Citizenship education
Learning at school and in society

SOLIDARITY COMMUNITY

BRAZIL

The Solidarity Community's Council is an institution composed of government and society's representatives who act conjointly to promote the citizens' participation in the struggle against inequality and social exclusion. Thus, from an effort-based point of view and with a spirit of solidarity, government and society create solutions to reduce illiteracy, increase access to work positions and promote voluntary action. Solidarity Community works through three lines of action: Strengthening Civil Society, Innovative Programs and Political Mediation.

Following those three lines of action, Solidarity Community has started different projects in order to achieve the proposed objectives:
1) Strengthening Civil Society: implies working with non-profitable organizations (called "Third Sector"), which get involved in public interest projects. From this axis, training programs are implemented for individuals and voluntary institutions and a computerized network to facilitate the integration of different sectors.
2) Innovative Programs: are projects integrating social actions of the government and the civil society addressed to unfavored and marginalized sectors. In this context, the "Solidarity Literacy Program" for teenagers (from 12 to 18 years) was created in 1997. It was meant for adolescents from the north and northeast of the country who have not had access to reading and writing. Other contributions were the "Vocational Training Programs for the Urban Youth", which included contributions from NGO 's, cooperatives and private sectors Besides, there was the "Solidarity University" (1996), based on the university students' voluntary work to promote community participation in activities aimed at improving the quality of life of the population in a state of poverty, in the areas of health, education and local administration.
3) Political Mediation: aims at a government-society dialogue to elaborate a Basic Social Agenda which should include the state's and civil society's priorities in struggling against hunger, poverty and exclusion. The idea is to build a consensus upon the central topics of this agenda and stimulate the search for solutions, accelerate and monitor the action implementation and contribute to overcoming obstacles.

Given the gravity of social exclusion in Brazil, the Council of the Solidarity Community has designed strategies whose basic premises point in the direction of strengthening peoples' and communities' capacities to satisfy their needs, solve their problems and better their quality of life. Thus, they get away from those traditional models that transform the population in passive and permanent beneficiaries of assistance programs. So, the citizens' participation and the innovative mobilization and association forms are stimulated, promoted and backed up by the multiple social actors, in order to generate social solidarity and sustainable development processes.

RUTH CARDOSO
President of the SOLIDARITY COMMUNITY 's Council
Esplanada dos Ministérios
Bloco A.4° andar- CEP 70054-900- Brasilia, DF - Brazil
Tel.: + (55-61) 411 4720/ 411 4771
Fax: + (55-61) 321 1077
Web site: http://www.comunidadesolidaria.org.br/

Institutional Partners
Government Members (Brazil)
Ministries of Home Affairs, Agriculture, Education and Sport, Economy, Health, Justice, Planning and Finances, Welfare and Social Assistance, Labor and the Special Ministry of Sports.
Civil Society Members: Universities, NGO 's, Foundations, Churches, Philanthropic Associations and Private Persons. International Organizations: UNESCO; UNDP (United Nations Development Program); IDB (Inter American Development Bank)
Financial Partners
Executive Secretariat of the Solidarity Community Program
Different Brazilian private companies.

1995