FORGE's People Powered Development
Esta inscrição foi selecionada como finalista no desafio
Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing.
There are 9.1 million people displaced by war in Africa, many of whom suffer from traumas they experienced during war and from the resultant helplessness of being displaced and dependent on aid for survival. FORGE works with these populations to overcome those obstacles by cultivating their own agency and potential.
Sobre Você
Seção 1: Sobre Você
Nome
Abby
Sobrenome
Speight
Website URL
Country
Estados Unidos
Seção 2: Sobre a Sua Organização
Nome da Organização
FORGE
Página da organização na internet
Telefone da organização
510-735-9398
Endereço da organização
1904 Franklin St #701, Oakland, CA 94612
País da organização
Estados Unidos
Sua organização é
OSCIP/ONG
Sua ideia
Dê um nome ao seu projeto
FORGE's People Powered Development
Country your work focuses on
Zâmbia
Describe Your Idea
There are 9.1 million people displaced by war in Africa, many of whom suffer from traumas they experienced during war and from the resultant helplessness of being displaced and dependent on aid for survival. FORGE works with these populations to overcome those obstacles by cultivating their own agency and potential.
INOVAÇÃO
What makes your idea unique?
FORGE’s People Powered Development model is unique because it reframes the entire conception of refugees. To most people, refugees are viewed as a drain. The hosting countries seem them as using valuable land, the international community sees them as requiring billions of dollars of aid, and even the returning countries see them as a mass influx of untrained and unskilled individuals.
FORGE is different. In refugees, FORGE sees people who chose peace over war, and who often walked hundreds of miles to protect their values and way of life. In short, FORGE sees strength. So, rather than wasting that strength by catering only to refugees’ most basic needs, FORGE nurtures the concepts of hope and control that are so important in maintaining strength and mental health.
FORGE’s People Powered Development model helps refugees regain control over their future. They are able to make changes to their current situation while preparing themselves and the members of their community to be leaders in rebuilding their communities after war. Hope, optimism, and a sense of purpose are typically lacking in refugee environments, yet they are crucial to mental health. FORGE is unique in recognizing that, and we are eager for others to see it as well.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impacto
Temas relacionados à inscrição
What impact have you had?
Over the past five years, FORGE’s work has affected the lives of over 70,000 refugees in four refugee camps in two African countries. FORGE projects have included such services as libraries, health centers, preschools, women’s empowerment center, computer centers, and rights education. FORGE alumni have gotten some of the limited jobs in post-conflict environments using skills they learned specifically through their time with FORGE.
Though less than two years old, FORGE’s People Powered Development model has already seen the launching of three projects: a preschool, a health center, and an agricultural loan agency. These three projects continue to run and impact their communities. All three projects (like all FORGE projects) are managed by refugees themselves, providing valuable job experience as well as entrepreneurship skills.
Problem
Most refugees spend at least a decade in camps while they wait for peace. While refugees' basic needs, such as food, water and safety, are typically met in these camps, the environment is psychologically trying. Many refugees suffer from mental health problems resulting from trauma that they experienced during war. WHO has established that over 50% of refugees present some sort of mental health problem. Further, the refugee camp environment exacerbates these issues. Dependent on external aid for food, education, and safety, many refugees experience a permeating sense of learned helplessness. As the years pass in which they have no control over their futures, refugees lose their sense of agency and community responsibility. This problem is especially pronounced in men, who feel emasculated by not being able to provide for their families. This insecurity can lead to overcompensation through sexual and gender-based violence directed at their wives or other women.
Actions
FORGE's People Powered Development model identifies, trains, and equips emerging social entrepreneurs in the refugee community, impacting the mental health of the community on many different levels. First, by training specific individuals to be social entrepreneurs, FORGE builds up their capacity and sense of agency. More broadly, as the entire community participates in the process, they come to see that they can affect change on their own, without an agenda handed down by an aid agency. This rebuilds a sense of community responsibility and efficacy that is often missing in refugee environments. Finally, the specific projects developed through FORGE's People Powered Development model, such as preschools and health clinics with psychosocial counseling, directly contribute to improving the mental health of the refugee community.
Results
FORGE's People Powered Development model impacts the mental health of the community on many different levels. First, by training specific individuals to be social entrepreneurs, FORGE builds up their capacity and sense of agency. More broadly, as the entire community participates in the process, they come to see that they can affect change on their own, without an agenda handed down by an aid agency. This rebuilds a sense of community responsibility and efficacy that is often missing in refugee environments. Finally, the specific projects developed through FORGE's People Powered Development model, such as preschools and health clinics with psychosocial counseling, directly contribute to improving the mental health of the refugee community.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
In order to be successful over the next three years, FORGE’s People Powered Development model must continue to grow and develop. In the upcoming year, FORGE will be launching our first round of projects in a post-conflict area, working with returned refugees and with people who stayed in the country during war. We will need to adjust our model and our implementation strategy to be applicable in this new environment.
In the following year, we must provide ongoing support to the refugee social entrepreneurs with whom we work. FORGE will work with those entrepreneurs to overcome challenges that they face in implementing their programs, and to continue to expand the projects’ impact.
In three years, FORGE will be overseeing the transition of many projects into the financial sustainability stage. In this stage, we will completely hand the projects over to the community, with the refugee social entrepreneurs being responsible for all aspects of the project, including funding.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
FORGE is very proud of our commitment to sustainable change. However, the sustainability of our projects can be the most challenging part. We are not content to simply run projects for a span of a few years and then pull out of a location. Rather, we aim to work with the communities to devise strategies through which projects can continue to run long into the future without FORGE’s help or support in any way. While we think that this is the most responsible way to develop these projects, we also recognize that it is a hurdle to success. By requiring projects to be sustainable, we are asking a lot, and we expect that not all projects will succeed. However those projects that are making real change and to which the community is fully committed will last and will stand as sources of inspiration and pride to the community.
How many people will your project serve annually?
> 10.000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
SUSTENTABILIDADE
Em que estágio está seu projeto?
Em execução entre 1 e 5 anos
In what country?
Zâmbia
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Sim
If yes, provide organization name.
FORGE
How long has this organization been operating?
Mais de 5 anos
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Sim
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Sim
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Sim
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Não
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
FORGE’s partnerships are critical to our success. In particular, FORGE is an Operating Partner of UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency. Without this partnership, FORGE would not be able to work in refugee camps and collaborate so closely with refugees.
Additionally, FORGE partners with other agencies that provide direct services in the refugee camps in which we work. These partnerships are crucial, because without direct service provision for refugees, FORGE would not be able to focus on the long-term and big-picture issues that affect our mission.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
FORGE’s People Powered Development model is constantly growing and improving. To that end, we have goals in mind for its future success. Specifically, we hope to continue to refine the training manual, reach out to more refugee camp sites, and develop more partnership.
Each potential refugee social entrepreneur with whom FORGE works is taken through the steps of the People Powered Development model through the use of a manual. This manual equips the refugees with the skills and information that they need in order to plan effective interventions for their community. As we progress, we hope to increase the degree to which this manual can provide support to refugee leaders. Specifically, we are hoping to expand the ongoing professional development aspects of the process, so that the refugee leaders can grow and improve with their projects.
Additionally, FORGE hopes to see our impact extend over the next few years. In the recent past, we have only been working in Zambia. In the middle of 2009, we opened a new location in Moba, DRC. However, in the future, we hope to work in more refugee camp environments in different African countries, in order foster hope and efficacy in those communities as well.
Finally, FORGE is focused on expanding our partnerships. Because all FORGE projects in the future will be planned by refugees and members of the local community, we cannot anticipate all of the fields in which we will work. By expanding our partnerships with organizations that have specific expertise, we increase our ability to provide detailed knowledge to refugee project leaders.
A História
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
For our first years of operations, FORGE worked under a different model in which the project-planning responsibilities were less directly in the hands of the refugees themselves. Over time, as we saw more and more capable refugees successfully run FORGE projects on their own, we realized that our projects would benefit from more direct refugee involvement from the very beginning. We were convinced of the fact that, when given the opportunity, the refugees with whom we work can innovate, problem-solve, and expand their projects better than any outsider could. We found that the most effective, relevant, and sustainable development projects come from the refugee community itself. Refugees’ insights into the social, physical and political settings in which they live are a necessary tool for understanding community needs and envisioning inventive solutions to local problems. Thus, we shifted to the People Powered Development model, through which refugees have control over every step of the project planning process. Through this shift, we have seen people rise up as respected leaders of their community. We have also seen communities that were once suspicious of their own potential rally around a project, even contributing their own time, talents, and resources to its success. We have seen refugee communities take responsibility for their own well-being, a rarity in refugee environments, and we have seen them provide for that well-being in impressive and astounding ways. We are confident that, through the People Powered Development model, refugees become more empowered, more skilled, and more ready to be effective leaders in the future.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Kjerstin Erickson is the founder and Executive Director of FORGE. Kjerstin started FORGE in 2003, while a junior at Stanford University. Now 26, she continues to manage FORGE's operations, growth and development. She has developed partnerships with UN agencies and has worked with multiple African governments to bring FORGE's work to over 60,000 refugees per year. An avid blogger and pioneer of ‘radical transparency,’ Kjerstin’s social media efforts have been profiled in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 2009 FORGE was honored with the Jenzabar Foundation's "Social Media Leadership Award." Kjerstin has also been named a Haas Public Service Fellow at Stanford University, one of America's "Top 40 Leaders Under 40" by the New Leaders Council, a "Top 10 College Woman" by Glamour Magazine, and a "Person You Should Know" by CNN. Ms. Erickson holds a degree in Public Policy from Stanford University, with a concentration in Global Development Solutions.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Friend or family member
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
 | 128 weeks agoNaveen Shakir said: On November 20, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing ... about this Competition Entry. - leia mais > |
| 130 weeks agoFORGE's People Powered Development has been chosen as a finalist in Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing. |
| 136 weeks agoAbby Speight updated this Competition Entry. |
| 138 weeks agoAbby Speight submitted this idea. |