Projects in Costa Rica

Community Economic Development

Community Economic Development (CED) seeks to sustain economic growth and improve the standard of living for families and communities.

Our goal is: rural communities are empowered to create new economic growth and opportunities.

Volunteers collaborate with Costa Rican partners on the following grassroots-level activity:

• Community analysis to develop work plans, addressing priority issues and leveraging local resources.
• Co-plan and co-facilitate a project design and management (PDM) workshop for organization members and stakeholders and guide organization members and stakeholders to use PDM to design, manage, and evaluate a project.
• Plan and facilitate entrepreneurship and basic business skills training.
• Support youth teams in a small business simulation.
• Co-train and guide individuals to acquire and develop digital literacy skills.

Education

The English Education (ED) project goal in Costa Rica aims to help students attain English language communication skills and the cultural understanding necessary to access academic and/or professional opportunities. In a co-planning and co-teaching model, ED Volunteers help:

Teachers

• Strengthen their capacity to use general teaching and English language teaching skills
• Increase their English proficiency (as measured through use of classroom procedural English)

Students

• Increase their achievement in English

Community Members

• Increase their achievement in English skills

How ED Volunteers and the community make an impact together:

• Co-plan and co-teach regular English classes in the school
• Provide informal English language support for teachers and school staff
• Prepare students for spelling bees and English festivals
• Facilitate conversation clubs and tutoring sessions for students
• Design, adapt, and pilot learning materials
• Participate in teacher conferences or workshops

Volunteers may also work on additional projects that meet the community’s interests and priorities. They may include designing and delivering formal and informal English classes for community members of varied ages, coordinating bilingual community service activities, organizing summer English camps and bilingual recreational activities, developing materials at a national level for English teaching and assessment, and supporting English language teacher training initiatives.

Youth in Development

Youth Development (YD) seeks to equip youth to be healthy, productive and active citizens by engaging them and their communities in activities that incorporate a Positive Youth Development approach. Our objectives:

• Strengthen youth well-being
• Strengthen opportunities for youth community engagement
• Strengthen youth support systems

To accomplish these goals, Volunteers collaborate with Costa Rican partners on the following:

• Complete a community analysis on youth development to co-design work plans with partners, addressing priority issues and leveraging local resources
• Facilitate workshops or curriculum on life skills (self-concept, social and communication skills, problem-solving, and decision making) within existing Ministry of Education programs, during class-time, and/or in collaboration with other organizations or community groups.
• Support community engagement programs for youth, such as facilitating service projects with students in the school system, and/or engaging youth in volunteering on diverse topics, such as environment, education, female empowerment, youth well-being, etc.
• Design and lead youth clubs focused on sports and arts; girls' and boys' clubs; youth groups; guides and scouts, etc.
• Co-lead activities that promote female empowerment, covering on topics such as gender socialization, roles, barriers, girls' empowerment, positive masculinities, and violence prevention.
• Co-facilitate positive youth development activities with school counselors, teachers, community leaders, youth leaders, or other organizations in the community/region.
• Co-facilitate activities that promote positive interactions within the family, such as sports, family recreation days, workshops, etc.