Sendero Joven is an educational project for 34 young people recovering from addiction that provides them with the tools needed to make them protagonists of their own destinies.
Young people in Argentina, especially those living on the outskirts of the cities, are faced with situations that challenge their hope for a dignified life. What possible horizons can these generations look to when they imagine their future? The experience of the Sendero Joven training project was born from this question.
Seeking an answer to this question is certainly not an easy challenge for those who live on the margins of Argentinean society. Not only because they often lack the concrete means to guarantee a decent life, but also because there is another obstacle to overcome: a widespread culture that relegates these young people to the ‘cage’ of the ‘it’s not possible to change their living conditions’.
Instead, it is possible. And it is precisely from this perspective that the Sendero Joven proposal was born.
The project which forms part of a feasibility study, stems from the desire to provide tools that allow these young people to be protagonists of their own destiny so that they can then gradually acquire skills and competences that open the way to a more open life in society.
However, Sendero Joven also has another, equally important objective: to accompany these young people to think about spirituality and to live fraternity as the basis of being community.
This training proposal was born in 2022 from a collaboration between AMU and the ‘Fazendas de la Esperanza’ to accompany 34 young people recovering from drug addiction in the Buenos Aires and Tucuman hostels.
The training consists of 70 workshops, 35 on human formation and 35 on spirituality. The workshops are divided into four major themes; identity, relationships and conflicts, ethics and communication, and life choices.
The pilot project set up in 2022 produced very positive results. Young people, tutors and managers of the hostels involved – the Fazendas – were able to carry out an initial evaluation of the results, providing data that will make it possible to improve the different methodologies and approaches applied to date for the recovery and reintegration of the young people.