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The Vines [Strategy] (Fall 2021)

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The Vines [Strategy] (Fall 2021)

Project Background

The Vines Foundation is a catalyst for positive change in Tunuyan, Mendoza, empowering our community to enhance health, end hunger and overcome hardship, as well as promote sustainable livelihoods. 

As the philanthropic arm of The Vines, an Argentine farming, winemaking and hospitality company (vinesofmendoza.com, vinesresortandspa.com) with deep connections to international resources through our clients in the US, Europe and Brazil, The Vines Foundation is leveraging these resources to meet the immediate and long term needs of the local community. Most importantly, however, we are building capacity within our community and the organizations we work with, and seeking to engage local and national businesses, along with the government to solve complex challenges. 

Definition of Opportunity

 The Vines Foundation is interested in partnering with DAT to create a strategic and inspirational mission and vision statement, which will serve as the foundation for our community work for at least the next decade. We will also identify solid guiding principles, and meaningfully engage prospect donors and partners to unite a force for good. 

Definition of Success

Generate interest, excitement and action in support of The Vines Foundation. Provide hands-on volunteer experiences for individuals to become connected to the mission of The Vines Foundation. 

Be an incubator of new thoughts, strategies and methods to identify and solve the ever-changing needs of the local community. Become a model upon which others can base their initiatives to effectively serve the needs of the broader region and country of Argentina. 

Meet the Team

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Rusalia (Fall 2021)

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Rusalia (Fall 2021)

Project Background

The Rusalia Resource Foundation (RRF) is a registered non-profit legal entity operating in Kisumu, Kenya with a parallel non-profit organization located in South Bend, Indiana. Founded by Dr. Juliana Otieno, a Kenyan pediatrician who was in the 2019-2020 academic year Inspired Leadership Program at Notre Dame, RRF works to empower girls in Western Kenyan by providing full high school tuition scholarships and mentorship opportunities, with a special focus on life skills education. Rusalia Scholars are expected to be “college-ready” and learn the value of education, personal strength, independence, life skills, and service to the community. The project aims to help girls develop improved life skills, including being able to handle social challenges and conflicts in an environment where they are independent of parental guidance. In addition, the program works to improve girls’ knowledge and skills on nutrition and overall healthy development.

The goals of RRF’s works are 1) To provide opportunity and create an enabling environment for girls to become self-actualized adults by providing access to an integrated support system including education, scholarship at high school and college, growth opportunities, values, and mentorship that would otherwise not be available due to the circumstances of their families 2) To enrich the academic experience of Rusalia scholars through mentoring and training from professionals and others with special expertise, such as health advocacy, particularly in preventive medicine protocols, and environmental management.

RRF has carried out two mentorship programs in partnership with ND Development Advisory Teams. The first mentorship activity focused on building an empowered girl child in building confidence, communication skills, and some knowledge on reproductive health issues. The second mentoring activity involved giving the RRF scholars skills to live in a new college or university environment. It empowered them to have people skills and networking capacity as well as preparing them for general college life.

Definition of Opportunity

Notre Dame students will work directly with girls in the program (RRF scholars) and with Rusalia leadership to explore educational and behavioral opportunities (might be curriculum, experiential, web-based platform, etc.) that address concrete responses to climate change. We hope to engage the RRF scholars to bring out their stories of experiences of the effects of climate change from their family and home perspectives. The RRF scholars will share their stories and in the process work with the ND students to create a learning platform. The platform will provide perspectives of the girls’ understanding of climate change and initiate a process of mindset and behavior change. The girls and ND students together will be involved in the development of a behavior change model for the transformation of society generally and the African community in particular. We hope for a process of joint design, helping the girls feel empowered to design programs that connect with these issues both globally and locally, tapping into the idea of“Think globally, act locally.” This might involve building a climate change curriculum or finding other ways that the girls can help lead locally in addressing climate change and environmental concerns.

Definition of Success

The DAT will help RFF support educational and leadership activities for the girls related to climate change. We look forward to understanding more about the most inspiring and concrete examples of the best programs globally for providing climate change education and engagement and translating these into the local context. We hope to take specific lessons from these international experiences and build them into our own programming, and try out many of these ideas, working directly with the girls in the program. 

Meet the Team

Final Deliverables

Comment

Bethany Land Institute (Fall 2021)

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Bethany Land Institute (Fall 2021)

Project Background

Bethany Land Institute represents a new model: an integrated approach to fight poverty, restore dignity and care for creation. BLI’s goal is to inspire similar models that can revitalize rural livelihoods in Uganda, and its mission is to train leaders in rural Uganda and set a new standard for sustainable creation care, food production and economic well being in Africa. The mission is realized through three key programs of the Bethany Land Institute:

Mary’s Farm: A sustainable farm that conducts educational and mentorship programs in sustainable practices of land use and food production.

Lazarus’ Trees: A forest, which serves as a catalyst for a major countrywide reforestation effort and an education base for a new ecological consciousness.

Martha’s Market: A Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO), which serves as the business hub of BLI and the engine for ongoing economic entrepreneurship of BLI caretakers. Among others, Martha’s market will set up, manage and operate a retreat center and a roadside market (to provide a market for the produce, a rest stop for travelers, and publicity for the BLI vision and programs).

Definition of Opportunity

BLI is a unique initiative, whose programs of learning (Mary's farm), renewing (Lazarus Forest) and sustaining (Martha's Market) offer a unique methodology of integral ecology that responds to twin cries of the cry of the earth and cry of the poor. BLI does not want this model and mission to spread solely around rural Uganda but wants to engage with scholars, students, and researchers across the world who will learn from BLI and bring their own gifts to campus. Therefore, BLI wants to develop an internship program at its campus in Nandere in which US or European students and scholars can live at BLI, both learning about integral ecology and Pope Francis’ Laudato Si as well as providing value to BLI with their presence and skills.

Definition of Success

Ultimately BLI is hoping that the team will help BLI understand the role that immersive education experiences (including internships and fellowship) play at BLI, and explore how these contribute both to participants and to BLI. The team will further delve into one of these immersive experiences (one designed for US students) and help design the program, helping set and manage visitors' preparation, expectations, field experience, reflections, and continuing engagement.

Meet the Team

Final Deliverables

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Rusalia (Spring 2021)

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Rusalia (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

The Rusalia Resource Foundation (RRF) is a registered non-profit legal entity operating in Kisumu, Kenya with a parallel non-profit organization located in South Bend, Indiana.  Founded by Dr. Juliana Otieno, a Kenyan Pediatrician who was in the 2019-2020 academic year Inspired Leadership Program at Notre Dame, RRF works to empower girls in Western Kenyan by providing full high school tuition scholarships and mentorship opportunities, with a special focus on life skills education. As a result of the Foundation’s provided guidance and study, Rusalia Scholars are expected to be “college-ready” and learn the value of education, personal strength, independence, life skills, and service to the community. The project anticipates helping girls develop improved life skills, including to be able to handle social challenges and conflicts in an environment where they are independent of parental guidance. In addition, the program works to improve girls’ knowledge and skills on nutrition and overall healthy development.


Opportunity:

The DAT will help develop a new college-ready program for the girls in their RRF mentorship program. The new program will have four objectives: 1) To engage Rusalia scholars to make them more prepared for university/ college education. 2) To develop skills of college-ready girls on how to relate in society 3) To impart life skills to the girls for college life and beyond. 4) To develop empowered girls and leaders in society.


Definition of Success:

The DAT will help RFF design a skills-building pathway that will help ensure that 100% of the girls in the program will enroll in university/college for further education/training, and have the skills necessary to be successful in their new environment. We look forward to inspiring and concrete examples of the best programs globally for providing expanded mentoring and development opportunities for girls that might inform the new programs for girls that we are developing. We hope to take specific lessons from these international experiences and build them into our own programming.


Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Self-Confidence Activity Guide

Discussion Activity Guide

Student Panel Guide







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ITESM (Spring 2021)

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ITESM (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

Since its founding in 1943, Monterrey Tech has quickly become one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America.  With 36 campuses in Mexico, the Tech has stood out for training leaders through quality education, research and innovative educational models. In August 2019, as an initiative by the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the School of Government and Public Transformation, the Initiative for the Institute of Global Health Equity (IESG in Spanish) emerged. As the first global health institute in Mexico, it seeks to be a leader in training and education of change agents, through research, innovation and knowledge translation, addressing the health inequities in Mexico and the world, based on the belief that health is a fundamental human right.

The Institute of Global Health Equity aspires to partner and work with leading local, national,and global organizations, including Partners In Health (PIH) and its sister organization in Mexico, Compañeros en Salud (CES).  PIH has created an organization to work with community members and university students called PIH Engage to help build a global movement for the right to health,  as well as recruit, train, and equip dedicated teams of volunteer community leaders who mobilize their communities in the fight for health equity. 

The IGHE is launching the first PIH Engage community outside of the United States, and already 15-20 Monterrey Tech students (most medical school students) from Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City have indicated an interest in working together with PIH and CES as “CES Embajadores” (CES Ambassadors) in community building, fundraising, and advocacy on issues of health equity and social justice.


Opportunity:

IGHE is interested in partnering with this DAT and CES Embajadores to explore building new skills and capacities for advocacy on critical health care issues in Mexico. While PIH has built out PIH Engage Advocacy Resources resources in the US, there is nothing similar in Mexico. Our hope is to build these advocacy resources and capacity, sensitive to and adapted for the Mexican context.

 

Definition of Success:

Create and expand significantly the capacity of a student-led force for positively influencing health and equity policy in meaningful ways in Mexico. At the end of this collaboration we would like to have a solid and replicable framework for the rest of the teams that will emerge in the future, with strategies designed and adapted to the Mexican context.

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Advocacy Manuel

Fundraising Guide








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Jumbam Family Foundation (Spring 2021)

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Jumbam Family Foundation (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

The Jumbam Family Foundation (JFF) is a Cameroon-based non-governmental organization that aims to build peace in Cameroon and support communities affected by the Anglophone crisis primarily through women and youth empowerment, education, and healthcare. Recently co-founded by Desmond Jumbam ‘16 and his mother Seh Rebecca Jumbam, JFF emerged out of a personal tragedy and our determination to transform this tragedy into a lasting impact and restore hope for victims of the crisis. Our organization focuses on three core areas: women empowerment, as well as providing education and healthcare services to refugees and internally displaced people from Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

Opportunity:

As a recently launched NGO, JFF is in its ideation process. Our first project which was launched in August of 2020 focused on empowering widows who had lost their husbands (and as a result many of their livelihoods) directly as a result of the crisis. With funds raised through crowdfunding, JFF provided grief counseling, psychosocial support, and small business support to widows. This first workshop helped 18 women to regain their livelihoods. Since then, most have started sustainable businesses including a small poultry and pig farm, rearing and selling of goats, clothing retail, and the production and sale of palm oil. Another similar workshop is planned for April of 2021 to support an additional 20 women. 

Definition of Success:

The Jumbam Family Foundation is delighted to partner with the University of Notre Dame DAT team to explore some evidence-based programs to help women who have been affected by political crises. Ultimately our goal is to end the Anglophone crisis and bring about peace about peace in Cameroon. 


Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

VIEW FINAL PRESENTATION VIDEO

Final Materials for Client:

Evaluatiev Checklist

Entrepreneurship Questionnaire

Pre-Program Checklist








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Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (Spring 2021)

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Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

In the southern Indian state of Telangana, the Telangana Social/ Tribal Welfare Residential Education Institution Societies (the “Society”), a government office dedicated to improving educational outcomes for historically marginalized students through residential education, works to advance the social and educational equity of children by offering them more effective, high-quality and holistic learning and life skills opportunities. Developing a holistic education system that meets the complex needs of these learners requires careful assessment of how both existing and potential activities align within a whole-child development approach (an approach that addresses all aspects of a child’s well-being: physical, cognitive, social and emotional). Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), as the leading organization for this project, will match the society’s vision with the tools and supports it needs to achieve its goals, refine its processes, and sustain them into the future.

In this newly-started project (December 2020 - September 2024), the GC-DWC will support and advise key educators and members of the society, including teachers and principals, on how to develop and integrate a whole-child development framework into program activities. The GC-DWC also will strengthen the society’s capacity to adopt a whole-child development lens in programming by offering best-practice workshops as well as training on how to measure the efficacy and impact of their programs. The inclusive design of the research process strives to ensure the sustainability of project activities long after the project period.


Opportunity:

 Within the context of Project Sampoorna, there is opportunity to explore, in detail, ways in which gender impacts student retention in India and more specifically in Society Residential schools in Telangana. Early marriage often results in girls having to leave school early, and boys often drop out early to support income needs for their families. As the GC-DWC begins its work with the Society, a detailed look at how gender impacts education programming and how to improve retention rates within Residential schools throughout Project Sampoorna is essential. 

 

Definition of Success:

  • Display of a collaborative relationship with the Society & the GC-DWC

  • A deep understanding of gender issues in education in India, with a specific grasp of Society programming and the Project Sampoorna approach. 

  • A clear & useful proposal for programming solutions to this need

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

Handout



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Vía Educación (Spring 2021)

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Vía Educación (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. The organization’s main objective is to implement best practices and share knowledge related to quality education and social transformation from an interdisciplinary and systemic perspective. It has a professional team of more than 40 collaborators in seven cities of the country, committed to equal opportunities for quality education, the development of communities and families, human rights, respect for the dignity of people and confidence in their transformation potential.  Since its beginnings, the organization has placed a strong focus on research and the evaluation of its programs. This year, the Monitoring, Learning & Evaluation team is transitioning and expanding into a laboratory of social innovation. Among other things, the lab will focus on designing innovations and generating evidence to inform and address social and educational challenges. 

Opportunity:

 Vía Educación seeks to collaborate with the DAT Team in carrying out a comparative study of the educational context and indicators in the two Mexican states of Nuevo León and Yucatán. Some of the questions to explore are:  (1) What are the challenges that the education systems in these states are facing/will face because of the school closures to prevent the spread of COVID-19? and (2) What are some actions and innovations that may help overcome these challenges? Thus, Vía Educación would like the DAT team to contribute to these by providing initial inputs to deepen the understanding of the context in such states and to have a basis to design innovations that respond to their educational needs.

 

Definition of Success:

Working with the Notre Dame DAT, Vía hopes to be inspired to design and implement new responses to the educational opportunities of the five targeted states by having a first analysis of each state and some initial ideas of forward-thinking practices worth exploring.

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

One-Pager

Letter Writing Guidelines

Deportes de Comunidades

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Accompanying the College Admissions Process | Education Bridge (Spring 2021)

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Accompanying the College Admissions Process | Education Bridge (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding.  As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, Greenbelt Academy currently serves 450 students in grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. The Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Opportunity:

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peacebuilding curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for students, and enhancing international partnerships. Education Bridge now wants to establish a mentorship program to connect ND student mentors with Greenbelt Academy students. The goal of this program would be to guide and assist Greenbelt Academy students in applying to opportunities such as the ND Summer Scholars Program, Ashinaga Africa Initiative, Yale Young African Scholars, African Leadership Academy, among other programs. 

 

Definition of Success:

The development and implementation of a sustainable mentorship program that will assist/advise 20-30 Greenbelt Academy students in applying to 3 opportunities each on an annual basis. Systems should be implemented to make the mentorship process efficient and effective, including a database of opportunities for students and mentors to refer to, communication templates between the mentor and student, templates for individualized application schedules, as well as other materials that the DAT team deems useful. 

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables:

Final Presentation

Mentorship Program Framework





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PGSSC (Fall 2020)

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PGSSC (Fall 2020)

Project Background:

The Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) is a collaborative effort between the Harvard teaching hospitals, Harvard Medical School/ Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Partners In Health (PIH). This organization emerges from work of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, which was led by Dr. John Meara at Harvard Medical School (Dr. Mearas is a 1986 ND graduate). PGSSC’s objective is to advocate for Universal access to safe, affordable surgical, obstetric, and anesthesia care when needed. The strategy is two-fold: 1) Global Surgical Systems Strengthening through Research, Advocacy, and Implementation Science, using the Frameworks developed as part of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, and 2) Developing Leaders in Global Surgical and Health Systems through Research, Advocacy, and Care Delivery. PGSSC's research focuses on surgical and health systems strengthening that is measurable, transparent, and locally-driven. Click here for the Strategic Plan that focuses on implementation science, research, advocacy, and training leaders.

Opportunity:

The Pacific Community (SPC) and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) are working with the PGSSC to support the development of National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plans (NSOAPs), as outlined at the 2019 Pacific Health Ministers Meeting and in alignment with the regional vision of the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO). For this past year, an i-Lab team and other colleagues have been working with PGSSC to help do baseline research on a series of Pacific Islands (Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Palau, and Vanuatu) to help prepare to build out NSOAPs for each of the islands. One of the products of their work is to synthesize collected data and help produce the NSOAPs. An important part of the process is to work with and share all the information gathered with key stakeholders, through a series of stakeholder meetings, as part of the process of building out the NSOAP.

PGSSC is interested in developing a standard process and templates for developing the stakeholder meetings across the work that they have done to date in more than a dozen countries, with particular focus on the on-going work in the Pacific Islands.  This DAT may also assist the i-Lab and PGSSC teams in finishing the situational analysis in several countries (particularly in Palau) and/or specific research in preparation for the stakeholder meeting.

Definition of Success:

The development of research to support a set of the models for the most effective pathways for engaging stakeholders and carrying out the stakeholder meetings, that will lead to the development of a model template for conducting stakeholder analysis that both provides concrete structure and advice, while also allowing flexibility to adapt to different situations. 

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables


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Vía Educación (Fall 2020)

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Vía Educación (Fall 2020)

Project Background:

Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. Vía Educación implements Learning Communities, a project whose model is founded on 30+ years of research and practice by the Community of Research on Excellence for All (“CREA”) at the University of Barcelona. The model involves “implementing ‘Successful Educational Actions’ (SEAs) characterized by reorganizing the available resources in the school and the community to support all pupils’ academic achievement” (Flecha, Soler, 2013).  The model is implemented internationally through different implementing partners in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Perú, among others. Vía Educación is the implementing partner in Mexico, working with nearly 200 public elementary and middle schools across 8 states in Mexico as of July 2019.

Opportunity:

Via is interested in expanding its work in citizenship education, and would like the team to review mechanisms for citizenship education in non-formal spaces around the world.  We are developing a collaboration with a local Mexican organization focused on civic participation in neighborhoods to broaden the reach of our community programs. It would be great to have a review of what other organizations are doing, their theory of change, a comparison among the different initiatives, innovatives and high-impact practices and implementations, and some insights on how it could be adapted to Mexico. DAT students will have support from Via not only in providing information and responding to questions, but also in connecting the team with stakeholders for interviews and surveys, etc.

Definition of Success:

Working with the Notre Dame DAT, VIA hopes to be inspired to expand its work on citizen education, identifying best practices both globally and in Mexico in citizenship education as well as presenting the ideas in ways that are engaging with and attractive to policymakers and administrators.

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverable

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Rusalia Resource Foundation (Fall 2020)

Rusalia Resource Foundation (Fall 2020)

Project Background:

The Rusalia Resource Foundation (RRF) is a new non-profit legal entity operating in Kisumu, Kenya with a parallel non-profit organization located in South Bend, Indiana.  Founded by Dr. Juliana Otieno, a Kenyan Pediatrician who was in the 2019-2020 Inspired Leadership Program at Notre Dame, RRF works to empower West Kenyan girls by providing full high school tuition scholarships and mentorship opportunities, with a special focus on life skills education. As a result of Foundation provided guidance and study, Rusalia Scholars are hoped to be “college-ready” and learn the value of education, personal strength, independence, and service to the community.

The purposes of RRF are: 1) To provide opportunity and create an enabling environment for qualified girls to become self-actualized adults by providing access to an integrated support system including education, growth opportunities, values and mentorship that would otherwise not be available due to the circumstances of their families; 2) To provide scholarships that will fund the expenses of girls that are academically eligible to attend high school and improve the transition to higher learning institutions such as community, national colleges and universities; and,  3) To enrich the academic experience of Rusalia scholars through mentoring and training from professionals and others with special expertise, such as health advocacy, particularly in preventive medicine protocols, and environmental management. The girl child in the target area in Kisumu, Kenya is at risk given the poor living conditions in most rural homes and the hostile environment. Educational opportunities are not the same for girls and boys. This comes from the cultural preference of taking boys to school as opposed to girls, with a combination of factors such as poverty, diseases, sexual and labor exploitation putting girls, particularly at risk. This has led to a high school dropout (50%) rate and teenage pregnancies. The role of mentoring of the girls is crucial.

Opportunity:

The importance of mentoring the young (or less experienced) by an older (senior), more experienced or knowledgeable person is well known and appreciated as it fosters learning, communication, and personal development opportunities. This mentoring process will enhance confidence, life skills, and build self-esteem.  The question we want this DAT to explore is how might we provide effective mentorship opportunities to high school girls in low socioeconomic areas to achieve 80% or higher high school completion rates and be the change agents for their community? Virtual and face to face mentoring may be applicable. We also want to explore the roles of peer mentoring, task-focused versus relationship-based mentoring, and short vs long term mentoring. 

Definition of Success:

We look forward to inspiring and concrete examples of the best programs globally for providing expanded mentoring and development opportunities for girls that might inform the new programs for girls that we are developing. We hope to take specific lessons from these international experiences and build them into our own programming, including for helping set expectations for both the girls and mentors.

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverable

Yazidi Homeland (Fall 2020)

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Yazidi Homeland (Fall 2020)

Project Background:

The genocide committed by the Islamic State has left Yazidis, a historically- persecuted ethnoreligious minority, largely displaced from their ancestral homeland in the Nineveh governorate of Iraq. Roughly 300,000 Yazidis now live in or around Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. They are subject to ongoing rights abuse, exposed to floods, fires and extreme weather and live in squalid conditions: there is insufficient physical security, housing, health care and no reliable access to clean water, food, schools and jobs. Roughly 100,000 Yazidis have gained asylum in foreign countries, but the numbers receiving asylum have shrunk significantly due to populist backlash against immigrants and refugees (the United States, for example, accepted only twenty Yazidi refugees in 2019). Some Yazidis may settle permanently in Kurdistan, but the KRG has neither the will nor the means to accommodate large-scale integration of Shingali Yazidis into the housing and labor market. Many feel that the pressure to identify as “Kurds” makes Yazidis culturally invisible, perpetuating the genocide against them. Approximately 60,000 returned to Northern Shingal and Shingal City prior to June 2020, but the infrastructure is largely destroyed and many of these people are living either in tents on the mountain or in houses that do not belong to them. Nearly everyone is dependent on humanitarian aid, apart from those who are employed by international agencies, NGOs, or local security forces. The capacity for the full population to resettle in the North does not exist. Since June 2020, a growing number of Yazidis (roughly 15,000 over six weeks), have returned to Shingal, including Southern Shingal. Facilitating sustainable resettlement in the South is particularly necessary because, prior to the genocidal attacks by ISIS, Southern Shingal was home to the majority of Yazidis and during the years of ISIS occupation, it was much more seriously damaged than the North. The Federal Government from Baghdad lacks the political will and funding to enable a large-scale return (Iraq faces a budget shortfall of billions of dollars due to Covid-19). The interests and needs of Yazidis are consistently neglected due to their small population, a lack of political influence, and a history of systemic discrimination and oppression. The Iraqi government has done very little to address basic infrastructure needs, including landmine clearance, provision of electricity and water, and rebuilding of roads, hospitals, and schools. Some NGOs, particularly Nadia’s Initiative (led by Yazidi recipient of Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad) have concentrated on solutions that address primarily the needs of those who were taken into captivity by ISIS and their families. Such projects include furnishing houses with appliances, giving grants to women looking to start small businesses, and equipping female-led households with basic equipment to farm small plots of land. Nadia’s Initiative has demonstrated progress by building several schools, helping to rebuild the local hospital, and demining more than a million meters of land.

Opportunity:

There is a need to accelerate and augment Nadia’s Initiative by expanding support to reach other parts of the community. We propose facilitating the return of a number of Yazidis to the South of Shingal; in particular, to ancestral villages at the base of Shingal Mountain, where they lived prior to forced removal by Saddam Hussein’s regime. We focus on Yazidis who already have rights to the land they are returning to, who, prior to 2014, were already skilled builders, farmers, and community leaders and who are willing to contribute to the rebuilding of Shingal. Providing them with the equipment and materials that allow them to resettle and rehabilitate their own land through regenerative farming practice will enable them not only to make a livelihood for themselves but to rebuild roads and basic infrastructure, address needs such as water, food and electricity shortages, rebuild shrines, and provide sustainable work opportunities with a positive impact on the broader community.

Definition of Success:

We would like students to create a list of potential partners in each area listed above, including a description of each partner, a point of first contact, and a rationale as to why these particular entities are likely to support this work. In addition, we would like students to reframe the general narrative set out in the proposal, in ways that make plain how the work we are doing aligns in a special way with the interests and objectives of these fields.

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverables

Regenerate Shingal Yazidi DAT Deliverable by DAT on Scribd



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Marketing & Donor Communication | Education Bridge (Fall 2020)

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Marketing & Donor Communication | Education Bridge (Fall 2020)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding. As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, the Greenbelt Academy currently serves over 400 students in grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. The Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Opportunity:

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peacebuilding curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for girls, and enhancing international partnerships. Education Bridge now wants to consolidate some of this work, and help map opportunities for future development, particularly in ways that raise the profile of their work internationally with key stakeholders, as well as develop a communication plan for long-term sustainability.

Definition of Success:

The development of a good system for managing regular stakeholder communication (including to the network of people who are currently committed to supporting the yearly educational costs for one South Sudanese student), with concrete suggestions on a communication strategy that helps build enduring networks and sustainable partnerships that will be relevant for Education Bridge. This could include a better plan for newsletters (possibly using mailchip), fundraising, and storytelling

Meet the Team:

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Final Deliverable

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Past Development Advisory Team Review (Spring 2020)

Past Development Advisory Team Review (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

A major component of both International Development in Practice I & II revolves around the Development Advisory Teams (DATs), where teams of students work long-distance with an international development organization client that has identified a specific problem or opportunity. As part of this client-based project, students work with a specific organization and provide recommendations responding to questions or issues identified by their client organization. Some students have had the opportunity to travel and work with their organization in the field or present their final recommendations in person to their client organization. Former ND students from the class have become DAT clients as well. Since the fall 2013, students have worked on 66 Development Advisory Teams with 36 different organizations, in 20 counties. 

Definition of Opportunity:

While organizations are given the opportunity immediately after the DAT project to evaluate the deliverable the students have produced, there has never been any longer term analysis of the impact of the DAT projects on the problem, the organization or the students involved. This project will allow a DAT to use a mixed methods approach to engage the partner organizations and ND graduates to assess longer term implications and impact of this work. 

What does success look like? 

It is hoped that the final project will effectively assess the longer-term impact on DAT approach on the problems addressed, the organizational implications, and impact on students.  It is meant to be forward looking in assessing what has worked well in this DAT process, and what can be improved in the future. Ideally, this review might also lead to a publication about the approach, pedagogy, and/or impact of this kind of work.  

Meet the Team:

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Vía Educación (Spring 2020)

Vía Educación (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. Vía Educación implements Learning Communities, a project whose model is founded on 30+ years of research and practice by the Community of Research on Excellence for All (“CREA”) at the University of Barcelona. The model involves “implementing ‘Successful Educational Actions’ (SEAs) characterized by reorganizing the available resources in the school and the community to support all pupils’ academic achievement” (Flecha, Soler, 2013).  The model is implemented internationally through different implementing partners in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Perú, among others. Vía Educación is the implementing partner in Mexico, working with nearly 200 public elementary and middle schools across 8 states in Mexico as of July 2019.

Definition of Opportunity:

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team at Vía Educación would like to understand the link between these programs and academic achievement. Are the schools involved in this program scoring higher on standardized test scores than they did before they were implementing the program? While the model’s theoretical background asserts that schools implementing SEAs improve their academic achievement, we would like to explore this relationship in practice. An important thing to keep in mind is that the implementation in the 200 schools in Mexico is not homogenous across all schools - rather, schools choose which of the 7 SEAs they want to incorporate into their school. 

What does success look like? 

Success for us would look like a clearer picture of the relationship (with evidence) between the program and academic achievement, that we could use to support the theoretical arguments behind this program. This project is an opportunity to collaborate with a successful educational program as well as an opportunity to put in practice your data analysis abilities (mostly quantitative) to empirically demonstrate the relationship between the program and academic achievement.

Meet the Team:

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Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (Spring 2020)

Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

All over the world, people are experiencing the effects of climate change in a variety of ways. Droughts, extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and wildfires are some of the most obvious effects. Climate change has been linked to increased famine, joblessness, conflict, and displacement. These effects are particularly apparent in poor, rural communities. These result in equally significant strains on the social bonds in these communities. Under these accelerating pressures, cultures and communities that have successfully overcome challenges for generations are suddenly in danger of breaking down. 

The Joint Learning Initiative on Faith & Local Communities is an international collaboration across academia, practice, and policy that convenes people to discuss research and evidence about the role of religions in humanitarian and development work. The collaboration, founded in 2012, serves as an open access knowledge-sharing platform and research network for all sectors and organizations of all backgrounds. Their work is divided topically into the following hubs: Anti-Trafficing & Modern Slavery, Ending Violence against Children, Gender-Based Violence, and Refugees. They are exploring the opportunity of creating a new Learning Hub around climate change. There is extensive research documenting these significant negative impacts on communities worldwide. The Joint Learning Initiative (JLI) is trying to understand how to better support these communities and build the assets available to counter these impacts. This project will partner with the Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD), an international non-profit and member of JLI, that collaborates with church partners and local organizations on development programs and has been actively engaged in the climate discussions at JLI.

Definition of Opportunity:

JLI is interested in producing a study, using Ghana and Sri Lanka as comparative cases, to understand how stakeholders at multiple scales - from communities and organizations to individual leaders and community members - are coming together to adapt to these stressors. These adaptations may include migration in and out of rural communities, which may enhance resilience while at the same time creating new stresses. An understanding of how these adaptations operate within local perceptions, practices, history, norms, and beliefs will be essential to identifying responses that have the potential to be sustained. JLI has a particular interest in understanding the current and potential role of faith communities (conceptualized broadly to include faith-based NGOs, clergy, people of faith, etc) in protecting and strengthening the social bonds affected by climate change.

What does success look like? 

It would be useful to have a 10-15 page final briefing paper on the findings, with a one-page executive summary, that can be shared with the learning hub and provide the foundation for future work. We are also interested in making further connections with academics and faith-based organizations in the case study countries, which could be an outcome of the case study process.

Meet the Team:

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Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Spring 2020)

Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

The ​Tecnológico de Monterrey​ ​and its network of campuses throughout Mexico is committed to providing quality education, world-class research, and building innovative models for the benefit of society. With the leadership of ​ITESM’s School of Medicine and the School of Government​, the University is building a new interdisciplinary institute for global health training and research with strong links to practice. The fall 2018 DAT helped develop some of the foundational ideas for the new Institute for Global Health Equity (IESG).

The IESG aims to be a global center of excellence that generates health through training, research, innovation and knowledge translation, addressing in an interdisciplinary way the existing inequities in Mexico and the world, based on health as a human right. The IESG aspires to lead in training, research, implementation and public policy development in Global Health and Social Medicine in Latin America, through the creation of integral solutions to address social factors and strengthen health systems with an intersectoral approach, with a preferential option for poor and vulnerable populations.

Definition of Opportunity:

In August 2019, ITESM’s IESG created a partnership with Partner In Health’s sister organization, ​Compañeros en Salud​ in Chiapas, Mexico and the International Center for Social Innovation of Tec de Monterrey (Centro Internacional de Inovación Social, CIIS in Spanish) to generate collaborative projects. Compañeros en Salud works in rural Chiapas Mexico to provide quality health care to underserved communities and hopes to serve as an inspiring model to train and accompany health professionals and community health workers, and to deliver quality health care in low resource settings in Mexico and elsewhere. ​The International Center for Social Innovation (CIIS) is a world-class center that offers an ecosystem apt for social innovation. The CIIS focuses on research and the generation and validation of innovative solutions to social problems. Located in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, every year, during the summer and winter,  the CIIS receives dozens of students from various Tec campuses to work on the resolution of social problems in Chiapas communities. For a 5-week period, the students take various classes and work to generate solutions to social problems in a community. CIIS follows up on the work until the best solutions get implemented. IESG and PIH​ have deep ties to Notre Dame, and both IESG and PIH have served as clients on DAT projects in the past. 

In late November-early December 2019, IESG, CIIS, and CES offered the first-ever immersive global health course in rural Chiapas to Tec students from any discipline at any campus. The five-weeks course was aimed to initiate long-term partnerships with local communities where CES worked and collaboratively address local social issues while training Tec students in the philosophies of accompaniment, program implementation, and global health. Professors, administrators, and communities were excited to see this program unfold. After three weeks of advertising, however, the course offer had to be withdrawn due to lack of interest expressed -- only three students registered to the course.

What does success look like? 

  1. That IESG, CIIS, and CES are able to use the lessons and recommendations by the Development Advisory Team to successfully attract talented students interested both in learning about global health and in making contributions to the 2020 summer immersive course in global health. 

  2. That after using the partnership framework during the immersive experience in rural communities in Chiapas, a diverse group of stakeholders is satisfied by the experience and work and we can replicate and expand the model in the future. Such stakeholders include people in the villages, CES staff, students, CIIS and IESG administrators, and Tec professors.

Meet the Team:

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Strategic Frameworks for Peacebuilding | Education Bridge (Spring 2020)

Strategic Frameworks for Peacebuilding | Education Bridge (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peace building.  As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, the Greenbelt Academy currently serves over 400 students in grades 9-12. The Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Definition of Opportunity:

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peace building curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for girls, and enhancing international partnerships. Education Bridge now wants to consolidate some of this work, and help map opportunities for future development, particularly in ways that raise the profile of their work internationally as well as develop a plan for long-term sustainability. 

What does success look like? 

The development of a good model, with concrete suggestions on building networks and sustainable partnerships that will be relevant for Education Bridge, as well as concrete proposals that Education Bridge can utilize and implement as part of its strategic planning process to become a more dynamic and sustainable organization.

Meet the Team:

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 - VIA Educacion (Fall 2019)

- VIA Educacion (Fall 2019)

Project Background:

 Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. 

Vía Educación developed a methodology for social transformation based on building problem-solving capacities on communities of youth and adults. The methodology aims to increase individual and collective self-efficacy among community members; develop civic competencies through solving relevant community needs; and strengthen social capital. This methodology is the backbone of the organization and is applied in a variety of programs and settings in Mexico. 

Definition of Opportunity:

With that in mind, the Investigation and Evaluation team at Vía Educación would like to explore the link between these acquired skills (teamwork, democratic and citizenship participation, conflict resolution, assertive communication, collective organization skills, among others) and mobility (social, educational, economic). An emerging body of literature suggests that civic engagement may affect peoples’ wellbeing. Are our participants expanding their opportunities in life? The team would like to further learn about this, and even possibly incorporate a tool we could apply with our alumni network and current participants to test this potential relationship. 


What does success look like? 

Success for us would look like a clearer picture of the relationship between civic participation skills and mobility (e.g. a couple of pages concisely stating what literature has to say about this relationship as well as the mechanisms behind it – that is, if there is a positive relationship, how do civic participation skills contribute to expanding an individual’s opportunities in life?). We also would appreciate a concrete tool that we could use to test in the field to measure this relationship in a variety of settings (e.g. urban, indigenous, marginalized, rural communities, etc.) and populations (from students in high school to teachers and authorities in Mexico’s public school system as well as neighborhood community members).

Meet the Team: