founders
Community Social Service Program:
working towards a commitment from young leaders for a social and economic change in the community
In August of 2010, Fundación A. Jean Brugger began the “Community Social Service Program,” directed towards our young scholarship students, as part of an educational and social process, which has four directions:
- Interact with and reflect upon the social reality wherein these youth develop;
- Give the community back its investment, as part of a personal and community commitment;
- Be part of the process of the formation of individual and professional values;
- Ownership of the accomplishment of the objectives and mission of Fundación A. Jean Brugger
Methodology
The applied methodology is based on the development of the community as a social actor, and a three-chapter process follows: Social Diagnostics (I), Project Management (II) and Social Networks (III).
Prior to the identification of the social components in which to intervene, we involved the young people in the participation of information-gathering from their own communities. Once this information is gathered, it will be processed and the findings will be presented to the group; then we will proceed to identify and prioritize the problems and/or needs in which to intervene based on time, resources and the capacities of each student, as well as the Foundation (I).
Once the students have identified and prioritized the community problems which they would like to help resolve, they will proceed to formulate the principal actions to take and the components of these actions, designing a small proposal (name, description, objectives, resources, methodology, results and chronogram), or a work plan, with the purpose of having a guide of reference for the monitoring of, follow-up and evaluation of their plans as part of their voluntary social service (II). The aspects for intervention will be linked to the objectives and mission of the Foundation, such as: education, health, environment, culture and social development. In all of these aspects they will be able to apply their theoretical knowledge according to their own professional profiles, or use the skills and strengths that they have developed during their personal growth.
Finally, this group of young people will be establishing relationships with the different actors in their communities and town, making the most of the spaces, resources and existing media, and in this way reaching the goals and results which they have proposed (III).
The promotion of leadership and the participation of the students in all of the spaces and processes are of utmost importance. The formative workshops are ways to contextualize the entire process and to open up new spaces of analysis, projection and the students’ relationship with his or her social environment.
