens and young adults play pick-up soccer games, practice their English skills, take life skills courses, rehearse routines with their dance clubs or just hang out. Some 32,000 youth attend these centers nationwide.

What’s remarkable about these scenes? In many cases, before the arrival of the Outreach Center, or Centro de Alcance in Spanish, youth in these neighborhoods lacked a secure place to play, socialize after school and spend their time productively. The alternative is the streets, where futures are uncertain and violence is always a risk.

As part of their participation in the centers, youth chart their dreams and goals for life and map out pathways to reach them, troubleshooting with mentors to overcome obstacles along the way. Neighborhood volunteers, often young people themselves, keep the center’s activities alive.

A young boy paints. — A young volunteer helps paint a new park.

These Outreach Center volunteers are also key to project-supported and municipality-led public space recovery projects that have turned abandoned lots into soccer fields and desolate streets into colorful avenues for community markets and celebrations. To date, communities nationwide have inaugurated 64 such projects, and an additional 41 are in the works in eight municipalities.

Magdalena Magaña, who leads the project’s public space recovery initiatives across the country, says this large number of projects is a culmination of citywide collaborations.

“In the end, we all work to create and generate the conditions and spaces for healthy recreation and to generate smiles in each of the kids of the community,” she says.

She tells volunteers that although these projects take hard work, they are worth it so the community’s youth, families and residents can reclaim part of their city and take pride in what they have built together.

A skill, paycheck and path forward

Meanwhile, as kids and youth spend free time at Outreach Centers and newly opened public parks, the project also helps to expand economic opportunity for young adults in these hard-hit areas.

Jorge Jonathan Mendoza Ramos, 28, is one of them.

On his first day of air conditioning repair class, he examines unknown tools, tubes and fluids that he will study and manipulate over the next several weeks. Unemployed and eager to start a business with friends, Mendoza enrolled in this course at Cojutepeque’s Municipal Vocational Training Center, known by its Spanish acronym FORMATE.

Though only his first day, Mendoza is itching to get to work and master the skills that will help shape his future.

“We already have a lot of knowledge. We’ve started to learn the new tools and different types of air conditioners,” he says. “I think that a year from now, I will be able to remember that this was the beginning of a company that we want and will have.”

FORMATE graduation ceremony. — A graduate of a FORMATE center receives her certificate for completing a workforce training program.

His optimism is backed up by numbers. Since their inception in 2015, the 16 Municipal Vocational Training Centers launched with support of the project have graduated 92 percent of those enrolled.

While Mendoza studies air conditioning repair, his peers across the country are getting certified in how to prepare international cuisine, guide tours, repair cell phones, install household electrical wiring and fix outboard motors for boats in the fishing and tourism industries. By providing skills and jobs, the project offers positive alternative for young people living in areas where, absent these opportunities, joining a gang may seem like a viable choice for economic security.

In addition to FORMATE centers, the project partnered with Microsoft to launch nine Microsoft Imagine Academies where youth gain in-demand technical skills and earn Microsoft certifications valued by potential employers. Nearly 1,450 total youth have already graduated with certifications, including Jorge Fuentes, a 24-year-old university student.

Fuentes says that the program does much more than just add a valuable accomplishment to resumes.

“In a place like Cojutepeque, which is categorized as one of the most violent municipalities, these types of opportunities give us a different perspective and make us realize there are a lot of opportunities for us,” he says. “It’s not just a course, it’s something valuable that also helps make friendships and allows us to meet people from different fields and broaden our thinking.”

When youth graduate from a FORMATE or Microsoft center, city-run Municipal Employment Unit facilitators, trained through the project, are ready to spring into action. They help graduates write resumes, meet company representatives and prepare for interviews. To date, more than 1,000 youth across the country have secured jobs through the units.

Community-led violence prevention

As the Crime and Violence Prevention Project moves into its final year, it’s working to ensure the continuation of its initiatives through partnerships with municipal governments, civil society groups and nonprofit organizations. It is also looking for unique approaches to violence prevention and creating opportunities for at-risk youth.

“Currently, the project is centering its attention on promoting innovative models for crime and violence prevention, from family counseling to tertiary violence prevention with a wide variety of social organizations and entities,” says Karen Duarte, Coordinator of the project’s innovative grants component.

A boy sits on a swing set. — Young people in across El Salvador are finding new opportunities in their communities.

Through partnerships and grants, the project is supporting initiatives like SoyAutor (“I’m an Author”), giving at-risk youth an opportunity to tell their own stories through writing, and Factoría Ciudadana (“Citizen Factory”), which supports rehabilitation and social reintegration for youth who have been in trouble with the law, struggled with substance abuse, or been recently deported from the United States.

With recreation, workforce training and social opportunities for youth, the revival of public spaces and new tools for municipalities and law enforcement, municipalities like Cojutepeque are becoming more resilient in a country that still has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

For Alexis, the project’s family counseling has helped him begin dreaming big: He hopes to become a doctor or a pilot someday. Alexis says he’d encourage his peers to look for similar opportunities to make positive change in their lives and in their communities.

“Just how it made me change, it can change so many more people,” he says. “So don’t turn away from opportunities like this, because it’s a really good thing.”

With reporting from El Salvador by Marta Maldonado and Amanda Smallwood and editing by Gerson Lara and Evelyn Rupert.

On horseback, nutrition workers reach isolated Honduran town

July 6, 2018

By Amalia San Martín and Evelyn Rupert

3 min read

A group of riders make their way to the remote community of Navijupe, their horses and mules slowly navigating the roads that are badly damaged by the extreme rains in this region of Honduras. It takes about two hours for them to reach their destination, which is home to some 1,400 residents.

These riders, or “jinetes” in Spanish, make the journey from San Lucas, El Paraíso, to the isolated town with the goal of improving health for families facing poor household sanitation and malnutrition. According to the World Bank, 58 percent of children younger than age 5 in the region suffer from chronic malnutrition.

The jinetes’ bright yellow shirts identify them as nutrition promoters working with a five-year project in southern Honduras called the Dry Corridor Alliance – PROSASUR, which is implemented by Creative Associates International as a partner of INVEST-Honduras.

A nutrition worker on horseback — Agriculture Technician Luis González makes the trip on horseback to Navijupe. Photos by Gabriel Rodríguez.

The project aims to reach 6,000 poor and extreme poor households in Honduras’ Dry Corridor, so named for the long periods of drought that follow heavy rains annually. Working in these rural areas often requires project staff to make long drives in pick-up trucks or on motorcycles over rugged roads, and in some cases, takes boat trips or treks on foot.

The trip to Navijupe calls for a different mode of transportation.

“Navijupe is a particularly isolated community, and we had to get creative,” says Chief of Party Carlos Ruiz. “But when we realized the severity of the health situation there, we knew that this was a community that needed support, particularly young children for whom poor nutrition can have lifelong consequences. It’s for these human reasons that we’re committed to overcoming any challenge.”

Household changes for community health

Dry Corridor Alliance – PROSASUR will work with families, community leaders and local volunteers to improve food security and nutrition in Navijupe, where most households live off an income of $1 per day. The project will also promote health and nutrition education, and the families most in need will receive assistance in household water and sanitation projects, such as replacing dirt floors with concrete or improving latrines.

Project technician Luis González says for now, the jinetes are beginning by getting the community familiar with the project and identifying the households that require the most support, prioritizing those with children under 2 years old or pregnant women. But the local team is already seeing opportunities to help families diversify their diets and make small changes that could have a big impact.

“Among its initial actions, the team will create Food and Nutrition Security Plans in various households,” he says. “These plans could include raising hens for eggs and providing technical assistance to plant family gardens with carrots, beets and cucumbers.”

The project has also partnered with the government-run youth employment initiative Chamba Joven (Youth Work), which seeks to give young people their first work experience. The youth will support the project’s work in Navijupe over five months, including administering diagnostic surveys and establishing demonstrative land parcels for planting.

“Through the efficient management of the parcels, it’s possible to improve the crop yields and household income, achieving a positive change in the quality of life for these families,” says agricultural engineer and project component lead Edgardo Varela. “These actions combined with health and nutrition measures are impacting lives in a sustainable way for many malnourished children in the Dry Corridor.”

Creative rule of law expert named to international justice organization

June 12, 2018

2 min read

The Organization of American States General Assembly unanimously approved Creative Senior Rule of Law Advisor Jenny Murphy to serve on the Board of Directors of a leading international organization on justice sector reform in the Americas.

Murphy will begin her four-year term on Jan. 1, 2019 as one of seven board members to the Justice Studies Center of the Americas, an OAS affiliate agency headquartered in Santiago, Chile.

After the June 5 vote, Murphy said she was humbled by her nomination and subsequent confirmation and said she looks forward to sharing her expertise and a U.S. perspective with the agency, also known by its Spanish acronym CEJA.

“It is an honor to be on this board, and I will hopefully help with the direction of CEJA in the next four years, as new challenges present themselves on justice sector reform in the region,” she said.

CEJA convenes experts and academics in the fields of justice and rule of law to aid OAS member states in their justice sector reform design, review and implementation. The organization focuses on providing training for public defenders and prosecutors, as well as other key justice sector positions; aiding in the revision of criminal procedure codes; and other rule of law initiatives.

Murphy joined Creative in January 2017 to lead its rule of law initiative as part of the Citizen Security Practice Area. She spent over 15 years as a senior advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, focusing primarily on Latin America.

In her role on the Board of Directors, Murphy will travel to Santiago for annual meetings to advise CEJA and participating OAS member countries on future steps after a wave of significant justice sector reform efforts in the last 25 years. Murphy said she looks forward to advising on programming in individual countries while also working with CEJA on advancing justice and human rights throughout the Western Hemisphere.

“After many years of justice sector reform efforts sponsored by multiple donors, new challenges, such as systemic corruption and high impunity rates, threaten to erode rule of law in the Americas,” she said. “So what is the role of the justice system both domestically and internationally to address these challenges? CEJA aims to help countries and the region answer that question and develop solutions to improve and sustain rule of law.”

Cadence Quaranta is an intern with Creative’s Communications team. She will be studying Journalism and International Relations at Northwestern University in the fall.

Tackling malnutrition in remote Honduran communities

May 18, 2018

By Amalia San Martín and Evelyn Rupert

5 min read

At the Pan-American Agricultural School El Zamorano, about a 45-minute drive from here, Francia Cacho is quickly taking notes as the instructor speaks at the front of the room.

Cacho is preparing for a six-month internship in the remote area of Choluteca as a nutritionist for the Dry Corridor Alliance (ACS) – PROSASUR project, which is supporting families in rural areas improve their nutrition and health.

“I have never been to Choluteca, but I’m familiar with the situation in the Dry Corridor,” she says. “I know it’s a place that is in need, because there’s a lot of food insecurity. So, it’s there that we have to measure and try to move those health indicators.”

Francia Cacho. Photo by Amalia San Martín.

The Dry Corridor, a region that stretches across southern Honduras and other parts of Central America, is so named for its extended periods of drought, followed by months of heavy rain. The extreme climate contributes to high levels of poverty, food and water insecurity and chronic childhood malnutrition.

Cacho and the other nutritionists are undergoing training at Zamorano, a renowned agricultural university in the region, to prepare them for the health challenges families face in the Dry Corridor. Several other project staff also came from Choluteca to attend the five-day training.

For Cacho, the training was a chance to learn something new and get up to speed on the latest data and best practices in nutrition.

“This has been an amazing experience,” she says. “It’s been an experience of a lot of learning and a lot of updates, now all that’s left is to go and implement everything that we’ve learned.”

The ACS-PROSASUR project is working in 12 municipalities to improve nutrition and hygiene and raise incomes among 6,000 poor and extreme poor households. The project will rely on a team of three nutritionists, working in partnership with local leaders and nutrition and health promoters hired by the project, to support families in adopting more diversified and healthier diets.

The project is implemented by Creative Associates International in partnership with INVEST-H. It is funded by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program through the World Bank.

Education for healthier living

According to the World Bank, 58 percent of children age 5 and younger in the Dry Corridor suffer from chronic malnutrition, characterized as being underweight, with stunted growth, and with micronutrient malnutrition.

Part of the challenge is food insecurity and limited access to clean water; ACS-PROSASUR is working with families to allow them to grow healthier foods in small plots or community gardens. The project will also complete household improvement projects in some 2,000 households, laying concrete over dirt floors, upgrading latrines and stoves and installing rainwater collection and filtration systems.

With these initiatives, households will be better equipped to provide healthier foods to families, particularly young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women. But for the nutritionists, implementing these changes is only one part of the solution.

Nohemi Alicia Ramirez Dormes, a nutrition promoter who completed the training at Zamorano, says that the biggest challenge to progress in the communities of the Dry Corridor will be changing mindsets.

A lack of understanding about nutrition and food preparation leads families to underutilize the crops they can grow on their own land in favor of unhealthier foods, she explains.

“We have to first change attitudes in these communities, especially within mothers of young children,” she says. “If a family has hens and they gather eggs, they go to the urban area and sell the eggs in order to buy, for example, bottled soda, chips and lard for frying food. They’re not eating the healthy foods they have, so changing that mindset about what they consume will be difficult.”

Adriana Beatriz Di Iorio, an Argentinian nutrition specialist and instructor at Zamorano, says there also has to be a cultural shift in prioritizing the nutrition of mothers and young children.

“There has to be a shift in the belief that the man is the one who receives the best serving, the best meat, the best part of the chicken at a meal. He eats first at the table, and then the rest of the family can eat,” she says. “I think that to achieve a change in a population with these ingrained beliefs will take time, and I think the best direction is through education. We have to educate that mother and let her know that her husband can eat, but he should share with his children who are still growing.”

ACS-PROSASUR will work to achieve this shift in thinking with the support of nutrition promoters who will work closely with communities and individual families to put better practices into use.

The project has also begun working with community leaders and staff to regularly monitor the height and weight of young children, ensuring their growth is on track or offering counseling and advice to parents whose children are not reaching their adequate weight based on nutritional standards. Other activities include workshops about household hygiene, training on how to diversify diets based on locally grown, nutritious foods, and sharing healthy recipes, like rice with mango.

Heyli Cano holds her young daughter. — Heyli Cano and her daughter at their home in El Llano. Photo by Skip Brown.

Heyli Cano, a young mother in the community of El Llano, says that through the nutrition promoters, she is already learning more about how to keep her two young children healthy.

“Sometimes it’s hard because work is very difficult here. It’s not every day that you can eat well,” she says. “They have taught us about how to eat more vegetables and other healthier foods.”

A passion for uplifting communities

Dr. Luz María Aguilar Chacón, Health and Nutrition Senior Specialist with INVEST-H, says that throughout her career in the health field, she has gotten to know families of the Dry Corridor personally and seen the effects of poverty and extreme poverty on health, and ultimately the futures of children.

She says the ACS-PROSASUR project will make a profound improvement in these communities.

“Nutrition work is very important for me because at the end of the project, we’ll be able to say that our investment had a big impact in our population,” she says. “We’re Hondurans, we love our people, and I think the really satisfying thing will be when we see these same families adopting better habits in health and nutrition.”

Dr. Luz María Aguilar Chacón. Photo by Amalia San Martín.

When she moves to Choluteca in April, nutritionist Cacho says she is looking forward to working directly with families and individuals to improve nutrition and help the next generation have a healthy start to life.

“I was working in a hospital before, and I realized that change doesn’t happen in hospitals. We’re just putting a bandage on the damage that we’ve been accumulating throughout our lives,” she says. “We have to be in the communities educating people from a very young age so that they don’t end up in the hospital. We can make a change, but it has to begin in the communities.”

Looking at LA’s violence prevention through a Salvadoran lens

May 16, 2018

By Evelyn Rupert

6 min read

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and Homeboy Industries is bustling with people who have made the decision to leave the gang their lives once revolved around. For Omar, it took several one-month stints at Homeboy and six gunshot wounds before he committed to the 18-month rehabilitation program and restarted his life.

He has now been a tour guide for five years, explaining Homeboy’s work to support former gang members to reintegrate into society and showing visitors around its facilities, which include a restaurant and café, shop, bakery, classrooms, free tattoo removal clinic and more.

It is one of several stops for a group of about 30 people, most visiting from Central America, came to Homeboy as part of a three-day study tour of Los Angeles’ programs and agencies committed to reducing violence. The tour followed the annual Gang Prevention and Intervention Conference, which was held May 7-8.

Speakers, panelists and site visits gave conference attendees an in-depth look at work being done in Los Angeles, from family services for youth at risk of joining gangs to reentry support for former gang members who are exiting prison.

For attendees from countries with high levels of gang violence, such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, the conference and study tour was an opportunity to see the intricacies of violence prevention and intervention in L.A. and consider ways to adapt the work in their home countries.

The study tour was co-sponsored by Creative Associates International, which implements several crime and violence prevention projects in Central America, in partnership with Southern California Crossroads.

In this Q&A, Jaime Zablah, president and CEO of the San Salvador rehabilitation program Factoria Ciudadana, and Héctor Abel Tobar, El Salvador National Police Sub-Commissioner, share some of their reflections on the tour and their hopes for violence prevention back home.

Omar gives a tour of the facility. — Omar, who left a gang with support from Homeboy Industries, gives a tour of the facility.

What interested you in your line of work and in violence prevention specifically?

Jaime Zablah: Last year, I came here to the same conference and to Homeboy Industries. That’s exactly when I decided that we had to do something. I’ve been working in this field for 12 years, but the conference last year was a turning point, or a reflection point. I saw that it was possible to get people out of gangs, and not only through jail. I saw that what they need is work, and they need care and they need somebody to come up and say, ‘Hey, you’re worth it, you’re worth fighting for.’

Abel Tobar: I have been in the police force for more than 20 years, but I have spent about eight years working on a project to change the philosophy in law enforcement, to move toward community policing, community outreach and a police force with a strong prevention component sothat the police leave behind the idea of 100 percent repression and focus on generating trust with the communities.

Both of you have attended the Gang Conference in years past. What made you want to come back this year and participate in the study tour?

Zablah: You see things in L.A. and you realize that there’s a lot missing in El Salvador. And so you start trying to implement some of the things you saw. But there’s always something new to learn. This time, for example, we got to visit Amity Foundation and talk to people who are finishing their sentences and see how they can be rehabilitated before and right after they get out of prison.

Tobar: I think that for me it’s important to get to know a little bit more about the preventative programs that directly relate to gangs in El Salvador. In El Salvador, gangs are a serious problem. And what often gets in the way of police reaching out to the community is exactly that gang presence. So it’s important to see the preventative programs and the programs that have helped with that issue here.

The Salvadoran delegation to the 2018 Gang Conference. — The delegation from El Salvador (from left): José Antonio Morales Carbonell, Héctor Abel Tobar, Rafael Federico Castellanos Calderon, Alfredo Segovia Abrego, Carlos Rosales, Jaime Roberto Zablah, Ben Rempell and Javier Calvo. Photos by Evelyn Rupert.

What part of the study tour stood out to you the most?

Zablah: I always have a great experience talking with former gang members, because you learn from them. Someone said this week that the best way to learn is not to sit at your desk but talk to your clients. For me, that’s something that I’m always going to remember. The visit to Amity really impacted me. And it’s a dream, it’s something we have to reach for. But I hope to come back soon and visit them again.

Tobar: For me, the most memorable thing is just to see the different stages of prevention. In El Salvador, there is not much work being done in tertiary prevention and rehabilitation of people who have been detained. Having that experience here was really great, and I think we should start doing that type of work in El Salvador. What also caught my attention was when Richard Ramos from Parents on a Mission said that when a garden isn’t growing, you don’t talk to the flowers, you talk to the gardener – meaning that you need to work with the parents in order for their kids to flourish. It’s important to work with youth, but we also have to shift our perspective to see that problems with kids often start in the home.

What are your hopes and what challenges do you see in translating some of the work being done here in L.A. to El Salvador?

Zablah: When I came last year, I thought starting something like Homeboy in El Salvador was a dream. But then we opened the doors to Factoria Ciudadana. The hardest thing is getting people to understand the concept of Homeboy when they have not been here, it’s transmitting what I’m seeing to my staff. For example, the psychologist that works with me thinks that everyone has to have an appointment and then they have to leave the foundation. And after seeing some of the programs here, I’m saying no, they should be able to stay the whole day and I’ll give them breakfast and lunch and a library.

What I think can be done as perhaps a second project would be something like Amity. I think it can be done, creating a therapeutic community and helping people get jobs. That’s my goal.

Tobar: I think one of the limitations is just the Salvadoran context, in terms of the gangs, in terms of the population, in terms of the stigma. Even the laws have to change for us to be able to implement some of the programs that they have here. And we would have to adapt them to the characteristics of our countries.

We’d have to work with the population, work with the politicians and work even within the police force to put in place programs that would rehabilitate gang members and change mindsets.

But I think that we can do it. It will take a lot of work, but we can get there. And I’ve always said that more elected officials, more leaders, more community actors, private sector folks and police should come to events like this so that we can change the thinking that exists now.

Lt. Ryan Whiteman of the Los Angeles Police Department. — Lt. Ryan Whiteman of the Los Angeles Police Department speaks with the study tour group.

Thank you to the agencies and organizations that participated in the study tour:

Los Angeles to Central America: Preventing violence in one connected neighborhood

May 10, 2018

By Evelyn Rupert

5 min read

In his work to stem gang violence throughout Central America and in Los Angeles, Guillermo Cespedes has learned that violence and the families affected by it transcend borders.

He often tells the story of meeting a shooting victim in an L.A. hospital—an effort to interrupt the pattern of retaliatory violence—whose first phone call was to his family in El Salvador.

“The neighborhood is much larger than we thought,” said Cespedes, addressing an audience of 600 at the seventh annual Gang Prevention and Intervention Conference, held May 7-8. “We usually use the term ‘transnational’ to talk about crime. But in the case of Central America, there is transnational family.”

Guillermo Cespedes gives the closing address. — Guillermo Cespedes gives the closing address the first day of the Gang Conference. Photo by Evelyn Rupert.

Among those gathered at the conference—former gang members turned community violence intervention workers, trauma surgeons, police officers, elected officials, civil society activists and others—some 150 attendees came from outside of the United States.

Cespedes, formerly Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and director of its Gang Reduction and Youth Development office, said the international presence at the conference – increasing every year – parallels the growing sense in the field that what happens in the United States and in Central America is interconnected.

Currently a Senior Advisor on Crime and Violence Prevention with Creative Associates International, Cespedes has also served as Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID-funded and Creative-implemented Proponte Más project in Honduras, which uses a family counseling model to reduce youth risk for violence.

In this position and his career in Los Angeles, he has worked with many families with members on both sides of the border.

He said that while families and the challenges they face spread across international borders, the solutions to violence must be adapted to each context.

“I think any medicine that gets exported to Central America actually comes back stronger,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s possible to take even what’s most effective in L.A. and just suddenly transfer it to Central America. I think there’s a process of adaptation that needs to take place. That adaptation takes really knowing both sides, both contexts.”

Allowing communities to lead

Speaking on a plenary panel alongside Cespedes, Rosita Amaya of Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador stressed the importance of engaging communities in peacebuilding based on their specific needs and hopes.

“We need to ask the people who are working on the ground first to see what’s working and create a collective strategy,” she said. “My dream for the future is that we are able to include the people that can actually give us the answer to those problems.”

Cespedes added that effective violence prevention work not only adapts to the local context, but also recognizes that not every person within that location should be treated in the same way, or administered the same “medicine.”

“What’s needed is the right level of intervention for different types of populations,” he said. “Not all the people in a particular neighborhood have their fingers on the trigger. We do have to address those with fingers on the trigger differently than those who are maybe thinking of getting a gun.”

Throughout the conference, speakers and attendees highlighted the need for a holistic approach that weaves together violence prevention, intervention or interruption and law enforcement.

Strategies outlined included visiting shooting victims in the hospital to offer them an exit ramp and prevent retaliatory violence; reclaiming public parks as no-violence zones with free programming; and building collaboration between outreach and law enforcement.

Balance between enforcement and prevention

David Kennedy, director of the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College, said one root cause of cycles of violence is the deterioration of government legitimacy and trust between communities and the state.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck addresses the audience. — LAPD Chief Charlie Beck addresses the audience on the coordination needed between law enforcement and outreach. Photo by Evelyn Rupert.

“Serious violence is concentrated in very small populations of exceptional folks. They are at astronomical risk, they live in communities that have been subjected historically to terrible oppression and damage and are not getting the type of attention and support that they need,” he said. “If you do not trust the police and someone is trying to attack you, you are not going to ask for help, you are going to take care of it yourself.”

Considering this pattern, strengthening positive ties between the communities and law enforcement is a critical step to stemming violence, panelists said.

In his remarks at the conference, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck underscored the need for law enforcement to work hand in hand with community outreach efforts to improve relationships between neighborhoods and police that have often been shattered, such as during the city’s war on drugs and gangs that led to thousands of arrests.

“When you declare war on a significant piece of the population, you declare war on yourself,” he said. “The most important thing a department and community can have is trust.”

With a change in law enforcement’s approach, Beck reported that gang crime has been cut in half over the last 10 years and that 2018 is on track to set a new low in homicide rate and number of shooting victims.

“This is done by hundreds of people working very hard to change the way our community sees itself,” he said.

Same principles, new lens

While the core pillars of violence prevention – a public health approach pairing appropriate interventions with levels of risk, holistic programming, partnerships, data and sustainability – remained at the heart of the conference, many speakers called for a continued effort to think critically and take on the problems from a new angle.

“At this field evolves, the lens is going to develop, it’s going to be refined more,” said Fernando Rejon, Executive Director of the Urban Peace Institute. “We’re going to learn more when we look at things from different perspectives.”

For some, like Catholic Relief Services’ Amaya and Creative’s Cespedes, this means flipping the script on evidence and focusing not just on what communities’ lack or struggle with, but where they draw strength from. In the case of the USAID-funded Proponte Más project, that has meant expanding the view of youth risk factors for engaging with gangs and violence to also look at protective factors, such as feeling safe in school.

“It’s looking at data through both lenses, not just what’s wrong but what’s right,” said Cespedes. “We have to not just be capable of moving the camera around and finding a different angle, we have to be able to take the lens off the camera.”

How gang electoral violence threatens voters in El Salvador

May 7, 2018

By Evelyn Rupert

5 min read

In El Salvador, gang violence is a well-documented problem, notoriously pushing the homicide rate to one of the highest in the world. But Jeff Fischer, Creative Associates International’s Senior Electoral Advisor, warns that there is a lesser-known threat from gangs playing out in the country: electoral violence.

Fischer began research into gangs and electoral violence as part of an electoral security assessment in Haiti in 2015. He expanded his research into El Salvador in collaboration with the USAID Crime and Violence Prevention Project, implemented by Creative Associates International.

After conducting a two-week assessment in San Salvador in August 2017, followed by two additional study missions to the country, Fischer has written a report on electoral gang violence in El Salvador. Fischer and Jeffrey Carlson, Director of Creative’s Electoral Education and Integrity Practice Area, presented their research on gang-related electoral violence in El Salvador and Sierra Leone at the annual Gang Prevention and Intervention Conference in Los Angeles May 7-8.

Fischer says that gang-related electoral violence is a recent development in El Salvador. In 2012, he says, the relationship between political actors and gangs shifted: Gangs were introduced to the negotiation process as they worked with the government to reach a truce to reduce homicides.

After the truce was put into place, these groups began actively seeking to pressure government officials and politicians to bring them to the negotiating table.

From there, gangs – and the political actors and candidates themselves – began using violence to impact electoral outcomes.

In this Q&A, Fischer delves further into his findings.

What are some examples of ways gangs are organizing to use violence to affect elections?

Jeff Fischer: One reported gang electoral tactic is what can be termed a “controlled level” of homicides. With this tactic, gangs can reduce the number of murders in a given community to attribute a sense of security to the incumbent. Or they can increase the number of homicides in an opponent party’s community, creating a sense of insecurity among the population.

The efficacy of gangs’ ability to control the level of homicides is borne out by the experience of the truce, where, for a period of time, the national homicide rate dropped from 15 per day to five per day.

The following sequence of tactics has been observed, corresponding to phases of an election cycle:

During the pre-election phase, gangs have extorted payment, or “rentas,” from candidates and political parties to campaign in their territories safely. Also in the lead-up to an election, voter identity documents have been confiscated to prevent qualified electors from casting their ballots.

Then on Election Day, gangs have reportedly intimidated people to stay in their homes and disenfranchise themselves. Gangs are also said to threaten voters with violence if they see electoral ink on their fingers, showing that they cast their ballot that day. It has also been reported that gang members have been deployed as agents for candidates or political parties within polling stations to intimidate voters.

Are politicians and candidates complicit or actively involved in gang-related electoral violence?

Fischer: One observer noted that gangs do not typically contact politicians; instead, politicians contact gangs. Adversarial relationships between the two major parties and political polarization foster an environment for gang engagement, in that there is an embedded conflictive dimension to politics. During electoral processes and depending on the location, politicians may need the gangs more than gangs need the politicians.

Gangs provide access to territories and communities where, otherwise, political parties could not campaign. Gangs also mobilize voters within those communities and suppress voting for the opponent political forces. However, gangs have also agreed to vote at different times to avoid conflict at voting stations.

These activities present the dilemma of distinguishing between illicit activities and legitimate get-out-the-vote campaigns, especially when the Salvadoran government has estimated that 530,000 people, or 10.8 percent of the total population, are involved in gangs in some way.

How does this issue of electoral violence affect everyday people and the overall strength of democracy in El Salvador?

Fischer: Political polarization between parties will continue to foster a confrontational electoral environment laying the groundwork for the engagement of gangs for the purpose of political advantage.

It is anticipated that gangs will continue to attempt to augment their influence over the 2018 and 2019 election outcomes through the tactics which have emerged over the last couple of elections, including voter suppression, voter intimidation, controls on campaigning, delivering a voting bloc, and creating selective pockets of security and insecurity through controlled violence in support of some political actor.

While the government has prohibited direct negotiations with gangs, most believe that the political parties will continue “under the table” contacts because of the electoral benefits derived from such relationships in access to territories for campaigning and votes obtained and suppressed. As a result, enforcement of a “no negotiations” order could be elusive because of the deliberate opaqueness of such discussions.

Additionally, if gangs feel driven to employ violence in selected areas to create perceptions of security or insecurity, the question must be posed about whether such actions would compel negotiation in order to manage the violence overall. Gangs will be similarly motivated as in previous elections by financial incentives, relaxed enforcement of illicit activities and prison reforms.

How does the development community come into play on this issue?

Fischer: Armed with a voting bloc and voter suppression capabilities, gangs can employ violence and intimidation to achieve a political objective for a sponsoring party or candidate, while also making money. Given the closeness of many contests, the votes which gangs represent could be the difference between victory or defeat. If politicians desire to campaign in gang territories, the rentas payments — and even collusion — are perceived as the only way to do so without harassment. These factors compel relationships to be established.

However, it must be noted that this phenomenon has only matured to this degree since the 2012 truce and subsequent elections. While gangs have been around since the end of the civil war in the early 1990s, their engagement as political violence and electoral disruption actors has emerged over the last three or four years and, thus, is not deeply rooted in time.

Because of this recent emergence, no programming specifically directed at de-linking gangs and politicians has been pursued. Rather, relevant programming has focused on reducing the vulnerabilities for recruitment into gangs and desistance, with the long-term objective of reducing the supply. In this strategy, the objective is also to reduce the demand by politicians.

Supporting juvenile justice and youth in Honduras

May 7, 2018

By Evelyn Rupert

5 min read

Approximately 540 Hondurans ages 12 to 18 are held in the country’s four juvenile detention centers. This year, the president and lawmakers are expected to weigh reforms to the juvenile justice system – including potentially lowering the age at which an accused person can be tried as an adult.

As the conversation around juvenile justice continues, the USAID Proponte Más program is advising the newly established National Institute for Attention to Youth Offenders, supporting organizations that serve youth exiting juvenile detention, and offering family counseling to high-risk youth. Proponte Más, a three-year program, is implemented by Creative Associates International.

Georgina McDowell, Creative Senior Associate and Project Director for Proponte Más, says that working with youth who have already come into conflict with the law brings its own challenges and calls for unique solutions.

McDowell will be speaking about her experience in the violence prevention field at the Gang Prevention and Intervention Conference May 7-8 in Los Angeles. In this Q&A, she shares some insights from Proponte Más and her work in juvenile justice and tertiary violence prevention.

How is Creative’s approach to violence prevention unique?

Georgina McDowell: We implement a Prevention and Intervention Family Systems Model, which basically means we acknowledge that young people do not generally live in isolation, but live in families, who are in the best position to create a positive and strong influence in the young person’s life. We also implement the Youth Services Eligibility Tool (YSET), which helps identify a youth’s level of risk in an evidence-based, scientifically sound manner.

Broadly stated, the YSET evaluates youth across nine risk factors: Those with one to three risk factors are considered at a primary risk level; four to six factors are secondary level; and seven to nine risk factors are considered tertiary.

Primary is the lowest level of risk; usually they have positive protective factors in their lives, an example being strong family cohesion. Those at a secondary level of risk are at the threshold of joining an illicit group, but have not yet engaged in behaviors that are consistently identified with, or in the interest of advancing the agenda of a group. Lastly, in the tertiary level, a young person is already in conflict with the law.

However, under Proponte Más, we have expanded the definition of tertiary to include young people who have been identified as having seven or more accumulated risk factors and also have self-reported delinquent behaviors that are associated with belonging to and/or in the interest of advancing the agenda of an illicit group.

Proponte Más works with youth ages 8 to 17 and their families in five municipalities across the country – Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, Tela and Choloma. To date, we have conducted the YSET with more than 6,500 youth in the five municipalities, and identified approximately 24 percent as being at the highest risk level.

How does diagnosing youth risk guide interventions?

McDowell: Youth at these different levels have different needs and circumstances that they face; therefore, interventions need to be tailored.

For example, someone in the primary level would most likely benefit from joining a soccer league because he or she is at a very low risk of joining an illicit group. But joining the same soccer league might be ineffective for someone at a tertiary level, who might instead benefit from going to a gang rehabilitation center.

It’s about addressing the risk factors and needs of the individual youth. How can we help them lower their risk levels, and if possible, assist with gang desistance?

What is unique about working with youth at a tertiary level? What are the challenges?

McDowell: I would say the two biggest challenges are lack of resources and services available to address youths’ specific needs and social stigma. Once a young person is tagged as a gang member, that follows them and robs them of opportunities of leading a positive, pro-social life.

For example, trying to get a job may be especially difficult if he or she is known in the community as having been in a gang and/or has tattoos that are normally associated with gangs. Sometimes even moving to another community proves insufficient when pursuing employment opportunities.

The general view in society is that once someone is in a gang, they will never get out, which doesn’t allow for a second chance for reintegration.

What is the role of juvenile justice in preventing violence?

McDowell: Juvenile justice institutions play an important role, especially because of their ability to assist in rehabilitation efforts and reduce recidivism by, for example, providing programs in juvenile detention centers that help youth better and more positively reintegrate back into their communities.

Judges can also impose alternative measures instead of detention at sentencing. Essentially, alternative measures are court orders to appropriate programs and/or services as an alternative to being sentenced to serve time at a detention center. This gives youth a chance to learn vocational skills or receive much-needed services such as counseling, substance abuse and life skills, to name a few. A judge can dictate where a person goes to receive the most relevant resources or services for their specific situation.

How is Creative working to improve juvenile justice and tertiary violence prevention?

McDowell: One of the four key results of Proponte Más focuses squarely on juvenile justice, mostly through advancing and further incorporating alternative measures in the Honduran justice system.

Through Proponte Más’ work in the field, they have taking the lead in the formation of a Juvenile Justice Technical Committee, comprised of representative from diverse fields, including judges, government entities and other USAID implementers. This committee now serves as a type of advisory board for the National Institute for Attention to Youth Offenders.

We are also working with partners to create for the first time a Juvenile Justice Case Management System.

And, although Proponte Más is a secondary violence prevention program, when we identify someone as being at a tertiary level, we work with them and their families to reduce risk as part of a pilot program within the tertiary population.

Where do you think violence prevention programming needs to go from here?

McDowell: Programs must continue working with families and with multidisciplinary partners while considering the young person’s socioecological levels. I also think more should be done to identify and address areas of trauma, exposure to violence and the impact these have on young people’s brain and cognitive development. Additionally, more intentionality should be present around coordination for reintegration into communities after a juvenile has served time in a detention center.

With robotics, Saint Lucia schools launch new opportunities for students

April 6, 2018

4 min read

A small robot made of Legos rolls its way across the stage at the Grande Rivière Secondary School in Dennery, Saint Lucia, bringing with it new learning opportunities for some 240 high school students on the island.

A pilot coding and robotics initiative was launched in four Saint Lucian schools on March 28, with support from the United States Government. It falls under the aegis of the United States Agency for International Development’s Community, Family and Youth Resilience (CFYR) Program, which is implemented by Creative Associates International.

The USAID program delivered Lego Mindstorms robotics kits and laptops to the four secondary schools, which will allow students ages 12 to 13 to build their own robots by hand and then program their movements.

A highlight for launch attendees, which included USAID Mission Director Christopher Cushing, government officials, school principals, teachers and students, was a student demonstration of their coding skills. To crowd applause and excited whispers, the student-led robots successfully lifted blocks, navigated around barricades, responded to traffic signals to stop and go, and even spoke a few words.

A student demonstrates his robot’s navigation of an obstacle course. Photos by Lydia Adjoha.

U.S. Ambassador to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Linda Taglialatela underscored the importance of science, technology, engineering and math education to the region and its children.

“Education is the key to unlocking potential and is vital in creating a society that offers young people opportunities to excel at the highest levels,” she said. “This new robotics initiative … reflects our commitment to advance innovation and to bring excitement into the classroom.”

In her address to the audience, Gale Rigobert, Saint Lucia’s Minister of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, said that the initiative will allow schools to prepare students for an increasingly tech-driven economy.

“This computer coding and robotics pilot program is a very exciting and meaningful endeavor for the ministry,” she said. “We live in a digital world … Our students, therefore, if they are to maximize on the opportunities available in this information age, or in a knowledge economy, or e-economy, must be outfitted with the skills that will enable them to do so.”

In addition to providing schools with the required hardware, CFYR also assessed school information and communications technology infrastructure, developed the curriculum and trained educators and volunteers on how to teach the material. The program is expected to reach 240 high school students, and the ministry hopes to formally incorporate it into the school curriculum in the future.

The program is also benefitting from a partnership with Caribbean-based telecommunications company Flow, which increased bandwidth and Wi-Fi coverage to the schools to improve students’ internet access.

Developing skills for work and life

U.S. Ambassador Linda Taglialatela chats with two students. — U.S. Ambassador Linda Taglialatela chats with students at the event.

USAID and the CFYR Program are working in Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and Guyana to support family networks, communities, service providers and government agencies in implementing successful approaches to reduce crime and violence and increasing opportunities for vulnerable youth.

The program focuses on positive youth development, including social and leadership skills training, workforce readiness initiatives, community activities and activities to challenge gender norms.

Chief of Party Debra Wahlberg said in her remarks in Dennery that coding and robotics not only introduce youth to a valuable technical skill, but also contribute to positive development in other aspects of their lives, ultimately building school engagement and resiliency.

“The program is intended to promote positive behavior change among students, keeping them engaged and excited by formal education, while providing them with a usable skill which they can build on towards graduation and beyond,” she said. “USAID, through its CFYR Program, will continue to support the communities we work with in Saint Lucia in innovative ways that will have a strong and positive impact on families and communities, and build resilient youth committed to personal growth and development.”

Minister Rigobert said she is excited to see how the students grow with the curriculum, which she said has the potential to develop skills like critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, teamwork and self-confidence.

Speaking directly to the students gathered at the event, Rigobert added:

“I wish to urge students to make the very best of this opportunity. Some of the equipment supplied through this USAID grant will no doubt be very exciting to students. However, it is important that as students, you focus on learning as much as you can. What you learn today, may well help to set you on the path of your future career.”

With reporting and editing by Kathy McClure in Saint Lucia.