Congratulations to the Partners of the Americas Education and Culture 2022 Sub-Awardees!

In 2022, Partners of the Americas (Partners) awarded six small grants to Partners Chapter and affiliate organizations across the Western Hemisphere to support innovative solutions to community-based challenges.  The small grants of up to $5,000 will support project themes that include protecting the environment, supporting art in communities, and expanding inclusive economic growth. 

The Education and Culture Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by Partners. 

Projects funded through the 2022 Education and Culture Program include: 

 

Bilateral Action on Climate Change – North American Youth Leader Development Mexico 

Implementor: The North American Youth Engagement & Leadership Institute 

Location: Chiapas, México 

Bilateral Action on Climate Change – North American Youth Leader Development seeks to empower youth by providing training, mentoring, and funding to design projects which develop resilience in at-risk communities when confronting the current and near-future effects of climate change, the most significant threat to our shared future, particularly for regions with high levels of poverty.  

Youth from the highlands of Chiapas will receive training on youth leadership, the regional and global impact of climate change, and the design and implementation of short-term service projects. They will each design a project that addresses issues related to the adaptation to and mitigation of the effects of climate change in their community, implement their project, and communicate the methods, lessons, and impact of the project with their neighbors and extended community. The projects will provide a functioning, replicable example for the community and strengthen democracy for youth as they take active roles in their communities. 

 

Comics, Art and AR Training North of Bogotá with Fundación Niñas de Luz 

Implementor: Rattapallax Inc. and Fundación Niñas de Luz 

Location: Bogotá, Colombia 

This project will organize several comic book creation workshops and training sessions focused on using augmented reality in a community with low economic and creative opportunities. “Augmented Reality” is technology that presents us with virtual objects and information in our field of vision. This project will: 

  • Educate girls in the community about using comics, art, and creativity to tell their stories.
  • Empower teenage girls and educators with the skills to use augmented reality in their community. 
  • Bring the community together to create an augmented reality mural that can be a centerpiece for beautification, and resilience. They expect media coverage and future visits by tourists and leaders to see the first augmented reality mural in Bogota. 
  • Inspire the girls in the community.  

The project builds on the successful workshops conducted in Bogotá with Fundación Niñas de Luz and Fundación Natalia Ponce de León through the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund Exchange Alumni grant funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by Partners. 

 

Educating Youth – Saci Pererê in the Land of Music 

Implementor: Paraíba Chapter 

Location: Paraíba, Brazil 

Educando a Juventude – O Saci Pererê na Terra da Música’s purpose is to present an educational concert/workshop telling through music and verses, the story of Saci Pererê, an Afro-Brazilian character from Brazilian folklore, who travels in time and ends up learning about rhythms and regional composers from the Northeast of Brazil. Saci Pererê, while trying to go back in time, gets to know the works of these composers.  

The project aims to include musical and artistic education to young people from the outskirts of town, together with classical instruments (rarely or never seen by these students), presenting the ethnic diversity of the artists, where music and poetry are placed as the main focus, and emphasizing the importance of the junction of classical instruments and regional culture. Art presents qualitative, playful, and educational content to these young people, who often are not exposed to these programs because they have no opportunity or previous knowledge in this area. The educational concert will benefit more than 3,000 students and teachers with art in the community through the schools that will receive “O Saci Pererê in the land of music.” Students will have the chance to hear from professionals in the music field and be invited to play percussion at the end of the concert. 

 

Preserving “Sacred Lake Titicaca” Through Community Education 

Implementors: Utah Chapter, Altiplano-La Paz Chapter 

Location: Bolivia and Peru 

UNESCO calls one of the world’s ancient lakes “Sacred Lake Titicaca.” For years, the lake has been fed by rivers from the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes. Humans have lived by its shores and have left their impact.  Today’s evidence demonstrates that sewage, chemicals, metals, and garbage make the lake water unusable, yet many residents dump trash along the shore. 

This project will raise knowledge of and direct actions that can be taken by students toward protecting the lake. Local experts who are knowledgeable in environmental sustainability and dedicated to protecting the lake will activate local student and community members’ interest, and work to empower them to reverse the lake’s polluted state. They will engage those who draw upon the lake’s resources to be committed to its viability and to identifying problems and solutions. Students will gain knowledge about lake resources and sources of pollution, analyze impacting social and cultural factors, and generate activities designed to conserve the lake. Local educators will be trained to ensure that students acquire ecological knowledge, analyze information about the lake’s condition, and institute actions to protect the lake. 

 

TEAMBeats Mexico 

Implementor: Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, Today’s Future Sound; Sueñitos 

Location: Chiapas, Mexico 

TEAMBeats Mexico (Therapeutic, Educational Applications of Music and Beats) will bring together local hip hop artists, students, and youth leaders from Sueniños to train trainers and implement the first round of programming in Therapeutic Beat Making to youth in Chiapas, Mexico.  

The Therapeutic Beat Making model was developed to address a lack of culturally responsive, therapeutic, and social interventions for youth. The program has both academic and social-emotional benefits, including confidence building through creativity and a positive outlet for expression. It uses hip hop as a framework for teaching history, geography, digital literacy, cultural diplomacy, and collaboration, gives youth experience using studio quality equipment, and builds real-world digital music production and media skills.  

Above: Flyer for Education and Culture 2022 project, TEAMBeats Mexico 

 

Youth Social Participation through Art

Implementors: El Salvador Chapter

Location: San Salvador, El Salvador 

The project will foster confidence, self-expression, and positive relationships through urban art. Implementors will facilitate workshops and artistic festivals for low-income youth and adolescents from communities with a high rate of violence in the municipality of Soyapango, San Salvador. The project will engage youth in workshops for new artistic opportunities in drawing and painting, percussion and batucada, theater and animation of festivals, and empower them to build powerful connections with fellow youth and artists around them.