Since the beginning of 2020, the Cure Violence team —supervisors, outreach workers and “interrupters”—have received training in conflict resolution and emotions management, acquiring new tools to help them co-create and carry out workshops and activities with participants and people in the community who are interested in these issues.
The team has identified key individuals among its participants who have shown potential as leaders in their territories. These participants also help with the workshops’ design, as well as in mediating conflicts with their friends and family. In this way the project is empowering leaders who will be agents of change in their communities. The program helps them identify and resolve conflicts peacefully and efficiently, so they can be part of an effective social transformation.
With the arrival of COVID-19, the Cure Violence team and the participants reoriented their work to raise awareness and develop support campaigns for the community, focusing on the prevention of the virus, social isolation, and use of free time in quarantine. This work is especially important in neighborhoods such as Charco Azul and Comuneros I, where families live in very tight quarters, many of them surviving on informal work and where people are used to spending time with neighbors on the streets.
The teams have also helped with the delivery of humanitarian aid, including food, to the neighborhoods where the project is implemented. The Cure Violence team has reaffirmed its role as leaders in the neighborhoods, helping reduce violent incidents as well as mediating difficult situations.