5) Description of initiative: The field experience of FIMe has detected an increasing level of violence in the society and in family and community relationships. For more than ten years, this organization have worked to change the way conflicts are treated and solved. The aim of this initiative is to better the existed communication systems by decreasing everyday violence. The way to solve the conflicts is by bettering the self- esteem, developing the skills to insert people into society and to make them get self-sustainability so they do not depend anymore on the State. The work is on different levels: 1) Children and Adolescents: We center the attention on the problems of children that are in the streets. They spend too many hours every day working for survive. This put them in risk because they are not with their families and they are outside their environment. The focus is on spaces of cooperation with the community to strong the socialization of children and adolescents by cultural activities that stimulate their creativity, consolidate their values and family, community, school ties. 2) Family

3) Community: Community organization is promoted. Leaderships promote the participation to solve social, interpersonal and self-sustainable conflicts. The initiative is for the people of Villa Encancada (76 families) −original project/witness group and 5 community dinning halls: Los Gladiolos, Manos Abiertas, Rayito de Luz, Niños Felices y Pequeños Bajitos─ and around 100 families from Resistencia and Barranqueras in the province of Chaco.

6) Description of innovation: The strengthening of people’s socialization using art makes possible the expression of their personal skills. This strengths their self-esteem and gives them the chance to look for their goals in life and overcome the limitations of a social context that stops their personal and community development. Art has made possible the involvement of children and adolescents first, and then of their families and community. They have associated between each other to fight for their common interests. A witness group it is on the stage to get their own land to build their homes. Our role is to coordinate and advise them. It has been proved that the more suitable strategy to get community involvement and participation is by linking artistic activities with social work. Workshops on singing, percussion, role plays, acrobatics, puppets, masks, movies shows, reading of tales, plot analysis are developed. The process combine senses, emotions, intellect and affection. This provokes a chain reaction of mechanisms that are part of the subject when he is contact with pairs. The aim is to promote non-confrontational dialogue to recognize communication styles and to detect which ones are inefficient and tend to violence. From that point we look forward to change behaviors and attitudes but respecting the others and learning how to live with them. Setting in the community a system to solve and manage non- violent conflicts help to work in a cooperative way to reach common interests for bettering the quality of life and for inserting people in the labor and services markets.

7) Delivery model: Other programs have detected an increasing level of violence between family and community relationships. This generates more situations of discrimination, lack of respect and acceptance of differences. The violence is the common way to solve conflicts. Children and adolescents of these communities are involved by art activities.

After the first achievements, their parents started to get interested on the activities and got involved in the program. The used mechanisms have been many: invitations to the artistic activities of their children, participation of them in those activities and offering them drinks. At the workshops it was started to recognize the community problems and to work to find pacific and cooperative solutions.

8) Key operational partnerships: Efa Theatre Group: in charge of artistic strategies and techniques. • Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación: it financed some of the activities during 2006 • Fundación Amanecer: in charge of the Workshops on non-violence. • Community organizations Unión y Esfuerzo, Pequeños Bajitos, Fundación DESHUMI, Fundación DEMOS: they offer their installations and the contacts with the groups. They offer drinks. • Secretaría de Desarrollo Social de la Nación: in charge of some coordinator’s fees. • Secretaría de Desarrollo Social de la Provincia del Chaco: give operative and logistic support. • FIMe: Its role is general coordination, advising and development of specific subjects to better interpersonal and community relationships.

The work of these organizations has allowed the efficient implementation of the project. Each one has contributed to reach significant achievements as: a) The community has been organized from a cooperative and pacific dialogue, b) The awareness of conscience of the educative communicational models stereotyped as violent between parents and children and their upbringing hinder the good relationship with the family and neighbors.

9) Financial model: The included mechanisms for the beneficiaries to get access to the program are: - Creation of commissions/neighborhood groups with a local coordinator. - FIMe Coordination - Permanent monitoring Self-management mechanisms for these people: - Management of productive projects. - Getting donations - Getting into the labor market - Getting subsidies - Incorporation of partners

          • Costs as percentage of income: 60%

          • Financing: Through the projects that conformed the initiative, through national programs and private donations and the coordination between different areas of provincial programs (Aipo, Area de Animación Sociocultural, Niños en situación de Calle) and NGOs. Through the execution of productive entrepreneurships – Manos a la Obra Program− the beneficiaries obtain the necessary income for self-sustain.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: Effective involvement of the family and community in the objectives of the initiative. Better family and community communication. Better capacity of expression, creativity in everyday life and capacity for organization and to live in group. Awareness that the violence is not a right method to solve conflicts and strengthening of pacific and cooperative strategies. Recognition of community and private conflicts and recognition of the right methods to solve them. Better life quality through community organization and through the insertion into the labor and services markets.

          • Number of clients in past year: In a first stage, 76 families (300 people) have been beneficed. Beneficiaries in process, 100 families.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: - Witness experience: Execution of productive projects. Setting the projects in motion. Getting funds donated by the beneficiaries to sustain the continuity of the program. Different processes to achieve: Possession of land Self-building of housing Our own headquarters Continuous evaluation Analysis and conclusions Necessary reformulations. - Other communities in execution: Continuity of workshops Analysis of the detected problems Dealing with the problems Management of productive projects. Replica in other communities Selection of the beneficiaries from the witness experience that will participate in this stage as promoters of it. Detection of community associations and state organizations that will work on the coordination and with the FIMe net. Getting funds (private donations and subsidies).

12) Origin of the initiative: The mentors of the idea are a group with experience on resolution of conflicts and on artistic activities. They know people that worked 8 years ago in other programs to better human relationships and to get pacific solutions. In 2004 came up the idea to combine experiences and opinions to solve social problems detected in different contexts. As an innovating idea, artistic and technical strategies have been applied to effectively achieve a social change in these communities. A first experience was done with band of street musicians to solve the problem of violence. Children and adolescents gave and immediate response and then the families and the rest of the community.

Contact Information:
Lilian  Vargas
Excecutive Director
Fundación Instituto de Mediación
(ONG sin fines de lucro)
Hipólito Irigoyen 645 (3500) Resistencia - Chaco - Argentina
Argentina
Tel: +54 - 3722 - 429786 / 447285
Fax: +54 - 3722 - 429786 / 447285
Email: fime@fimeint.org
Website: www.fimeint.org