DevTech has signed a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Labor to lead the Combating Exploitive Child Labor through Education in the Dominican Republic project, a follow-up to a successful DevTech project completed in 2007. In association with two Dominican organizations and a number of local subcontractors, DevTech is building upon the successes of the last project and introducing new innovations to offer Dominican youth an alternative to exploitive child labor.

Project Goals

This project aims to prevent or withdraw 10,000 Dominican youths (7,500 children and 2,500 adolescents) from exploitive child labor by scaling up the educational models introduced in the first project and introducing new programs to provide educational alternatives to adolescents.

Espacios Para Crecer (“Spaces for Growth”)

A major component of this project is the continuation of the "Espacios para Crecer" (EpC) model introduced in the previous project. In the Dominican Republic, the overcrowding of schools necessitates a shift system where half of the students attend school during a morning shift, and half during an afternoon shift. The EpCs provide a second shift of non-formal education that complements the Dominican national curriculum. This project is opening new EpCs in various regions throughout the Dominican Republic. The facilitators of these new EpCs will receive training in Quantum Learning® methodology. For more information about both the "Espacios para Crecer" model and Quantum Learning, click here.

Espacios Para Emprender ("Spaces for Entrepreneurship")

A cornerstone of this project is the introduction of a vocational training program geared toward adolescents. The goal of the "Espacios para Emprender" (EpEs) is to help out-of-school youth gain marketable skills through compensatory education programming. Specifically, volunteer facilitators who serve as counselors guide the adolescents toward vocational training programs based on their desired careers. The EpE program also provides job placement support to adolescents.

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