Empower Rio's Slums: Hub for Social Innovation

Dear donors,

We are filled with hope and energy to count on your support to face a period of extreme challenges during the pandemic. With the cooling of COVID-19 in Brazil we return here once again to thank the trust deposited in the SOCIAL INNOVATION HUB of Vidigal, a space for capacity development, connections and access to tools for training technology and innovation fluents within the favela.

The pandemic period forced a huge challenge for us to welcome the community into its most desperate period. With the interruption of presencial activities we had canceled our incubation and local business acceleration programs. The efforts turned 100% to social assistance, seeking to offer basic dignity to the residents of Vidigal. We mobilized a collective with 16 local organizations and together we were able to distribute 4,050 food baskets, more than 7,274 meals for people in vulnerability, bringing hope and comfort to more than 3,000 families.

In 2022 we were able to turn this page and again turn our energy to resume face-to-face activities in our Social Innovation Hub. Returning to feel the warmth of the community in our space returns us the pleasure and the purpose.

One of the Social Innovation Hub main targets are to develop social projetcs and NGO’s more professionals and independent acting on our community. In this way, we’re very content to receive in our house the operations of old and new partners.

• “Casa do Mar”, a partner organizacion since 2019, returned to offer english classes and tutoring for childrens of our community. The classes occur every tuesdays, wednesdays anda thursdays, from 16h to 19h. There are over 20 boys and girls investing weekly on their own education.

• The social project “Playlife”, that estimulantes inclusion with sports, started at this year to offer tutoring to their young athletes. In addition to football and tennis classes that happen in the court located at the top of the community, we promote  together  in our infrastructure (every tuesdays and thursdays) activities to improve learning and reduce educacional gap.

• The Capoeira’s master Messias - one of our ex-incubees - returned to work with us in the co-working office to redesign the comunication plan of his project “Vidigal Capoeira”. Being a leader of a social project that takes care of more than 60 childrens with capoeira and afro culture classes is not easy, it demands dedication and discipline. And the Social Innovation Hub office has been serving as a tool to make it happen.

• It brought us a lot of satisfaction, yet, to watch the 15 percussion students of the social project “Batucavidi”, preparing to do an exchanging program they achieved to France. The Social Innovation Hub served as headquarter to the costume production, to reinforce the group integration and to establish the foundation to this trip that will be forever remembered in this Vidigal generation. 

Just not social organizations are benefit from a shared office in the community. The group of artists of the Vidigal is organizing inside our meeting room a project of Podcast called "FAVELADO POD", still in organizational design and producing the first pilot.We strongly believe that offering this space stimulates creativity and motivates the fulfillment of dreams without having to move outside the favela. The Social Innovation Hub is a space that belongs to your community and is there to serve the community.

    However, our office does not only function as an infrastructure for community use. We are working with dedication to build an agenda of events that adds value to people and stimulates the formation of positive connections.

• In April we had the first meeting with investors for a conversation round about Cryptocurrencies and Web 3.0. A unique opportunity to show the favela that it can also be an investor and dominate the concepts of the financial market. These meetings have a fundamental role to protect with good knowledge our young people from falling into digital scams.
• In May we held two meetings in partnership with the collective "Peripheral Youth" to reinforce the black ancestry and the self-knowledge of our people. There were more than 25 people talking about pride, representativeness and awareness.

A lot has been done, but with your support we can deliver much more. It is planned to the next quarter the Social Innovation Hub rebranding project, when we will announce our new name, new visual identity and communication plan. Partnerships are in progress to create the biggest gamer academy based on favela, with the goal of developing an e-sports environment. We are looking forward to getting resources to build our filmmaking studio, oriented to social media content. So, that are challenges and a long way to walk, but holding hands with you donors and with our fellows at the community we are quite sure that there will be so much more to tell in our next report. We’re counting on you.

Thanks again from all of us here at Favela Inc. for continuing to support us and be a part of our journey. Now more than ever the social sector is counting on generous people like you to help us stay resilient and working hard to help those most vulnerable in our communities.

_______________________________________________

Queridos doadores,

Estamos com esperança e contando com o apoio de vocês para enfrentar energia durante um período de desafios extremos a pandemia. Com o desenvolvimento da expansão da COVID-19 no Brasil voltamos aqui mais uma vez para agradecer a confiança DE INOVAÇÃO SOCIAL do Vidigal, um espaço de ligação e acesso a ferramentas para formação de fluentes em tecnologia e inovação dentro da favela .

O período de pandemia nos impõe um desafio enorme para acolher a comunidade em seu período mais desesperado. Com a interrupção das atividades planejadas de incubação e nossos negócios locais. Os esforços de busca de serviços essenciais para a assistência social Mobilizamos 16 locais e 207 grandes famílias com grandes famílias.

    Em 2022 pudemos virar esta página e voltar novamente nossa energia para retomar as atividades presenciais em nosso Hub de Inovação Social. Voltar a sentir o calor da comunidade em nosso espaço nos devolve o prazer e o propósito.

    Um dos principais objetivos do Hub de Inovação Social é o desenvolvimento de projetos sociais mais profissionais e voltados para o Hub de Comunidade. Nesse sentido, alegres parceiros voltarão a receber em nossa infraestrutura a atuação de alguns e novos.

• A “Casa do Mar”, organização parceira desde 2019, voltou a oferecer aulas de inglês e reforço escolar para as crianças da comunidade. As aulas acontecem todas as terças, quartas e quintas, no horário das 16h às 19h. São mais de 20 garotos e garotas investindo em sua própria educação semanalmente.

• O Projeto social “PlayLife”, que estimula a inclusão dos jovens a partir dos esportes, começou a se aninhar na lecionar de defesa para suas atletas. Além das aulas de futebol e tênis que acontecem na quadra da infraestrutura da comunidade, são realizadas em todas as nossas atividades pela manhã uma atividade para aprimorar o ensino e reduzir a defasagem.

• O mestre de capoeira Messias voltou a trabalhar em nosso espaço de coworking para redesenhar a comunicação do seu projeto “Vidigal Capoeira”. Ser o líder social que atende mais de 60 crianças com aulas de capoeira e cultura afro não é fácil, exige de um projeto social e disciplina. E o escritório do Hub de Inovação Social do Vidigal serviu como instrumento para viabilizar essa evolução.

• Trouxe-nos muita satisfação, ainda, assistir aos 15 alunos de percussão do projeto “Batucavidi” se preparando para o intercâmbio cultural que conquistaram na França. O Hub de Inovação Social serviu de base para a vida dos jovens do Vidigal, para aumentar a integração do grupo e para sedimentar as bases dessa viagem que marcará para sempre a vida dos jovens do Vidigal.

    E não são só as organizações sociais que se beneficiam de um escritório compartilhado no meio da comunidade. O coletivo de artistas do piloto do Vidigal está gestando dentro de nossa sala de organização de reuniões um projeto de Podcast chamado “FAVELADO POD”, ainda em e produzindo o primeiro. muito que oferecer esse estímulo à criatividade e realizar a realização de sonhos sem necessidade de mover para fora da favela. O Hub de Inovação Social é um espaço que pertence à sua comunidade e está ali para servi-la.

    Contudo, nosso escritório não funciona apenas como uma infraestrutura para uso da comunidade. Estamos trabalhando com dedicação para construir uma agenda de pessoas que estimule a união de valores positivos.

• Em Abril tivemos o primeiro encontro com investidores para uma roda de conversa sobre Criptomoedas e Web 3.0. Uma oportunidade ímpar de mostrar à favela que ela pode também ser investidora e dominar os conceitos do mercado financeiro. Esses encontros tem papel fundamental de proteger com bom conhecimento os nossos jovens de cair em golpes digitais.

• Em Maio realizamos dois encontros em parceria com o coletivo “Juventudes Periféricas” para reforçar a ancestralidade negra e o auto conhecimento de nossa gente. Foram mais de 25 pessoas conversando sobre orgulho, representatividade e consciência.

Fizemos muito, mas com seu apoio podemos entregar muito mais. Está previsto para o próximo quarter o projeto de rebranding do Hub de Inovação Social, onde anunciaremos seu novo nome, identidade de marca e plano de comunicação. Está em andamento a formação de parcerias para criar a maior academia gamer em comunidades do Rio de Janeiro, voltada para o desenvolvimento do ecossistema de e-sports. Estamos captando recursos para a construção de nosso estúdio audiovisual, orientado para a produção de conteúdo para redes sociais do nosso Núcleo de Micro Influenciadores Comunitários. Enfim, são muitos desafios e um longo caminho a percorrer, mas de mãos dadas com vocês doadores e com a nossa comunidade temos a certeza de que haverá muito mais para contar no próximo report. Contamos com vocês.   

Obrigada de novo por todo o apoio por nós aqui da Favela Inc, por fazerem parte da jornada. Agora mais do setor social está ajudando a ajudar as pessoas mais resilientes, o setor social nunca está trabalhando duro para ajudar a ajudar as pessoas mais resilientes, com mais trabalho na nossa comunidade.

Att,

Maria Eduardo Camargo

Dear donors,

Happy new year to all of the amazing contributors who have helped support Favela Inc.'s Hub of Innovation. Here in Vidigal we are continuing to work hard to keep our spirits high and continuously work to create a truly unique space that provides local favela residents with access to tools, knowledge and infrastructure that would be otherwise hard to come by without traveling outside the favela.

In our last update we shared with you that we had conducted a variety of infrastructural improvements to make our space even better. Additionally we shared that we were welcoming some new team members to the organization that would help us to improve our operations and grow. 

At that time it seemed that we had gotten through the peak of the pandemic and that things were slowly moving back to normalcy. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case and the new variant of COVID-19 has continued to wreak economic havoc on the residents of the favelas. This required us to take a hard look at our core priorities and focus on ensuring the survival and sustainability of Favela Inc. at the institutional level. After extensive conversation with our management team and our strategic partners, we realized that we would need to scale back some of our plans and ground ourselves in the necessities of the current situation.

That being said there are still so many important updates and exciting things to share with you about the current and future status of the hub of innovation:

• We recently brought on a new director to run the space who has years of experience as an owner of cultural spaces in the nightlufe district of Lapa. Welcome to the team Bruno!
• The expansion of the current space to include the lower level of the building expanded the total space from 130 square meters to 250 square meters (2700 sq feet). We are working with potential sponsors to house on the new floor: a café, stage for presentations and workshops, and a gaming zone.
• Renovation of the meeting room along with new tech equipment to facilitate collaboration and hybrid meetings;
• Partnership discussions with three major companies to create amazing educational programming for the community and bring much needed investment into the space to guarantee our overhead costs.
• A redesign of the branding strategy of the space (including potentially a new name) in order to create a more inclusive feel for favela residents followed by an inter community marketing effort to bring more people into the space (pending the pandemic permits)
• English classes going on three times a week in partnership with a local school totaling around 30-50 students.

With the newest COVID variant still spreading throughout the community and the world we are taking our time to start normalizing activities to original capacity in order to ensure the security of the community. In the meantime we will continue to focus our efforts on team building, marketing, fundraising and partnership development and improving our infrastructure for the near future.

Thanks again from all of us here at Favela Inc. for continuing to support us and be a part of our journey. Now more than ever the social sector is counting on generous people like you to help us stay resilient and working hard to help those most vulnerable in our communities. We look forward to bringing you a lot of incredible updates and news in our following GlobalGiving Report in 3 months as our team is highly focused on designing an impact hub that can become a global reference in this sector.

All the best,

Ana Beatriz Ribeiro