Transforming Culture from Within Culture

Pa’Arriba Foundation focuses on changing culture from within in order to transform conceptions about the societal norms that often underpin domestic and interpersonal violence. Many of these norms are culturally accepted and passed down from generation to generation as a seemingly inevitable part of everyday life. We offer a proprietary workshop that uses art and music to playfully invite participants to question that normality. And we create communications campaigns that incorporate cultural elements, tips from specialists, and messages of popular wisdom that can be leveraged across social media to have a global impact  to easily, efficiently and rapidly discover what resources are available in their community.

Resiliency Education and Community Building

To complement this awareness-raising activity, we have implemented healing circles, group spaces that provide a healthy opportunity to both learn from and receive support from other members of the greater community. Often, the circles prove sufficient to sustain a transformation to greater resilience and an ability to set healthy boundaries. As participants discover that the solutions to their problems – on both a personal and group level – lie within themselves and within their own community, they often reassess their own resources and capabilities. This allows them to take on a more active role in their own lives and in society. Originally conceived as in-person support structures, these healing circles have now moved on-line and as such, allow our program to reach more people around the world.

Resiliency Education and Community Building

To complement this awareness-raising activity, we have implemented healing circles, group spaces that provide a healthy opportunity to both learn from and receive support from other members of the greater community. Often, the circles prove sufficient to sustain a transformation to greater resilience and an ability to set healthy boundaries. As participants discover that the solutions to their problems – on both a personal and group level – lie within themselves and within their own community, they often reassess their own resources and capabilities. This allows them to take on a more active role in their own lives and in society. Originally conceived as in-person support structures, these healing circles have now moved on-line and as such, allow our program to reach more people around the world.

Information Resources

We believe that community-based support structures are crucial to preventing violence. They serve as a first response to situations that affect vulnerable populations and complement more specialized services, including governmental, NGO and private resources. It is clear, however, that they cannot replace specialists. For this reason, our local chapter in Ecuador has developed an important information directory that allows anyone with access to the internet to easily, efficiently and rapidly discover what resources are available in their community.

A Holistic Approach

This holistic, systemic approach promotes permanent and positive change ranging from better personal communications to community rebuilding and the promotion of a culture of peace and respect. It is based on a shared humanity that values all equally and aims to provide real assistance for victims of violence, with a specific focus on vulnerable populations. We have designed all of our programs to be replicable by local populations, scalable, efficient, effective and low-cost as a way to ensure that no community that wants to effect change is left out.

A Holistic Approach

This holistic, systemic approach promotes permanent and positive change ranging from better personal communications to community rebuilding and the promotion of a culture of peace and respect. It is based on a shared humanity that values all equally and aims to provide real assistance for victims of violence, with a specific focus on vulnerable populations.

Where we work