Varon Adelante
Location
Young adult males ages 18 to 25 will grow in self knowledge and appreciation while transcending current social, economic, emotional and cultural barriers.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2007
YouTube Upload
None at this time
Project URL (include http://)
http://None at this time.
Plot your innovation within the mosaic of solutions
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Low self-value and stability leads to risky choices
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Unleash creativity that channels experiences of risk and vulnerability toward leadership
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
Lack of formation of character through the integration of humanities and arts leads to defragmented psychological and cultural development in the individual.
Positioning of this barrier in the mosaic would propel many innovative initiatives geared around developing the basic moral fiber of human existence and inter relationships. Without the basic "building blocks" of a healthy the human psyche, it is almost impossible to transcend or build forward the human experience.
Name Your Project
Varon Adelante
Describe Your Idea
Young adult males ages 18 to 25 will grow in self knowledge and appreciation while transcending current social, economic, emotional and cultural barriers.
Innovation
Describe your program or new idea in one sentence.
Young adult males ages 18 to 25 will grow in self knowledge and appreciation while transcending current social, economic, emotional and cultural barriers.
What makes your initiative uniquely positioned to create change in your community?
This initiative has the full support of a community center with the facilities and equipment necessary to implement many of the service components. "Varon Adelante" is uniquely positioned to create change in the community by offering young men ages 18 to 25 an opportunity to realize their full potential and vocation as a person. Through the investment in the poject's process, young men will have discovered their individual and collective identity in this way, becoming truly empowered by self-knowledge and self-worth. The community will then benefit from young men who will have decided to be truly responsible to themselves, their families and society in general. The community will be awarded with young men ready to take on the educational, emotional and economic challenges it offers, as leaders of change rather than victims. Young men who graduate the program will be in solid positions to create innovative enterprises, fortifying families and other young people.
Describe how you organize and carry out your work?
A program that develops by way of the following stages: 1. Promotions and Recruitment, 2. Orientation, 3. Training, 4. Practice and Application, 5. Evaluation, 6. Adapting /Transforming, 7. Committment.
What is your plan to scale and expand your innovation into your community and beyond?
The successful completion of our program components will have empowered young men to venture into daily life with a highly focused sense of direction in terms of their capacity to transform their lives and the community in which the live. These young men will have started a basic project to engage their own needs and those of the families and communities where they live. In this manner, successful participants will have in effect, taken the first steps toward the realization of a new young adult movement centered around raising awarenes of the individual's responsibility for self and comumunity's health. This will have the kind of local community impact that will very likely grow into a national and perhaps, international movement.
The project will be promoted and marketed via modern digital media outlets using website, podcasting, you tube, my space, blogging, and digital graphics. Additional outlets will be community based such as, radio, TV, theater presentations, art galleries, townhall meetings, college campus presence and promotions.
What other resources, institutional, or policy needs would be necessary to help sustain and scale up your idea?
Collaborative agreements will be negotiated with colleges, churches, corporations, government agencies and private foundations with similiar interests in order to bring together a collection of resources of buildings, equipment, funding, professionals, etc.
Impact
Describe your impact in one sentence, commenting on both the individual and community levels.
Young men will become constructively responsible to themselves, their families and communities by developing personal integrity and the tools to be an effective social entreprenuer.
What impact has your work achieved to date?
My own work has lead me to a position where I have the luxury of space and time to develop "Varon Adelante." This project will begin as soon as funding is available for at least the 1st year of operation.
Number of individuals served
This project will directly serve a total of 35 - 50 young men 18 to 25 as participants. The project will however, indirectly serve hundreds of people by way of its own nature to steer participants into realizing creative solutions to challenges within their own family and community environments.
Community impact
The community will be impacted in ways it has never been before. At the end of the project, our participants will have engaged the community with innovative initiatives geared to raising greater awareness of the need to furher develop a sense of solidarity as citizens while facing issues such as crime, drugs, STD's, teen pregnancy, fatherless families, unemeployment, lack of education and cultural development, etc.,. we will do this by employing a very focused but creative approach toward responsible citizenship. Our participants will be encouraged and lead to form entrepreneurial groups who will in turn design and coordinate a project addressing the most pressing needs within their age gropus and in the communities they live in. Communities will receive an injection of real positive energy from our groups of young men as they engage needs from the perspective that if you are not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem.
Society at large
Society at large will reap the benefits of a new movement of young adult males who are truly making life-long committments that will ultimately transform and transcend current unhealthy trends of a postmodern, highly consumer oriented society. As such, many young men will want to join and become effective and valuable members of a much more healthy natural and ethical environment in which to live, develop and truly prosper. Many young people will want to become more socially involved while developing economic stability.
What measure do you use to gauge your impact and why?
Change in individual attitudes translating into positive, constructive behavior where the participants have moved from and "I" to a "We" mind set. Young men will have truly engaged their own needs as individual beings while at the same time addressing the needs of their families and communities through positive and creative solutions.
This will be an indicator that participation in the project has made a profound, life-altering impact in participants and therefore will have completed its main objective.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative currently being financed and how would you finance further expansion and/or replication?
Currenlty there is no funding set aside for this particular project. We do have however, at our disposal brand new facilities with equipment ready to be employed in this project. We also have commitments from professionals in various fields including, mental health, sports, arts, computer technology, journalism and ethics. Funding will be solicited through an aggresive fundraising campaign including , grants solicitation to private and government sources, community events and individual donations.
Participants will be encouraged to employ time into creating fund raising opportunities within the community and through media including, readio, TV, periodicals and the internet.
Provide information on your current finances and organization:
Annual budget: $478,000.00, Annual revenue: $478,000.00, Sources: United Way: 9.5%, PR State Legislature: 09%, PR State Dept. of Justice: 12%, PR State Dept. of Family: 12.5%, Federal CSBG: 09%, Community Fundraising 38%.
12 Full Time Staff / 4 Part Time Staff / Dozens of Temp. Volunteers for Organizational and Community Events.
Who are your potential partners and allies?
A number of professionals, entreprenuers, and educators such as:
Dr. Carlos Carrasquillo, Social Psychologist and Dean of Students University of PR, Humacao Campus
Maria De Lurdes Carrera, Clinical Psychologist, Private Practice
Jose Gonzalez, CPA, Private Practice
Kenneth Bury, Administrator, Fiddler and Gonzalez Law Firm, San Juan
Most Rev. Roberto Gonzlaez Nieves, Archbishop of San Juan of PR
DVanguard, Non-Profit Organization Serving at-risk youth, Guaynabo, PR
State Dept. of Justice
State Office of Youth Affairs
United Way of PR
Cursillo Movement, San Juan
Who are your potential investors?
United Way of PR
Banco Popular Foundation
Fundacion Angel Ramos
Ashoka
State Dept. of Justice
Private Donors
Amgen Foundation
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
I come from a troubled and unstable family upbringing. As a result in 1979 I decided to "tie the not at age 16 with a girl who came from a home where she experienced grave abuse and neglect, she was only 13. We have now been married for 28 years, have six children (4 boys and 2 girls) and five grand children. Our oldest is 27 and our youngest is 16. I strongly believe that given our background and the premature age for marriage we are more the exemption than the rule. Although we have struggled greatly in many areas (as is to be expected) just to remain together, we have, in my view, transcended our background of family disfunction and have steadily overcome the natural odds and adverse circumstances we've had to face. Of course we have yet much to go but we have certainly learned a few things about life, love and human development. In 1989 I decided to make a career move from industrial mechanics and machinery to youth ministry and education. I took a job in an inner city catholic elementary school as a 5th grade teacher. Since then I have devoted myself to community and leadership development and education. I have started or have contributed to a number of community initiatives on behalf of youth and families. Currently, I serve as a consultant grant and programs writer at a nonprofit organization offering foster home services to abused girls and teens in Loiza, Puerto Rico.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
Married 28 years, father of six.
2001 to present - Consultant Educator and Grants Writer
1998 to 2001 - Campus Minister - Bishop Francis HS, East Orange, NJ
1996 to 1998 - Natl. Workshop Presenter - Renew Int., Plainfield, NJ
1989 to 1995 - Theology Teacher - Paterson Diocese Schools
Bachelor's in Religious Ed. - Graduate Theological Foundation, South Bend, IN
Sociology Major - Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
Community Leadership - Instituto Rodolfo Valenzuela, Clifton, NJ
Over twenty years of In-service and continuing education courses, conferences and seminars.
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Comments
Hello Carlos,
Your work sounds interesting but the entry is a bit vague. Could you give some more specifics about the work that you do? Exactly what projects do you implement? What would a youth experience in any particular day by being involved? Its great that you are considering the ways in which you will use diverse media to market your ideas. Also, thanks for sharing your personal story!
Dana Frasz
Changemakers