Annual Report 2024
Inclusion and Peace: Purposes of the Alvaralice Foundation
The Alvaralice Foundation is a family foundation, created by the four Garcés Echavarría siblings, in honor of their parents, Álvaro and Alice, for whom the foundation is named. The Foundation seeks to contribute to a more peaceful and inclusive Colombia. All projects, therefore, should contribute to these dual purposes: inclusion, especially for those members of society with greatest needs and vulnerability, and peace based on coexistence under community leadership.
The manner in which we achieve our purpose is also important. The Alvaralice Foundation firmly believes in the value of collaborative work with partners and allies from diverse sectors and sizes; international foundations, government cooperation, the public sector, grassroots organizations, community leaders, NGOs and academia are all strategic allies and partners. We also believe in the importance of learning from successful initiatives in other contexts which can be adapted to our own, in the need for constant innovation, in transparency and the potential for improvement when we measure results, as well as in the value of developing and testing new methodologies.
This report presents our 2024 accomplishments, focusing on the results which move us toward our purpose, as well as the tools, methodologies and projects we have developed to achieve those ends. We also present financial and human resources which have allowed us to obtain said results, and the allies who accompany us on this journey.
The Alvaralice Foundation also expresses its most sincere thanks to all allies, participants and collaborators who have been fundamental to our philanthropic commitments. Their collaboration has been essential to the success of the Foundation’s projects and their positive impact on the Valle del Cauca region.
María Eugenia Garcés Echavarría – President, Alvaralice Foundation
Achievements Which Have Moved Our Vision Forward
The Alvaralice Foundation has shown that commitment and action can generate positive community impact. During 2024, it has sought to promote inclusion and offer greater opportunities to build a more inclusive and peaceful Colombia. From implementing innovative programs to building solid support networks, our achievements reflect our unwavering support for a more equitable and sustainable society. Below, we list our major milestones and contributions for the year.
The Alvaralice Foundation is part of Commitment to Valle (Compromiso Valle), the largest social impact initiative in southwestern Colombia. Commitment to Valle unifies in diversity, promoting dialogue and activities to build trust and create opportunities, inspiring and mobilizing positive transformation of individuals, communities and territories.
Learn more about this initiative in:
Mission
Vision
Guiding Principles
Promote public-private
alliances
Apply social intervention
best practices
Guarantee efficient
and transparent management
Assume co-responsibility
in development processes
Civic Action
Projects:
– Opening Pathways (Abriendo Caminos)
– Civic Prize for a Better City – Cali, Buenaventura (Premio Cívico por una Ciudad Mejor – Cali, Buenaventura)
– Laboratory for Community Ideation: From Words to Action! (Laboratorio de Ideación Comunitaria: ¡Del Dicho al Hecho!)
– Cali: How Are We Doing? (Cali Cómo Vamos)
Opening Pathways (Abriendo Caminos) is a social strategy for violence reduction and prevention. First implemented in 2017, it is based on public health concepts which consider violence a behavior transmitted by contextual influence, susceptible to change through systematic action of organized leaders trusted by the community as positive role models for youth affected by community violence or at risk.
Activities are classified into five categories: training trainers; interruption of violence and conflict mediation; community education; transformation of life goals and future plans; recording and follow-up.
Sectors of Impact in City/Region:
Cali: Charco Azul, Sardi, El Retiro, El Vallado, Potrero Grande, Los Lagos, Mojica neighborhoods
Palmira: La Emilia, Loreto, Harold Eder / Villa Diana, Villa del Rosario / Bicentenario, La Orlidia / Los Cristales neighborhoods
Buenaventura: Lleras, Juan XXIII, Viento Libre, San Francisco neighborhoods.
The conflict mediators network intervened in 2518 conflicts during 2024; 77.4% were peacefully resolved during the first intervention.
Of the 18.1% of conflicts requiring further intervention, more than 60% were successfully resolved
Graph 1: Mediation Results
Graph 2: Mediation Risk Level
Graph 3: Mediation in Potentially Violent Cases
Cali
687
High-risk mediations.
67,8%
Successful resolution
Buenaventura
268
High-risk mediations
75,7%
Successful resolution
Palmira
148
High-risk mediations
81,1%
Successful resolution
305 high-risk youth received support to assist in transforming their life plans and goals toward conditions of legality and freedom from violence.
68%
Employment – Self-employment.
10%
22%
Education.
One way of measuring transformation of violent conduct in the community is to evaluate how onlookers behave during mediated conflict. Hopefully, project intervention through mediation services and implementation of community activities over time will increase the proportion of conflicts in which onlookers themselves attempt to stop the conflict or aggression.
During 2024 (as compared with 2023), the proportion of onlookers moving from a passive position or inciting further violence to one of adopting a proactive position to contain conflict increased month by month.
The Civic Prize for a Better City (Premio Cívico por Una Ciudad Mejor) recognizes and strengthens innovative social initiatives that improve quality of community life. The award, which is granted biennially, strengthens collective leadership and promotes citizen participation.
During 2024, we began the 2024-2025 Civic Prize process in the city of Buenaventura, where it had not been active since 2014. Ten participative social processes, which harnessed collective leadership to contribute to improved community life, were selected as finalists. The program granted $10,000,000 Colombian pesos in kind to five of them.
Alvaralice Foundation has provided technical assistance, along with other Civic Prize allies in the cities of de Cali, Yumbo y Palmira. For the new version in Buenaventura currently being implemented, the Foundation is working with the “Solid Leadership” line of activities included in the Commitment to Valle (Compromiso Valle) collective.
Civic Prize for a Better City – Buenaventura 2024: Finalist Initiatives
Initiatives in Each Commune
40
hours of training
10
organizations completed institutional strengthening activities
5
initiatives received seed capital with a value of 10 million Colombian pesos each
Alvaralice Foundation acts as the Technical Secretariat and Coordinator, in representation of all associates in Cali’s Civic Prize. In 2024, the resources and services were distributed to the winners of the 2023 -2024 cycle, each of whom invested their 20 million Colombian peso prizes. Follow-up was carried out with each of the winning initiatives.
Geographic Distribution of Winning Initiatives
Categories of Winning Initiatives, Civic Prize for a Better City 2023 -2024
36
hours of training.
30
organizations completed institutional strengthening activities.
20
initiatives received seed capital of 10 million Colombian pesos each.
During 2024, the Laboratory for Community Ideation: From Words to Action! (Laboratorio de Ideación Comunitaria: ¡Del Dicho al Hecho!) focused on training and strengthening budding leaders in the municipalities of Candelaria and Jamundi, emphasizing growth in skills needed for project creation and development. The project was structured in two stages: 1. Training and 2. Implementation
During the training stage, participants learned to formulate projects through workshops and lectures, finalizing with a Social Canva model. In the implementation phase, they presented their social initiatives to a jury and received seed capital to put their projects into motion.
This process demonstrated how participating leaders replicated their new knowledge and skills, generating a multiplier effect in their communities. The pilot project’s experience highlights the importance of projects and alliances that promote the region’s existing technical and human knowledge, consolidating high-impact methodologies that benefit the locales in which they are applied and generating significant long-term social transformation.
25
ideas (elected leaders) began their training
14
from Jamundí
11
from Candelaria
22
satisfactorily completed training
3
dropped out during the process
General Objective: Strengthen social impact projects in Jamundi and Candelaria, through identification, support and implementation of initiatives seeking to collectively address social problems.
Income Generation
We seek to improve living conditions of vulnerable groups through access to formal employment.
Projects:
– Youth on Course (Rumbo Joven)
– Johanna Ortiz School of Haute Couture (Escuela JO)
trYouth on Course (Rumbo Joven) was created in 2014, as part of the Foundation’s income- generation activities for vulnerable youth in Cali through development of socioemotional skills and work-related competencies. The program addresses the fact that the city of Cali has one of the nation’s highest unemployment statistics, as shown by the historic evolution of employment, occupation and hiring rates.
Youth on Course seeks to reduce employment inequality through three dimensions: personal, close relations and employment. It takes a wide-ranging view of the problem by considering factors such as a very heterogeneous population and a high degree of concentrated unemployment by geographic location, especially on the mountainsides and Cali’s Aguablanca district, which are historically recognized as having high rates of poverty predominantly affecting youth.
A total of 236 young
completed the process
To date, 60% of participating youth found formal employment in the first semester of the program, and 41% In the second semester.
The program has very good results, with a desertion rate no higher than 12% during 2024.
The Alvaralice Foundation and the Scarpetta Gnecco Foundation have established a strategic alliance to take the Youth on Course employment program to four secondary schools in Cali: José María Cabal, Carlos Holguín Mallarino (Niño Jesús de Atocha campus), Guillermo Valencia y Alfredo Vásquez Cobo. The alliance focused on students in their final year, who received integral training in employment-related skills, provi ding key elements for their insertion in the world of work and their life goals project.
Training covered essential aspects such as assertive communication and teamwork, among other aspects needed for formal employment. Also, orientation was offered on topics such as writing a resume, having a successful interview and how to efficiently search for employment, all of which permit students to seek employment opportunities with greater preparation and confidence.
Historic Data Table
*Employment percentages do not include youth graduated from the schools included in the Scarpetta Gnecco Foundation alliance. However, one of the high school participants has been employed.
Consolidation of interinstitutional alliance to leverage and increase program benefits and results.
Technical and practical training for 34 women in haute couture clothing production.
Development of emotional skills for life and work, developing competencies needed for participants’ success in formal employment.
7 women employed.
Reflection and Dialogue
We promote public discussion of topics key to regional development, disseminating innovative ideas and methodological approaches.
Projects:
– Colombian Women: A Collective Biography (Colomb!anas: una biografía colectiva)
– Community of Practice
Colombian Women: A Collective Biography (Colomb!anas: una biografía colectiva) is a digital platform with autobiographical narratives of Colombian women of all ages, ethnic groups, occupations and beliefs. It seeks to promote social dialogue and to build a collective memory of what being a woman in Colombia entails.
General Objective: Consolidate program offerings into actions and services that maintain the program’s goal of collective dialogue among women throughout the nation.
Strengthen the program through interinstitutional cooperation for promotion and dissemination of stories and accounts of female participants and program beneficiaries.
4
New Voices
Decision to establish related public policy within the Cali Mayor’s Office purview.
Consolidation of workshop offerings and service programs provided by organizations and companies.
Inclusion of program in the Territorial Commitment (Compromiso Territorial) alliance, to provide and consolidate activities, self-care and care programs for women in general and female community leaders in the northern Cauca region.
- 26.600 subscribers
- 8.762 followers
- 13.179 active users
General Objective: to promote sharing of knowledge and experiences in the areas of education, youth employment, health and organizational empowerment.
Generate spaces for learning and collaboration among Latin American peer organizations.
Promote significant connections for collaboration among participating organizations.
48
Participating organizations.
48
Average number of attendees per session.
6
Community of Practice sessions.
112
Delegates.
4,7/5,0
Average rating.
Initiatives Supported
Projects:
– Cali: How Are We Doing? (Cali Cómo Vamos)
– “We are the Pacific” Cultural Technocenter (Tecnocentro Cultural Somos Pacífico)
– Pacific Knowledge (Saberes Pacíficos)
– Scholarship Program Our Lady of the Assumption School and Institute (Programa de Becas Colegio Instituto Nuestra Señora de la Asunción)
Making relevant city problems visible, such as standard of living for diverse population groups.
47
Mentioned in Cali’s District Development Plan 2024 -2027.
5
Mentioned in the public policy technical document in the areas of public safety and justice.
Microsite for Conference of Parties on Biological Diversity – COP 16.
521 participants in training in arts, dance, music, technology, theater and cultural entrepreneurship.
Groups in piano, musical composition and Big Band were opened. Social and community management promoted social activities, which led to consolidation of two youth leader groups in the region.
“Coming Together in the East” exhibition, highlighting the artistic processes of Cultural Technocenter participants.
The Pacific Musical Market included 36 buyers, 55 artists and 300 or more attendees in the showcases.
The Pacific Knowledge (Saberes Pacíficos) project is carried out at the Cultural Technocenter, with the support of the Alvaralice Foundation and the AntoLuz Foundation, located in Cali’s Commune 21.
It seeks to generate inclusive, participatory spaces for senior citizens to strengthen their skills, preserve ancestral wisdom, and improve their quality of life.
Artistic activities and psychosocial workshops have shown themselves to be tools that contribute to personal and community development, allowing senior citizens to express their cultural identity and build solid support networks.
1
Art exhibition with narrative, drawings and weaving, held in the Casa del Mono, an art center in Cali.
50
Senior citizens strengthened their social and emotional skills.
50
Families participated in awareness sessions on the rights of senior citizens.
1
Cultural gathering for intergenerational exchange with children, adolescents and youth from the Cultural Technocenter.
12
Senior women generated income through their entrepreneurial activities.
20
Seniors were trained in business topics, to improve their productive capacities and successful money management.
For over a decade, the Alvaralice Foundation has helped to strengthen the Our Lady of the Assumption school, facilitating access to high-quality education by financial assistance management. The Foundation has helped families in financial difficulty provide their children with a comprehensive education.
In 2024, five students received complete scholarships, which allowed them to continue their studies, participate in extracurricular activities and showcase their artistic talent and academic commitment. Thanks to this alliance, students in different grades receive benefits such as discounts in tuition and fees, allowing children from families in Cali’s Aguablanca district educational opportunities.
To contribute to the process of children’s and adolescents’ education at Our Lady of the Assumption School, a high-quality educational institution which attends children from a vulnerable sector of Cali, the Alvaralice Foundation mobilizes resources from donors who sponsor students through economic donations which cover 100% of students’ tuition, supplies and fees.
3
Families sponsored.
5
Students with scholarships.
Resource Mobilization
In 2024, thanks to existing trust and collaboration among partners, we were able to mobilize resources to extend our projects and programs to other locations, widening our scope and providing continuing impact in Cali, Palmira, Buenaventura, Jamundi, Candelaria and Santander the Quilichao.
2020
Partner resources: $1.725.636.000
Internal resources: $572.148.302
2021
Partner resources: $2.318.038.000
Internal resources: $634.876.666
2022
Partner resources: $5.127.022.000
Internal resources: $563.346.488
2023
Partner resources: $3.112.148.100
Internal resources: $725.272.495
2024
Partner resources: $3.602.976.803
Internal resources: $769.769.728
Investment by course of action
Our Team
Through its projects, Alvaralice Foundation promotes professional talent development in the Valle de Cauca region. In 2024, with the expansion of our projects to new territories, we added 60 new collaborators to our team, including administrative, professional and technical positions.
Corporate Governance
María Eugenia Garcés Echavarría
President of the Board of Directors
Enrique Garcés Echavarría
Elena Garcés Echavarría
Ana Cecilia Ulloa Velasco
Alfonso Ocampo Gaviria
Antonio de Roux Rengifo
Diane Eder James
Virginia María Garcés Pérez
Álvaro José Garcés Pérez
Óscar Rojas Rentería
José Reinel Flórez Hincapié
Laura Ulloa González
Virginia Varela Villegas
María del Socorro Pérez
Partners
