Sowing Shapers - creating creativity centers in vulnerable areas

The "Sowing Shapers" project consists of providing funds and  executing an architectural project to transform already existing communitary spaces into multidisciplinary room/spaces for long-term use by the community. By providing those spaces to peripheral communities, the Global Shapers Manaus Hub acts for the strengthening of local communitary leaderships, that are responsible for the spaces management after all the adjustments have been made.

Young people from peripheral communities need a multifunctional space where they can carry out creative educational activities that are not well distributed by city public policies. Giving children and teenagers the chance to experiment and evolve in non-conventional topics - such as ballet, martial arts, English classes, communitary newspapers and so on - is a way to give them the opportunity of having their talents discovered and recognized in neighborhoods that need to prioritize more technical and superficial abordage to simply survive.

By working to solve this problem, since 2020, the Sowing Shapers project has built two studios in high-criminality rate neighborhoods Monte das Oliveiras and Redenção, both in Manaus, Amazonas. 

Finally, the Manaus Hub aims that, just like the beginning of Global Shapers Community itself, the real future leaders need to be discovered and empowered to achieve their full potential. We believe that, on a medium and long-term basis, those studios will provide Manaus some new Shapers.

Hub Activities

• Project planning and monitoring; 


• Technical and architectural projects;


• Construction monitoring;


• Request and monitoring financial, equipment and furniture donations from partners, donors or sponsors;


• Monitoring space assembly;


• Inauguration ceremony

Short & Long-Term Goals/Results

Short  

• Enabling activities such as a computer lab, tutoring, and handicraft classes being carried out on-site by the community leaders themselves;


• Community autonomy in the project's management and sustainability;


• Providing the Manaus Hub a direct and genuine relationship with the neighborhood and its leaders, gaining their trust to develop new projects in the area;

Long

•  Young people from the community attending the place regularly instead of falling into the spiral of violence;


• Lower crime rate in the neighborhood;


• New sources of income for community;


• New peripheral talents being discovered, and potentially, entering the Global Shapers Community.

Available Metrics

Immediate

• Number of children and teenagers from communities impacted each month and number of class hours offered in a month (in the active studios);


• Number of families whose members attended activities in the studios;


• Number of parents (specially single mothers) that depended on activities provided by the Sowing Shapers’ studios to maintain children occupied during commercial hours so they can work properly;

Long-term

• Number of people approved in universities and technical schools;


• Number of people approved in specialized schools, prizes and exchange programs

The Sowing Shapers project is directly involved with its innovative approach and relationship building with communities on-site. While other projects may tend to take off the community protagonism on recognizing and solving their own needs. The innovation here is the catalyser role performed by the Manaus Hub: providing tools and functional space for the community to develop its own solutions.

During the last two years, both studios received editions of other projects in the hub’s portfolio: Varal Sustentável (2021, 2022 and 2023 both studios); Amazônia Reset Lab (2022, Redenção Studio). Meanwhile, the partner social projects that manage each studio also provided the Manaus Hub with communitary young leaders indications for its project Resethon, ideathon for social impact initiatives Project team names: Maria Cecília Costa, Antônio Neto, Gabriella Maia, Lucas Escobar, José Netto, Odenilze Ramos, Geyce Ferreira e Suelen Araújo.