The Active Welfare Observatory is developed in Brazil by Rio de Janeiro Federal University by DESIS, Service Design and Social Innovation Group
affiliated to the Graduate School and Research in Engineering Institute (COPPE).

A self-organized recruitment agency

Brazil, Rio de Janeiro- RJ
By: Favela da Rocinha Community

Slogan_
Directly contacting potential clients, that usually do not trust in people from favela

Solution_
The solution take place in Rocinha, the biggest favela in Rio de Janeiro. It works just as an recruitment agency filling over temporary, contract and permanent positions. The key innovation is that this solution is self-organized by the favela inhabitants, and its main objective is to directly contact potential clients, that usually do not trust in people from favela (usually considered as criminals by medium-class people). The solution is targeted to create trust and it works bringing closer social classes, generating incoming and work without intermediation support and relieving social tension.

More info_
[here]

A temporary family

Brazil, Rio de Janeiro- RJ
By: Rio de Janeiro´s city hall and families

Slogan_
Take care of children (victims of violence) at your own home, receiving an income.

Solution_
Rio de Janeiro municipality have developed this programme to create a familiar environment to temporarily receive children and adolescents (until 18 years old) victims of home violence. The candidate families are evaluated and, if approved, they pass through a training programme (single people can also participate). The families are supported and monitored by the municipality (social services specialists).

[portughese description]
Desenvolvido pela Secretaria Municipal de Assistência Social da Prefeitura do Rio desde 2000, o Família Acolhedora foi ampliado em 2006. (more…)

By: Viva Rio, favela´s teenagers, schools and people from Rio de Janeiro

Slogan_
Jardineiros do Bairro - Cultivating the City Integration

Solution_
This project has a great impact in function of the favela´s population difficult social reality. The dramatical violence that drugs traffic brings to them seems to preferential attack more children and teenagers.
Everything began in the end of the 90´s in Rio. The Botafogo district public gardens were transformed into a big garbage can. The Viva Rio ONG found a good opportunity to match two problems and transform into a big solution. The initiative Jardineiros do Bairro: “District Gardeners- Cultivating the City Integration” intends to solve the professionalization and the violence problems by teaching the young people from favela Santa Marta in Botafogo a gardener exercise. At the same time, it promotes the integration of people who live in the area. (more…)

By: Santarém poor communities, radio communicators and bishop Dom Tiago Ryan in Santarém, Pará

Slogan_
Rádio Rural de Santarém

Solution_
The Santarém Agricultural Education Radio was established in 1964 in the state of Pará by the bishop Dom Tiago Ryan. In the same period, Dom Tiago brought the Base Education Movement (MEB) experience to construct a social method of teaching how to read and write through the radio. The two instruments (MEB and Agricultural Radio) became a success with the radio programs for teaching adults and kids all over the suburban communities, where the regular schools did not exist. The radio communicators in Santarém planned a strategy using monitors from the communities to help them preparing the material for the radio lessons. The lessons are recorded and followed by the communitarian monitors, using the radio as a social pedagogical instrument.
The Santarém Radio’s rescued the radio’s social paper as an instrument able to develop the critical conscience and to form citizens, (more…)

Social Productive Approach

By: Observatório de Favelas, João Roberto Ripper and young people from favelas, Rio de Janeiro

Slogan_
Escola de Fotógrafos Populares Imagens do Povo
(People’s Images Popular Photograph School)

Solution_
Imagens do Povo (People’s Images) is a center for documentation, search and popular photographers formation, created by the journalist João Roberto Ripper and supported by the Observatório de Favelas in Rio de Janeiro. Ripper is a photojournalist that works to awake the society’s social conscience through his photographs.
The project biggest objective is to place the photograph working for the human rights through the register of the reality lived in brazilian suburbs and favelas; and creates an images collection about the different groups and popular movements in the country. This project has the idea that to democratize the photograph is to set a human look on the society. (more…)

Social Productive Approach

By: Leila Novak and low income families in Atibaia, São Paulo

Slogan_
Projeto Curumim

Solution_
In 1995, Leila Novak created the Curumim Project, supported by a space created for the social integration and citizenship conscience involving the population who live in damaged areas in Atibaia, São Paulo state. Leila attracted low income children and teenagers for environmental educational activities in exchange for the Selo Curumim (Curumim Stamp), a sort of parallel coin that the children change for food, clothes, shoes and toys in the Shopping Center Cidadania Curumim, a space created for this kind of marketing once a month. The shopping center promotes also a “fair of changes”, where anybody can change what is not in use any more. With this action, Shopping Cidadania´s stock can be easily supplied. The project also allows the changes of services for stamps, (more…)

By: Karen Worcman and people from all over Brazil, São Paulo

Slogan_
Museu da Pessoa

Solution_
The historian and linguist, Karen Worcman established in 1991 the Museu da Pessoa (Person’s Museum) to register, to preserve and to transform into knowledge source, life stories of any person in the society, promoting social changes by means of an identity reflection on the individuals and communities valuation.
The museum office in São Paulo, started in 1991 to develop its own methodology to register the depositions and to form an unknown collection of life stories. As services rendering, the Museum started a “memory” project in companies, unions, associations, schools and communities. In 1997, with the Internet advance in Brazil, the museum released its first site and established itself as an institution. The virtual museum began to receive the life stories through the internet, making the depositions collection, pictures and documents also available to the public . (more…)

Self-Mutual Help

By: Districts population around Brazil and State Police

Slogan_
CONSEG – Communitarian Security Council

Solution_
The police action in Brazil is not that effective as it should be. The low salaries and the lack of infrastructure discourage the police officers to do their jobs with quality.
The CONSEGs were planned to be groups of people from the same district or city, which want to discuss a find a solution for their communitarian security problems. This council is an entity to help the State Police dealing with the communitarian relations. (more…)

Social produtive Approach

By: Priest José Carlos Spinola, São João Vianei parish and Lapa community, São Paulo

Slogan_
Reciclázaro

Solution_
“The paper return to be a paper, the can return to be a can and the human being return to be a human being”. This is the definition about what priest José Carlos Spinola considers more important in the garbage recycling: a excluded people rescue, such as the homeless population that found in the aluminium cans and paper collection a way to increase their incomes and a hope for better days. In Brazil, there are on average 800 thousands people living from this activity.
This is such an important work, that the country reached the first place for three consecutive years in can recycling in the world. Brazil recycles 89% of the sold cans in the country, in numbers, it matches 112 thousand tons of aluminium or 8 billions cans. (more…)