When you buy the Cookbook, 75% goes to help a Youth Project in Brazil (the other 25% to OpenBSD/ Daemonmall), here is more information on that.
NEWS, 13th Jan 2002: Cookbook revenue for the Brazilian project, from April 2000 to now has reached $4600. Thanks.
Regards,
Sean
THE GOALS OF THE CCJ
ITS ORIGIN
ITS ORGANIZATION
HOW IT WORKS
TWO LEVELS OF ACTION
Some questions and answers
The following is a description of the national youth centre (CCJ) here in São Paulo. While the centre works on two fronts at the same time:
(a) preparation and publishing of material for training youth leaders and
(b) courses for training youth leaders, I intend using the money for the second option, namely for paying the expenses of the material we use in the courses, lowering the fees so that young people with little or no financial resources can participate, and other expenses related with the course.
To accomplish its goals the CCJ
a. produces, divulges and sells formation material for the training of youth leaders:
Popular publications, books and leaflets for the formation of youth, produced by the CCJ itself or by others;
Audio-visual material: cassettes, slides, posters, and videocassettes;
b. Prints and distributes documents and study material elaborated by the Youth Ministry and places its infrastructure at the service of the local and national youth organisations and grassroots movements.
c. Promotes and supports educational, cultural activities and the general formation of youth.
d. Encourages attitudes and behaviour patterns that lead to participation, organization and solidarity.
e. Promotes the exchange of ideas and experiences with similar grassroots centres.
f. Co-ordinates the publication, the propagation, distribution and administration of formation material for the National Youth Day.
g. Promotes leadership training courses for youth around the country.
h. Co-ordinates a news bulletin, called "La Red", for the Latin American Committee of youth leadership training centres in different Latin American countries.
The CCJ grew out of a need felt in a community in the Eastern Region of the city of San Paulo for formation material for youth groups and youth leaders. Invitations for meetings, formation leaflets, material for evaluation and planning assemblies were produced on a small gestetner brought from Ireland. The experiment soon spread to neighbouring communities and, slowly, the printed material found a market among young people in different parts of Brazil
With the organization of the National Youth Ministry, in 1984, the need was increasingly felt for a specialised centre for producing and distributing formation material for youth and a permanent organisational structure for facilitating communication with young people around the country. The CCJ was registered, in 1990, as a non-profit, civil and philanthropical society. It is run by a General Assembly of Members and a Directory. The members of the Directory are elected by a General Assembly.
The present elected directory has overall responsibility for the Center:
Elected Directory:
President: George Boran , Phd in Leadership, ex national youth director
Vice President: Vicent Deely, Works with grassroots organisations
Secretary: Elizabete Monteiro Pereira, teacher
Financial Director: Vilma Nieremberg, teacher
Editorial Director:Onivaldo Dyna , Specialist in youth organisations
The Centre has grown, become more professional and at the moment has 12 full time functionaries. It has its own printing facilities, editorial, electronic and photolith department, and does outside work as a way of sustaining itself financially and keeping prices low for the formation material offered to young people. Since its inauguration, the Centre has produced more than 300 titles related to youth formation.
The CCJ built the Rigoberta Menchú Centre where its headquarters is located, together with other entities linked to popular movements such as the Movement for the Defence of the Shanty Town Dwellers, the Health Movement, The Rural-City Movement, The Secondary Students Ministry, Archdiocesan and State Youth Ministry, The Spiritan Service for Peace and Justice.
The CCJ is involved in the training of youth leaders on two levels:
a) Formation material
The Centre is involved in youth leadership training through the production of leadership training material used in courses and in meetings of over 40000 youth groups throughout the country. On a local level, as well as helping youth organisations, the Centre prepares and prints leadership training material, posters, flyers, didactic material for a variety of grass roots organisations such as shanty town organisations, local organisations involved with health, housing and family issues. The Centre is of strategic importance in the preparation a new generation of leaders for building a more just and democratic society. There is no other centre doing similar work in Brazil.
The CCJ was started with a small gestetner brought from Ireland in 1970 and has since developed into a sophisticated centre. The Centre was able to grow due to initial financial help from Trocaire in the seventies. Although we have made enormous strides towards financial self-sufficiency we still haven’t arrived there. Its not possible to continue to expand and reach larger numbers of potential leaders and maintain a centre of this size and pay the salaries of 12 full time functionaries and other expenses by just selling leadership training material to young people, many of whom are unemployed or live in poverty.
Because of its position as the only national centre of its kind the CCJ is strategically situated for making a major contribution to helping prepare a new generation of leaders who can become involved in the different intermediary organisations in civil society and in this way make more long term contribution to helping the poor. This strategy is more effective than money that is used for handouts and can increase dependency and strengthen unjust structures in society that are the underlying causes of poverty. Most of the leadership training material produced by the Centre in conjunction with different social organisations has a strong social content.
An example of its work is the organization and publishing of study material for these groups in preparation for the national youth day on the 4th Sunday of October. Last year the theme was "Training for Citizenship." This year the theme is "Human Rights and the Building of a more just Brazilian Society". Enclosed is the poster and booklet printed by the CCJ for this year. We calculate that more than two million youth participate in this campaign.
b) Leadership Courses
The Centre is also involved in organising some of these courses. We have, for example, over 30 leadership training courses programmed for São Paulo City for this year.
The course which we give (Curso de Dinâmica para Lideres – CDL) is one which I have published in Spanish and Portuguese. I may do an English edition some time in the future. This year we are starting also with a 2nd level course for those who have done the first level. We also organise two national courses each year: 1st and 2nd levels.
After each course we select some of the more promising participants and train them as monitors to give the course to other, in this way multiplying multipliers or training trainers. The aims of the courses: the formation of critical awareness, learning leadership skills, bonding, solving of personal problems, the strengthening of organisational structures that make continuity possible and a democratic process for decision making and the more efficient organization of action to change unjust structures in society.
Starting with young people, the courses aim at forming a new generation of leaders in Brazil to renew local communities and social organisations. By starting with their personal needs and problems we aim to prepare young people to become involved as citizens in social transformation.
1. Impact of the project to date:
Last year we programmed 30 courses, 20 of which actually took place. The methodology we adopt obliges the local communities and groups to take on responsibility for the organisation of the courses we give. This doesn’t always work on the first attempt, as local leadership is sometimes very weak and not used to a systematic approach that is necessary for continuity. However when we come back later we are usually successful.
We now have 25 monitors trained for giving courses, four of whom are sufficient for giving any one course. Each course has an average of 25 participants. About 50% continue involved in their local communities and in social activities in the wider society. An important result of the courses is that leadership skills are transferred automatically by the participants to the environments where they are involved. An example of this involvement was the participation of many of these youth in a national campaign to get a million signatures to propose a law in congress punishing corrupt politicians who buy votes to get elected.
The courses given seek to strengthen the local, regional and national youth organisation as a guarantee of continuity and continuous process of formation and development of a critical awareness of the need to contribute to the building of a more just society. In one region of São Paulo, of 5 of the areas that were disorganised, 4 have been organised again. This is a direct result of the leadership training courses. Also a large number of youth from this region participated in a rally through the centre of the city in favour of human rights (on national youth day). About four thousand youth were involved.
2. What does CCJ want to achieve and what outcome will help evaluate whether the program is successful or not?
- That young people are helped to better their self esteem and gain control of their own lives. This is important in a society where a large number of young people come from poor and dysfunctional families and have deep inferiority complexes. Without this initial step other steps are impossible.
- An other important outcome expected is the formation of leaders who will become involved in their local communities and in social issues and through their involvement in youth ministry form other leaders and set up organisational structures that guarantee continuity.
- Form young people who have a critical sense and don’t allow themselves to be manipulated by the ideology of an unjust social system that organises the rules of society so that the poor have neither a voice nor a place.
3. What target groups are going to benefit from the project?
While some courses are given to groups that include both youth and adults, the principal target group is youth. Courses are given on both local community level and to youth involved on different levels of the youth organisation. At the moment the target group is urban youth. Next year we plan to also give courses outside the city of São Paulo and also organise a national course to train monitors to give the leadership-training workshop in their local dioceses and communities.
Each leadership workshop trains an average of 25 people. Since the aim is to train people to become involved in leading other youth within different levels of the youth organisation or on local, community level, the indirect and long term impact can be large.
4. Number, duration and content of the courses.
We expect to organise about 30 courses for next year both in São Paulo and in different parts of Brazil. However since the methodology we use is different from that of a bank or a school, we cannot organise things from the top down. We need to motivate local communities and youth organisations to become involved in organising the courses and this is a slow process that cannot be achieved in one meeting. While we do try to insist on a yearly calendar, many times courses are scheduled as opportunities arise. We do insist that courses are scheduled at least three months in advance so that local communities can be involved. We see this as an important part of local leadership training.
For next year, we plan to organise a second level course for those who have done the first level. This second course will be more demanding in terms of commitment and social awareness.
5. Evaluation: methodology
The co-ordination team schedules a meeting after each course to evaluate the results.
Participants are also asked to evaluate in writing both positive and negative aspects of courses.
Evaluations follow the following sequence:
a. Reading of written evaluations of participants.
b. Each member of the co-ordination team is evaluated by the others.
c. General evaluation of the course
Results on a wider level can be accessed by yearly evaluations carried out in assemblies of youth delegates and organised by the youth organisation on different levels, e.g. region, diocese, state, national.
The 25 monitors – already trained - (this number is continually increasing) meet three times a year as a group for evaluation and further training.
The idea Sean, is to use the money for the courses. At the moment a lot of
young people are being excluded, as they can’t pay for the courses. Also the fee we
charge is not sufficient to pay for the material we use. The people giving the courses, as
well as not receiving anything, have to take money from their own pockets to make ends
meet.
As part of the Third World, people here suffer the same fate as other developing
countries. There is a population of 8 billion people in the world today and 2.8 billion
live on less than US$ 2 a day (World Bank 2000). In Brazil 2/3 of the population live on a
family income of US$ 130 a month (IBGE 2000). A small middle class is being pushed down
into the lower class. The courses aim at forming future leaders who can change this
situation by becoming involved in the life of their country on different levels.
Best wishes,
Fr. George Boran,
mailto:George at boran.com