Good Neighbor Practices, Mexico

Project name: Good Neighbor Practices

Project location: The project takes place in Monterrey, México and its metropolitan area. We direct our efforts to communities that are at risk of taking justice into their own hands and who have had several episodes of violence or conflict. These are usually communities that have been neglected by authorities and in which the gap between citizens government is significant. We give them the tools to create a sense of community, to strengthen democracy and to regain control and ownership of public spaces.

Website: http://site.pazes.org/#yo-soy-regio-yo-soy-paz

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/PazEs

Project description:

The project "Good Neighbor Practices" develops in neighbors the ability to build a peace culture. Throughout 12 programmed sessions, we cover key issues and spread knowledge of methodologies that have been effective in the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the promotion of good neighborly behaviors. The "Good Neighbor Practices" project promotes universal values, public involvement, democracy and citizenship, and it empowers the participant to become an active leader in his or her community.

With 2 hour long weekly sessions, we cover topics that are relevant for the construction of an integrated community. These topics are: coexistence, cleanliness, respect and responsibility, inform and report, pet care, money management, service and help, participation and tolerance, use of public spaces, and peace culture. Using theoretical, interactive and practical sessions we make sure that neighbors appropriate the tools and use them for the benefit of the community. Once the workshops are done, we encourage neighbors to design and develop projects for their particular needs, based on diagnosis and dialogue, inviting them to come up with solutions using their resources and newly learned tools. The process is overall accompanied with the measurement of the results to be able to provide continuity and a better impact on the community.

Goal and purpose of the project:

Citizens have become less trusting of our democratic institutions and have less expectations from our politicians and authorities, doubting their ability to successfully manage our government. This translates into a lack of participation and an underdeveloped sense of community and co-responsibility that creates a dissociated society. The project "Good Neighbor Practices" helps to fortify the damaged relationships amongst the members of the community and assist in the building of a culture of mutual respect and social cohesion; elements that combined can lead to the promotion of peace.

Motivation of the applicant / applicant team:

Our main motivation comes form the acknowledgement that we live in a community that demands commitment from its inhabitants. We are social beings, and as such, can only thrive when we act considering the needs of others. When facing the current problems in our world it is possible to lose hope and become overwhelmed, we want to let citizens know that change starts from individual and small actions that amount to a new culture. By empowering one neighbor to change their community we are changing the world.

Use of prize money:

The requested resources will be used to professionalize the handbooks that are provided as material for the participants. We want them to engage with the progress of their communities and a useful handbook with all the tips and tools to do it actively and efficiently are a basic request. This prize will be used for the implementation of 9 workshops in the next year. The resources will also be destined to guarantee that the staff in charge of spreading the content is capable of handling responsibly and with the adequate preparation the challenges that the project might entail.

We need to constantly exercise the revision of our contents, so that they remain current and target the actual needs of the society, and with your cooperation it will be possible. The involvement of the community in the democratic processes results in the development of effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels. Using the tools provided by the workshop, which are possible to spread with help from programs like this one, it is easy to create local instances of governance that add up to a national level, leading to solidified institutions, capable of a real impact at a global level. Without starting from the smallest level the possibilities of creating a real change are scarce; we need your help to change our world.