Why

Innovate?

Social Innovation, in simple terms, involves seeking novel strategies and solutions to community issues that the public sector has been unable to fully resolve or address. Social Innovation Ecosystems effectively link communities with higher education institutions, the private sector,and governance entities with human development as the primary focus. For Comuna Project and its Psychosocial Support Center (CAPSI), promoting, fostering, and reenforcing together through learning processes along with the local Community Action Boards (JACs) is essential. We do this by involving local workgroups, corporations, NGOs, grassroots collectives, and municipal secretariats through educational and mental health programming. This approach has yielded promising results from an initial pilot, while working through 60 group workshops and 800 individual consultations conducted in 620 households across 4 neighborhoods in Comuna 13 of Medellín. Over 18 months, this effort accumulated more than 1900 hours of work within an area encompassing approximately 35,000 residents. In this integrated approach, Comuna Project aims to replicate and expand its successes from Comuna 13 to other areas where tourism serves as the primary economic activity, thereby improving the living conditions of many more families.

David Correa Agudelo

General Director of Comuna Project