Think Creative - Issue 3

MORE THAN 98,600 Salvadorans have participated in project initiatives

A graduate of a FORMATE center receives her certificate for completing workforce training.

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.” His optimism is backed up by numbers. Since their inception in 2015, the 16 Municipal Voca- tional 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 certi- fied in how to prepare international cuisine, guide tours, repair cell phones, install house- hold 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 withMicrosoft to launch nine Mi- crosoft Imagine Academies where youth gain in-demand technical skills and earnMicrosoft certifications valued by potential employers. Nearly 1,450 total youth have already graduat- ed with certifications, including Jorge Fuentes, a 24-year-old university student. Fuentes says that the program does much more than just add a valuable accomplish- ment to resumes.

“In a place like Cojutepeque, which is catego- rized as one of themost violent municipalities, these types of opportunities give us a different perspective andmake 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 tomeet people fromdifferent fields and broaden our thinking.” When youth graduate from a FORMATE or Microsoft center, city-runMunicipal Employ- ment 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 part- nerships 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 atten- tion on promoting innovative models for crime and violence prevention, from family counsel- ing to tertiary violence prevention with a wide variety of social organizations and entities,” says Karen Duarte, Coordinator of the project’s innovative grants component. 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

Beyond offering workforce skills, FORMATE centers open possibilities for the futures of young adults in at-risk areas like Cojutepeque.

Factoría Ciudadana (“Citizen Factory”), which supports rehabilitation and social reintegra- tion 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.” n With reporting from El Salvador by Marta Mal- donado and Amanda Smallwood and editing by Gerson Lara and Evelyn Rupert.

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