TRASO Colectivo de Transformación Social

We believe that education transforms people, that those people transform communities, and that empowered communities advance by closing gaps.

Our purpose is to understand environments, enhance capabilities and together use the keys of education to open doors to real opportunities.

Mission: We are a social transformation collective that fights against the culture of hopelessness learned in the imagination of individuals and mistrust, motivating proactivity and the empowerment of people who generate growth and development of sustainable communities.

Vision: Our vision is to be agents of change to energize education and promote the leadership of civil society in the region, generating equal opportunities for all.

Our team leader has the role of Experience and Relationship Manager, with the responsibility of giving visibility to all the programs and projects developed by our organization, in order to attract partners and resources that help us enhance the impact of the projects. and respond to the needs that our technicians and support teams identify in the communities we impact.

The Experience and Relationship Manager works directly with the Executive Director and program directors, knowing all projects currently being implemented and future strategies. At the same time, it maintains relationships with private companies, government institutions, international cooperation agencies and other non-profit organizations, which allows us to expand our range of action with strategic alliances promoting our vision and knowledge.

Team Lead will be in charge of working directly with the Education Program Director and the support team of the Center of Excellence for Early Childhood, establishing hours dedicated exclusively to the Leap project, research and meetings.

Despite other priorities within the organization, we have strategically allocated resources to Project LEAP to ensure it receives the attention and support it requires. This includes dedicating trained team members, budget allocations, and the necessary tools and technology.

All members of our team have extensive project management experience and knowledge, having successfully managed similar projects in the past, demonstrating their ability to navigate complexities and deliver results efficiently.

As an organization we have established clear communication channels within the team and with interested parties. This ensures everyone is aligned on project goals, schedules, and expectations, allowing for quick decision making and problem resolution.

Above all, our team is committed to the success of Project LEAP. With the support of the Executive Director, we prioritize the project's objectives and dedicate the necessary time and effort to ensure its successful completion.

Our team leader and supporting team members are well positioned to effectively support Project LEAP by leveraging their experience, communication skills, resource allocation strategies, adaptability, collaborative efforts, risk management practices, and unwavering commitment to the success.

Our Center is a space designed to maximize the capabilities of students and community working in comprehensive early childhood care.

The Center of Excellence for Early Childhood seeks to respond to the needs identified in terms of comprehensive education for children and families in one of the most vulnerable areas of the city of Cartagena.

The Colombian educational system and its implementation in Cartagena, presents great challenges in terms of coverage, infrastructure, permanence and quality. 

Although efforts have been made to improve coverage, there are still challenges in some areas, especially in rural areas and neighborhoods where the displaced population, migrants and historically impoverished people reside, where there is a lack of access to schools and educational programs.

Many schools in Cartagena lack adequate infrastructure and basic resources, such as well-equipped classrooms, laboratories, libraries and adequate sanitary facilities. This situation affects the learning environment and hinders the delivery of an effective education.

School dropout remains a significant problem in Cartagena, with many students dropping out of school due to factors such as poverty, child labor, violence and lack of motivation. This limits their future opportunities and contributes to the cycle of poverty.

Despite efforts to improve the quality of education in Cartagena, challenges persist in terms of curriculum, teaching methods, teacher training and learning assessment. Many students do not acquire the necessary skills to face the challenges of the 21st century, such as digital literacy and critical thinking.

Our characterization process evidenced that children in the Center's area of influence, present increased vulnerabilities associated with environmental health risks, poverty, poor nutrition, lack of spaces for leisure and mainly insufficient and precarious academic infrastructure, which undoubtedly negatively impacts early childhood cognitive development and the construction of citizenship. 

Addressing these educational problems requires a comprehensive approach that involves not only the education sector, but also other actors, such as the government, civil society and the private sector. It is essential to invest in improving educational infrastructure, teacher education and training, equitable access to education, and the implementation of policies that promote inclusion and equal opportunities for all students in Cartagena.

Contemporary educational dynamics challenge us to implement training practices that involve pedagogical innovation processes that maintain the motivation and interest of children, while strengthening their learning capabilities. For this reason, our human talent has received training in innovative methodologies such as Design Thinking and STEAM competencies which allow them to design learning experiences and attention to children that respond to the challenges posed by the current educational situation.

The Center of Excellence is a place where best practices are formulated based on knowledge and available data; It is an environment to test new emerging processes and to discover and disseminate continuous improvements in the processes they execute.

We have opted to provide the city of Cartagena with the first Center of Excellence for Early Childhood in the region; a space designed for quality comprehensive care, based on international standards, designed to maximize the capabilities of children, parents, the community and staff who work in early childhood care; seeking to consolidate itself as a reference for best practices for the care of boys and girls between two and five years of age.

With our own staff and support team, we carried out a house-by-house characterization of the area and the people who live there, getting to know each family, their needs and possible recipients of the offer of the Center of Excellence for Early Childhood.

From the data collected we can determine that we impacted more than 546 families in the area of influence of the Center of Excellence for Early Childhood in the village of Pasacaballos Madre Herlina sector.

Of these 546 families we have a coverage of 200 children, of which 49.5% are men and 51.5% are women.

Regarding access to public services, 37 families have access to 1 of 4 public services, 58 families have access to 2 of 4, 3 families have access to 3 of 4, 17 families have access to 4 of 4, and finally a total of 83 have access to all public services: water, aqueduct, energy and natural gas.

The Center of Excellence for Early Childhood emerges as a necessary response in terms of comprehensive education for a vulnerable population with limited access for their development. After 4 months of opening our doors in this pilot process, which we hope will be scalable and replicable, we are providing care to 200 children between 2 and 5 years of age, with an interdisciplinary team in continuous training process in order to generate innovative solutions.

The success of this strategy is undoubtedly based on the collection of sufficient information and its correct analysis for data-based decision making, which allows us to measure the impact of the processes initiated and the social and environmental transformation promoted by the Center. As well as the modification of approaches and the relationship with strategic actors.

This initial stage allows us to collaborate effectively within the Leap Challenge, with a view to the construction of impact measurement instruments adjusted to the reality in which the Center of Excellence finds itself, as well as the implementation of new strategies to strengthen the pedagogical model, the relationship with the community and funding, seeking the sustainability of the Center and the great challenges we have with primary childhood.

1. How do environmental conditions affect children and their families, their attendance at the Center of Excellence and their development within the pedagogical model?

2. Which impact measurement tool is ideal for the Center of Excellence and when should it be applied?

3. How do public policy and governance affect comprehensive early childhood care and the relevance of the Center of Excellence?

Our participation in the LEAP 2024 project is aimed at achieving objectives that will allow us to make data-based decisions regarding the implementation of the pedagogical model designed and the impact it may have on the development of the children attending the Center of Excellence.

Taking into account the above, with the collaboration of experts, we hope to build a clear roadmap for the continuity of the Center, which takes into account the variables associated with the environment of our institution, the socio-economic conditions of the children and their families who attend, the national and local public policies that affect us, and the financial sustainability required to enhance the impact.

The objectives we wish to achieve require the design of impact measurement instruments and innovative methodologies for the collection of information with a differential approach, which take into account the context in which we are immersed and the realities faced by children and families outside the Center of Excellence, thus trying to test the strategies designed and their possible replicability in the short and long term. The innovative model proposed in this pilot stage must be able to be contrasted with successful experiences at international and local level, so it is important to have standardized measurements that go beyond the evaluations of trainees and teachers.

The success of the Center of Excellence for Early Childhood must be measured in terms of its ability to transform lives and the educational ecosystem, so having monitoring and evaluation tools is an important asset when it comes to managing strategic alliances and resources that benefit our target population, both within the Center and the environment.

Likewise, the differential of the Center of Excellence goes through its integral pedagogical model with a component of nutritional and psychosocial care, so it must have a trained human talent for this purpose, which with the right tools can validate in real time the success of the strategies implemented and propose changes according to the evidence.

The results of the design and implementation of impact measurement, monitoring, evaluation and diagnostic strategies will be used as the primary basis for evidence-based decision making, focusing on early childhood and their families in order to transform their realities.

The information will be used to test the integral model implemented in the Center of Excellence, seeking that it has the highest quality standards that allow it to have a positive impact on the development of children, not only of those who attend the Center, but that this can serve as a pilot for its replicability and expansion, achieving the transformation of the educational ecosystem from early childhood care to technical and professional high school.

The tools we have will in turn be used to publicize the experience of the Center of Excellence and the impact it can have, which will make it possible to attract technical and financial resources for its strengthening and sustainability. 

Our support team made up of interdisciplinary professionals will be in charge of using the tools available to carry out impact measurements, monitoring and follow-up, thus being able to adjust the pertinent in an established period of time. Such periodicity in which the measurements are applied will be part of the integral strategy of operation of the Center of Excellence for the production of reports for the corresponding committees as well as the production of research documents that serve as a basis for the construction of public policies for early childhood.

The initial stage in which we find ourselves is key so that the instruments built can be immediately included in our processes and achieve reliable results in the short and medium term.

The information and measurement instruments we have will be the main drivers of private, public and international cooperation investment, in the bid to achieve the sustainable development goals with education as its central axis, in terms of quality, coverage and comprehensiveness. 

The city will understand the relevance of addressing early childhood care as a pressing need for the transformation of communities, the construction of a participatory citizenship and the development of healthier environments that allow the enjoyment of all those who inhabit the territory.

We will seek to position the Center of Excellence for Early Childhood as a reference in local and international scenarios that allow us to make known the needs identified and the challenges associated with early childhood development in adverse contexts such as those associated with environments of poverty, violence, hunger and low access to primary health services, water, sanitation, energy and connectivity.

Center of Excellence becomes one of the main sources of information for the construction of local, regional and national public policies on early childhood education and care, as well as its scalability for educational innovation in primary, secondary, technical and university education, completing the learning cycle for the social transformation of the territory.