This budget is for the implementation and deployment of a WhatsApp based audio-survey framework to gather data about the impact of Pode Crer on participating students, their facilities and community members. WhatsApp is the most common form of communication in Brazil, and is how we communicate with all Pode Crer participants. This WhatsApp survey framework will not only allow us to check in with students regularly, it will also streamline collecting data from program alumni to understand how it impacted their lives over the years. Because WhatsApp support audio-messages, a voice recorded narrative that is almost like an interview, allowing us to systematically collect rich data.

The primary cost to implement this is software development, we already have a prototype codebase that demonstrated the features we need, now we need to improve it and deploy. All software developed will be open sourced under the MIT license for other researchers to use.

Additional Information

Watch the Pode Crer 2021 launch video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Visit the Pode Crer English page at https://vilsongroh.org

Read an English article about Pode Crer published at the Harvard Review of Latin America: https://revista.drclas.harvard...

Visit the Portuguese page of Pode Crer at https://redeivg.org.br/podecre...

Pode Crer is a new complementary education program launched by the Vilson Groh Institute in 2021 to serve vulnerable and marginalized youth from low income families in the greater Florianópolis region in Brazil. Each year about 300 youth ages 11-24 participate in the program. Pode Crer was designed to provide a path for marginalized youth to enter the knowledge economy and break the cycle of urban misery in Brazil. Total implementation cost in 2022 was about $250k, about $130 per youth per month.

Pode Crer happens across 3 educational tracks for different ages in two partner organizations. Track 1(ages 11-14) happens in the city of Palhoça, and tracks 2 and 3 (ages 14-17 and 18-24) happen in Florianópolis. The main component of the program are workshops that happen over meetings twice a week. Each workshop has around 20-25 students and approaches a blend of topics on technology, civics and leadership. Beyond the main educational program, there are activities that students can participate in other days which include:

• Field trips to companies, educational institutions and civic organizations (all tracks);

• Advanced technology classes twice a week on machine learning and web design (tracks 2 & 3);

• Robotics teams that compete in the First Lego League (track 1);

• Arts classes an extra day a week (tracks 2 & 3);

• A social innovation hackathon done in partnership with local technology companies (tracks 2 & 3);

To ensure program completion students aged 14+ receive a small stipend to help support them and their families and alleviate pressure to work, plus transportation and meals. All students and families receive individualized support from social assistants and are matched with other programs based on need (such as food assistance, psychological support, remedial literacy programs) and student potential (such as university preparation, job opportunities and other educational opportunities).

This holistic approach to student support, development and lifelong success is based on the Vilson Groh Institute's decades of experience implementing educational programs in marginalized communities, where beyond very scarce resources, social challenges are manifold. Youth often comes in shy and brutalized, with unstable family environments where they are exposed to violence, subject to being co-opted by drug trafficking. Teenage pregnancies and school abandonment are common. Succeeding in this challenging environment requires a kind of tact and educational approach that goes beyond what is found in typical elite schools in Brazil. Indeed, educators experienced in working with vulnerable and marginalized youth are frequently referred to as "social-educators", emphasizing this important element that is not always present (for example, contrast that with a teacher that places full emphasis on technical elements).

Drawing from the experiences of the Vilson Groh Institute, as part of the Pode Crer methodology a heavy emphasis is placed on socio-emotional development of students. However socio-emotional development alone is not enough for Pode Crer to succeed, because the programs goal is to prepare students to be successful in the knowledge economy: to be able to work at a technology company, to go on to university and a career in research, to be entrepreneurial and able to start their own company or small business. All the while imbuing them with a sense of social awareness and responsibility, a capacity of being able to examine critically the social realities where they come from and to hold a genuine concern for the well-being of others and those around them.

To achieve this, Pode Crer educators practice a blend of methodologies that integrates technology (technical elements), civics (social elements) and leadership (entrepreneurship and interpersonal elements), and underpins all of them with strong emphasis on students socio-emotional development.