CBI's are the main project completed in each community over the summer. The concept is to work with the community using asset based community development theory and for the volunteers to be a catalyst for an initiative based in the community. The idea is to use the community's resources and have them work together cohesively as a unit to improve their own neighborhood and community. We also want the community to have a stake in the project, so that is why we don't provide labor, and want them to fundraise for at least half of the initiative. If the community really wants something, they will make it happen.
Partnering with other organizations helps achieve sustainability. Reality is, we will be there 2 months, if we complete a project that the volunteers are leading, it will likely stop once the volunteers leave. The goal is to develop something the community can keep building on after we leave. The goal is not a completed community kitchen at the end of the summer, the goal is the process the community took to get there. It is for the community to organize, work together, learn that they can do things on their own.
Another organization FSD international, very similar to Amigos except for college and post-grad volunteers, created a sustainable trash pick up in their community and really got the students from the school to take the initiative to work together to make a sustainable program. Read more with the link:
http://fsdinternational.org/whyfsd/currentprojects/nicaragua1
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