10 Years of Progress for Dominican Youth
In one decade, USAID has changed the lives of thousands of young people in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic’s vibrant youth have confronted different challenges throughout the country’s history. High unemployment, a lack of opportunities for training and educational advancement, and community violence are just some of the barriers that limit young Dominicans from reaching their full potential. As a result, too often many fall into the cycle of crime and violence.
To support our neighbors, partners, and friends in the Caribbean, USAID developed the At-Risk Youth Initiative in 2012 in the Dominican Republic. This 10-year, $26 million initiative ended this year, supporting goals of the U.S. Caribbean Basin Security Initiative as well as the Dominican Republic’s priority to mitigate and ultimately prevent youth involvement in crime and violence.
Targeting at-risk youth ages 11 to 24 living in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods, the activity partnered with 23 local organizations to provide training, mentoring, technical assistance, and job preparation and placement to over 155,000 young people. Keep reading for four more ways USAID has impacted the lives of youth in the past 10 years.
1. Violence prevention
The initiative’s main goal was to prevent crime and violence among at-risk youth by creating safe spaces that fostered their talents, and provided psychosocial, educational, and professional development opportunities. These spaces created positive and structured support to help youth become productive citizens alongside their peers, families, and communities.
One example of these safe spaces are the 11 youth-led youth networks established with USAID support, which work to prevent community-level crime and violence. Among other activities, the youth networks provided peer mentoring; child, early, and forced marriage prevention; and awareness about substance abuse and addiction treatment. The networks were life-changing for young people like Saúl Vásquez, who had participated in a local gang prior to joining the USAID supported programming. Thanks to the support of these youth networks and their services, he is now on a better life path.
“I know from my own experience that crime and violence are not the solution to the obstacles that arise in life because most conflicts can be resolved peacefully through effective communication, and if not, there are authorities that help us solve these types of problems,” says Saúl.
2. Entrepreneurship and employment opportunities
As of 2020, almost 15% of Dominican youth were unemployed, according to the World Bank. USAID is helping to put a dent in those figures by teaching youth skills needed to obtain jobs, and teaching communities with high risk youth how to support 8,200 youth obtain new or better employment opportunities, and establish over 500 small businesses to support themselves and their families.
Frankely Román, a young entrepreneur from Puerto Plata, developed his pastry business after receiving support from USAID and was later awarded first place in the project’s fifth National Entrepreneurship Fair.
“I learned how to differentiate my business from the competition, know our added value, provide customer service, and develop a business plan,” Frankely says.
Since his business has grown, he can now pay for his college education and afford basic items that he needs.
Thanks to this activity, participants earn a little more than $14 per hour compared to those who did not participate in the project. Average wages in the Dominican Republic are in between RD $11,900.00 to RD $21,000.00 (between $221.85 to $391.50 as of September 2022). Considering many youth did not have a job when participating in the activity, having a higher earning possibility is a great opportunity for economic growth. An additional feature: opportunities for upward mobility.
Four young people are now supervisors at Laurelton Jewelry, a Tiffany & Co. subsidiary, in Haina. All had been screened and showed several risk factors for involvement in crime and violence at the start of the activity.
3. Education
According to the World Bank, 85% of school aged youth complete the lower levels of high school education in the Dominican Republic. However, 6.8% of youth drop out of school between the eighth and 12th grades due to poverty, teen pregnancy, or doubt in the benefits of completing their education.
To address this, USAID targeted out of school children for a non-formal school transitioning program called “Spaces to Grow,” which focuses on advancing academic and life skills to rejoin formal classes and complete their education.
The activity helped over 4,200 youth return to school, and increased student grade completion by 15% among some schools.
Another focus of the activity was to educate youth about peace culture, life skills, mediation, positive masculinity, and related topics to reduce violence and crime. According to Luisanny Cordero, 23, these training sessions helped her and the at-risk youth network in her province reach out to other at-risk youth. In the Dominican Republic, around 20% of women at or approaching Luisanny’s age have had at least one child before the age of 18. Across the country, many women also face risks of high levels of femicide, sexual assault, and intrafamily violence which impacts healthy and productive developmental growth.
“Without a doubt, the impact of our actions has been excellent. Through the network, we have changed the lives of many young people, changed their way of thinking and helped them understand their role in solving the problems of their communities,” Luisanny says. “We have also been able to replicate the workshops around the Duarte province. […] Using social media has helped to enhance our reach to youth outside the network, to motivate them to join and participate.”
4. Sustainability
Several programs that began have continued since USAID assistance and programming has ended, proving that a sustainable approach to youth crime and violence prevention is possible. Seventy four service partnerships have been formed to support employment, technical training, mentorship and paid internships, and 11 youth networks have maintained their outreach support and services since the end of USAID’s At-Risk Youth Initiative. In addition, 23 community-based organizations now have tools to to help them finance future projects with support from other donors.
USAID has also worked with the country’s Ministry of Youth and the Ministry of Education to strengthen continuity of violence prevention programming. USAID provided training and learning guides to incorporate best practices for retention in the public school system, and strengthened the capacity of teachers and administrative staff to better serve at-risk youth. The initiative also helped strengthen community ties between the Dominican National Police and youth to improve active youth participation in citizen security efforts and promote mutual trust between police and youth.
With these four lessons in mind, the Dominican Republic is not only changing the lives of youth like Angelina, Génesis, Verónica, Pablo, it is making progress towards a more inclusive and secure reality for all.
About the Author
Brenda Silverio is the Social Media Specialist at USAID’s Mission in the Dominican Republic.
