Youth Leaders for Nonviolence

SHARE currently supports two projects with UCRES: Women and the Environment and Youth Leaders for Nonviolence. Read more about the Union of Rural Communities of Northern San Salvador and La Libertad (UCRES)!

Project Name: Youth Leaders for Nonviolence

Youth Leaders in UCRES

Academic formation is the backbone of the sustainable development of communities and the country; the goal of this project is to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the rural communities through the academic formation and leadership training of their youth. With this project, UCRES hopes to strengthen youth organization and participation. Youth are nominated based on active participation in community organizing and community events and on their previous academic performance. Youth that participate in this project receive both scholarships to support their formal education in school and experiential learning through their work in communities. This project offers opportunities for young people to avoid gangs, violence, and emigrating to urban centers or the U.S. for work and to organize other youth to seek long-term, sustainable solutions for their communities.

Specific Project Elements:

• High school scholarships for twenty high school youth
• Training and support for youth to facilitate literacy circles, informal spaces for people to learn basic reading and writing skills, in their home communities
• Monthly scholarship student assemblies for training on issues including leadership, the national reality, history, public speaking, community organizing, and gender and sexuality
• Execution of six community work plans, created by scholarship students working with community councils and youth committees, supported by UCRES
• A yearly youth gathering for youth to share ideas, achievements and difficulties and work together to seek solutions

Scholarship student Juana

Community Perspective

“[This scholarship] has benefited me a lot.  There are many things you have to spend money on, like transportation or going to the computer lab, and those funds make it possible.  I feel like I’ve learned a lot, and grown a lot.  I believe [organizing] is important because we should support our communities in what they do, and in that way, we grow as people and learn, and support each other.” – Juana Luisa Torres, project participant and youth leader in UCRES region

Project Supporters

Thanks to the following Grassroots Partners for their ongoing accompaniment of communities in the UCRES region: St Elizabeth Ann Seton WI, Good Shepherd KS, Eastern Michigan University, St Francis Regis, the Northwest School.

Read more about this important SHARE-UCRES Youth Development Project:

NEW! UCRES Education and Youth Organization Semester Report 2011
Video: Interview with two UCRES scholarship students
Meet Neftaly Valencia
Project Recommendation UCRES Education and Youth Organization 2012
UCRES Education and Youth Organization Semester Report 2011