Access to and engagement of community networks including grassroot organizations, community leaders as key to development of sustainable community activities

• In Event: Inclusive and Community Participatory approaches for Early Childhood Programming in crisis and conflict affected settings

Proposal

Community engagement means a higher level of social cohesion (mutual trust between neighbors and common values) and (informal) social control and collective efficacy (Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000). To create durable and sustainable programming and enable access to the most marginalized of communities, it was essential for the IRC to establish partnerships with stakeholders embedded in communities, stakeholders who had established trust with caregivers, children, and youth via variety of community spaces. The heightened insecurity in areas of Medellin, Bogota and Cali meant communities had a vested interest in ensuring that their children were attending spaces especially play spaces that were safe. The pandemic had reverberating consequences on access to play and learning spaces and content for targeted communities. Through organizations such as AEIOTU and la Otra Juventud, the IRC was able to 1. Validate needs and priorities identified 2. Increase access and reach more vulnerable communities and 3. Establish pathways for community engagement via play-based approaches in jujuegalo.

Author

• Maria Adelaida Lopez, aeioTU