Educational initiative for the out of school youth

The center is currently taking on six to eleven street families on a regular basis. These are composed of approximately thirty individuals, all from district five in Manila. Most of them are undergoing individual profiling by the project community organizer, gathering medical, educational and other relevant information which are to be used to craft a more appropriate case intervention for each.

The project is also tapped the services of the Alternative Learning System of the Department of Education to provide educational support to the street families. DepEd is regularly sending six ALS facilitators/teachers to the center. They are using curriculum and modules designed for non conventional primary and secondary learning. By October, the facilitators/teachers will be administering an equivalency examination to the partner street families to determine if they are eligible to be graduated to the next academic level. The center, in an effort to maximize the presence of the ALS facilitators/teachers also took on out of school youths residing in nearby communities.

The project is also referring medical cases of individual street families to selected medical partners in Manila and Quezon City. This is stop gap measure currently being implemented by the center due to limited resources.

The project is also exploring the possibility of starting an urban vegetable garden within the center compound. This has the following major objectives: 1) to stimulate collective action among the street families and thereby practice democratic decision making process and taking on of individual responsibilities; and 2) to have a regular supply of viand for their needs.

Aside from the ALS interventions, the street families are also undergoing regular values clarification sessions and catechism with the social workers from the St. Scholastica’s Priory and basic health education from the resident nurse/project community organizer from the Center for Social Concern and Action (COSCA) of De La Salle University Manila.

The project will also conduct a joint planning session with the project proponents this September to discuss a more strategic intervention for the street families and children as well as to firm up internal policies, mechanisms and procedures.