In May 2010, the students in the 2010 practicum course organized a fundraiser to support the newly established community organization Fundación Los Platanitos (FUMPLA). The students met their goal of raising $1500 to cover the cost of a capacity building course. The 12-week course was taught by community educators of Centro Juan Montalvo, now Centro Bonó, in Santo Domingo.
Centro Bonó works in four strategic areas: 1) to strengthen social movements, 2) to accompany vulnerable and excluded populations, 3) to build collective capacity and encourage critical thought, and 4) to strengthen organizations and institutional sustainability. Learn more about Centro Bonó here.
Solange Muñoz and Shawn M. Strange, students who participated in the first iteration of the practicum course wrote about what cannot be learned in the classroom for the LLILAS annual publication Portal.
Solange and Shawn describe the particular challenges and rewards of participatory mapping and planning. Read the full article here.
Portal, which debuted in 2006, is an annual publication of LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, designed to reflect the broad reach of LLILAS Benson as a collaborative partnership in Latin American area studies and scholarly resources and collections. In addition to highlighting the many projects and people affiliated with LLILAS Benson, Portal also features in-depth articles by faculty, students, and staff on issues of interest. Submissions by students and faculty are welcomed and encouraged. Check out additional issues of Portalhere.
In March of 2013, we were pleased to welcome another project partner from Santo Domingo to the School of Architecture. Gabriel Baez, who was the planning director of Santo Domingo Norte when this initiative started, spoke at City Forum about the decentralization of governance in the Dominican Republic.Thank you for the visit, Gabriel!
City Forum is a planning and urban issues speaker series hosted by the Community and Regional Planning Program (CRP) at the University of Texas at Austin. The series is intended to broaden the curriculum in the CRP program by presenting the experiences, perspectives, and insights of scholars, community leaders, practicing planners, and policy makers who engage in timely issues. Learn more about past and future City Forum presentations by visiting the UTSOA website.
In May 2013, project partner Centro de Investigación y Acompañamiento a Mujeres y Familia (CIAMF) began a series of capacity building workshops in order to support Mujeres Unidas. The workshops are designed to help guide Mujeres Unidas’ continued development and growth. This picture is from a workshop dedicated to organizational structure held on November 23, 2013, in preparation for the relaunch of the vermicomposting project in January 2014.
Members of Mujeres Unidas work with CIAMF representatives to develop strategy documents to support the organization’s continued growth.A sign announcing the organizational development workshop CIAMF facilitated for Mujeres Unidas.
Mujeres Unidas had the opportunity to attend organic materials fair sponsored by the National Botanical Garden in Santo Domingo in April of 2015. Vendors at the fair showcased a variety of organic and recycled products. The fair was a chance for the members of Mujeres Unidas to network with other community organizations that work in the natural and organic products space. It was also a chance to gain ideas regarding how the organic fertilizer produced as a result of the community composting project in Los Platanitos could be marketed and sold more widely . The U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, James Brewster, also attended the fair, and members of Mujeres Unidas were able to take a picture with him.
A member of Mujeres Unidas presents the US Ambassador with a brochure detailing the organization’s work.
An initiative of the University of Texas School of Architecture to address infrastructure challenges in informal settlements
