A Fund to Support Community-Led Initiatives

Help us develop a fund that will be used to provide financial support to dynamic local leaders and community groups carrying out exciting community-led projects across La Gonave. 

About a year and a half ago, Roots of Development decided to scale up its efforts on the island, to take advantage of the experience it had gained in Gran Sous (1 of the 11 communal sections that make up La Gonave) and begin having a bigger impact on the island as a whole. Roots moved its office space to the island's largest town, and began sitting and meeting with leaders and community groups from across the island. 

We have gotten to know many of these groups well, through their participation in formal workshops and trainings and informal gatherings we have organized over the past year and a half. We have worked hard to help them strengthen their organizational management capacity, by providing them with access to important workshops and experienced facilitators. 

To help these leaders and community groups bring these skills and trainings from the theoretical to the practical, we want to be able to provide them with financial support for projects they are already carrying out in their communities or hope to carry out in the near future...projects that represent their greatest priorities and address their greatest development challenges.

Over the next couple months, we will invite a first set of community groups to submit a proposal for a project of their own. These invitees will be leaders and community groups we have identified as having shown a real understanding of, and commitment to community-driven development and demonstrated the capacity to carry out a project successfully. 

We will review the submission and the role the community is asking us to play within the project, and provide funding to groups and projects whose goals fit our organization's mission...community-driven development and "development without dependency".

We hope to be able to raise enough money to funding the projects of a couple of these model community groups each year. To help them further strengthen their organizational capacity and improve quality of life in their communities. 

Help us start this initiative by making a contribution today!