When the International Youth Foundation (IYF)saw an opportunity to get multinational corporations more deeply engaged in improving the lives of children and youth in Mexico, it began searching for an experienced local partner that could bridge the gap between corporate social responsibility and communities in need. With companies such as Nokia, Lucent, Cisco and General Electric on board, IYF needed to find a Mexican nonprofit institution with the know-how and connections to channel philanthropic resources to communities throughout the country, wherever these corporations had a local presence.
Today, the collaboration between IYF and its Mexican partner, the Vamos Foundation, has resulted in a range of youth-focused projects being established across Mexico, from video production programs to drop-in computer learning centers. Through their alliance, IYF is advancing its mission to improve the lives of young people around the world; the business sector has a reliable conduit for targeting their corporate social responsibility; and Vamos Foundation is mobilizing resources for one of the most disadvantaged sectors of Mexican society. "The reputation and staff of the Vamos Foundation give us strength in the countr y, because of their credibility, integrity and sound programs," said Eliana Vera, IYF regional director for Latin America. "As a partner for IYF, Vamos has a pool of associates that are among the best known in their NGO fields. It was this network that impressed us and said to us that Vamos had great outreach."
Building a Foundation for Change
The ability of Vamos to forge a far-reaching network of local institutions dedicated to social justice and change owes much to the circumstances of its founding. Vamos was created in 1996 by 60 seasoned civil society leaders coming together to seek more concerted action to improve living conditions for all Mexicans and promote a more participatory society. "Today, there are foundations of all kinds in Mexico; but then, there was not a foundation built from the society," said Javier Vargas, a co-founder of Vamos and president of its board. "We understood the need to address the historical struggle economically, through an end to the vicious circle of poverty; politically, by developing a society of rights; and socially, by developing culture as our most important endowment. This is why Vamos was so strongly accepted by the people." Indeed, when Vamos was launched at Mexico City's National Auditorium, 10,000 people turned out. Vamos used its widely publicized inaugural event to raise awareness about the need to give time and energy to working with others.
The mission of the Vamos Foundation is to mobilize and generate resources to strengthen initiatives that contribute to the building of social justice, particularly among segments of society that historically have been most excluded -- indigenous communities, women and children. Widely known for his work in the struggle for indigenous rights in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, Javier Vargas guides Vamos with a personal commitment to social justice that is deep and abiding. "When it comes to credentials, my highest PhD is rooted in Chiapas, in the struggle for justice, dignity and values of community -- in the knowledge gained from the people," said Vargas.
In pursuit of its mission of social justice, the foundation employs a combination of strategies: grant and loan support to community-based initiatives; capacity building for civil society organizations; and efforts to achieve greater collaboration between civil society, business and government.
Creating Linkages to Address Social Needs
As its partnership with IYF illustrates, Vamos is increasingly known as a key intermediary for a wide range of institutions that want to have an impact on poverty at the community level in Mexico. The foundation has established strategic alliances with more than 20 Mexican and international corporations, many focusing on innovative programs for children and youth.
With almost a third of Mexico's population under the age of 15, and more than a third living in poverty, ensuring that young people get the support and skills they need to feel they are a part of society is a shared goal for Vamos and many of its partners in the business community. With their support, Vamos is creating a local infrastructure of organizations that can address the needs of children.
This process of building trust between sectors that had little interaction is an important step in bridging the historical divide between the business and nonprofit communities, according to David Winder, Director of Country Operations & Global Program Services at Synergos. Winder, who met Javier Vargas during the earthquake relief and reconstruction effort in Mexico in 1985, was among the first members of Vamos' advisory committee, and the relationship between Synergos and Vamos subsequently evolved into an institutional partnership. "Javier has realized that much can be gained by joining hands with the corporate sector, helping them to place their funds more effectively to reduce poverty. With Vamos, they develop support programs that have an impact," said Shari Turitz, Synergos' Director of Strengthening Bridging Organizations.
As the Mexican coordinator of Nokia and IYF's global Make a Connection program, for example, Vamos has developed projects with community-based organizations in Mexico City, Puebla, and the border city of Reynosa that instill social leadership and life skills in young people using video production as an educational tool. Known locally as ¡Cámara! Ahí Nos Vemos, the program relies on older youth to teach their younger peers how to identify and document issues in their communities. Technology also plays a role in the Computer Clubhouse, a global initiative of Intel that Vamos adapts locally for low-income children in Mexico City and Guadalajara. These after-school drop-in centers give young people from 10 to 18 years of age a chance to build and share technical knowledge in a safe and fun environment through projects of their own choosing. Several thousand youths in Mexico are now playing a leadership role in their communities as a result of creative alliances such as these, according to Vargas. "Youth and children, women, and indigenous cultures are the emerging new agents of social change. They need to know what kind of capacities they have in hand," he added.
Bridging Sectors to Achieve Common Goals
Like many other civil society-led foundations that are both operating and grantmaking, Vamos Foundation has had to be very creative in mobilizing resources. "Javier had the vision to see the mutual advantage to be gained by partnering with international organizations and global networks such as IYF, Oxfam and Synergos," said Winder, who was instrumental in forging links with the foundation that made Synergos its first international partner.
For his part, Vargas noted that "what Vamos has received from Synergos is the understanding that we could bridge society. To know how to bridge within society is one of the most important lessons we have learned. Synergos also introduced us to other worlds," such as corporations and individual philanthropists from around the globe, he added. The direct support Synergos provided has taken many forms, from outreach to international funders that led to Vamos partnering with groups like IYF and the Daniele Agostino Foundation. Synergos has also helped Vamos with board and staff development and endowment building through workshops and technical assignments by our staff and Senior Fellows from Brazil, Ecuador, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
The benefits have been reciprocal. We share lessons learned from Vamos through publications, such as the Foundation Building Sourcebook, and our global peer learning network of foundation leaders, the Senior Fellows. As a founding member of the Senior Fel lows network, Vargas has pushed to keep the social justice agenda front and center. Vamos Foundation has also begun a dialogue with Mexican members of the Global Philanthropists Circle -- a group of engaged and strategic donors convened by Synergos -- about underlying societal problems in their country and how they can work together to address them.
Through these efforts Vamos, like Synergos, is creating new spaces where civil society, government, and the corporate sector can meet to discuss ways of collaborating on a social development agenda. While Vamos works one-on-one to connect resources to needs, it also sees forums such as its annual meeting as a way of not only informing the public of its activities but also encouraging debate on strategies for community empowerment.
"Javier invites partners from a variety of sectors to the annual meeting, places them on the same stage and says, 'If we all work together, we can all be more successful than working separately,'" said Winder. This was the case at the 2003 annual meeting, which convened participants as varied as Nobel Prize nominee Don Samuel Ruíz, Bishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas; Oxfam director Jeremy Hobbs; David Atkinson of the Inter-American Development Bank, and Kimmo Lipponen, an executive of Nokia.
After more than 40 years in the social justice movement, Vargas has concluded that such dialogue is key to addressing the inequities that divide contemporary society. Working desde y con la gente -- from and with the people -- Vamos is constructing dynamic new social spaces where the lessons learned from that dialogue can be put into practice for the benefit of communities across Mexico.