Seminars on youth-at-risk and violence prevention in Latin America

Elon Faculty launches series of seminars on youth-at-risk and violence prevention programs in Latin America as part of her Fulbright Project in Guatemala

Human Service Studies faculty Carmen Monico is organizing in Guatemala two seminars that will bring together national and international academics, practitioners, donors, and students to discuss the situation of youth-at-risk in Latin America.

The seminars are organized in collaboration with the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, and endorsed by RTI International and CEMCA. The topics, dates and URL for the You Tube live transmission of the seminars in Spanish are:

Workshop I: “Youth-at-risk and violence prevention programs in Latin America,” is scheduled for Wednesday, March 2, 3-6 p.m. CST

Workshop II: “Evaluation and feasibility of educational programs as life projects for youth-at-risk in Guatemala,” is scheduled for Friday, April 15, 3-6 p.m. CST

The first seminar will conceptualize violence not in the strict sense of security but in the broader sense of human development. Thus, speakers will talk about gender-based institutional violence, as well as poverty as a structural form of violence. Representatives from RTI International Latin American and the Caribbean Office, the Guatemalan Child Return & Reintegration Project (GCRRP), Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), the Regional Office for Latin American and the Caribbean of Oxfam America, the Central American Institute of Social and Development Studies (INCEDES).

The second seminar will explore not only vulnerabilities but also how programs in Guatemala are strengthening youth resilience and achieving human development goals. Representatives include a World Bank’s specialist in education in global development, with an emphasis on resilience and Education Specialist with the German International Cooperation, GIZ. Invited are representatives from Asociación Ak’tenamit, Los Patojos, Guatemaltecos Extraordinarios and Abriendo Oportunidades, which are Guatemalan community-based groups developing mostly vocational programs with youth in disadvantaged communities in rural and urban areas.

For more information visit the links in this article and follow Monico’s Fulbright Project in Guatemala.