On June 13th, the graduation ceremony of 106 youths of the ‘Rumbo Joven’ program was held at the Fray Alberto Montealegre Hall of the University of San Buenaventura in Cali. The graduates are residents of the neighborhoods of Potrero Grande, Siloé and Altos de Menga. Most of them have initiated their employment processes. It is expected that more than 70% of the participants will be able to secure a formal job.
The courses were designed to provide the participants with the necessary skills to be able to explore and learn to independently find formal employment which should help reduce the rates of local crime and unemployment.
From March 2014 to date, 785 youths (ages 18 to 30) have graduated from this program thanks to the support of many organizations including as USAID, ACDI/VOCA, Tinker Foundation, Limmat Stiftung, EMpower, Corona Foundation and Alvaralice Foundation. In addition, the implementation of the workshops in several neighborhoods of Cali was made possible thanks to the collaboration and partnerships with the Tecnocentro Cultural Somos PacÃfico, the San Francisco de AsÃs Community Development Center of the University of San Buenaventura in Cali, Comfandi and the CreeSer, SIDOC and WWB Colombia.