Project Hub is a community development initiative to support local entrepreneurship and business innovation amongst young people in a favela community, Santa Marta, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The initiative is centred around Christian values, to love and support disadvantaged people in the community, regardless of gender, race, colour or religious affiliation, and is supported by three local churches.
With more than 1,200 houses and 5,000 inhabitants, Santa Marta was historically known for being “pacified” for a number of years. However in recent years it has experienced issues relating to armed and violent clashes between gangs.
The concept and methodology for Project Hub was based on the findings from of a scoping study that identified a need to build the hope and aspirations of young people in the favela community in their futures. Our goal is to ignite a transformative potential in these young people with a long-term and far-reaching impact.
After a pilot year, Project Hub was formalised in 2020 as a non-profit organisation. The board of directors and supervisory board comprises individuals with a mix of nationalities and considerable experience in community projects and business management in Brazil and internationally. The operational team is based at 295 Rua São Clemente, the headquarters of our organisation, which is a secure location directly opposite the favela entrance. The team includes a site manager, resident of Santa Marta who manages the facilities and workspace, and a project coordinator who oversees the day-to-day strategy and running of the project.
NGO with transparency : STATUES – AGM 2020
Our objectives
The overall aim of Project Hub is to break the poverty trap by building aspiration in young people in their futures, and helping make their community a better place to live.
TO BUILD
CONFIDENCE
to define their own business idea
TO FOSTER
GROUP DYNAMICS
to encourage mutual support
TO BUILD
NECESSARY SKILLS
to launch their own business
Project impact
- Inspiring and building the aspirations of a group of 25 young people every year
- Providing individual and group mentoring for 10 new entrepreneurs every 9 months
- Providing monthly community workshops addressing life skills and building aspirations (open to 5,000 residents)
- Offering co-working space for Santa Marta residents
- Building bridges to help finance start-ups
Future vision
We would like to:
- With additional funding, run concurrent mentoring programmes, increasing the number of beneficiaries.
- Open the programme to young people from other favelas in the local area (Morro de Babilônia, Ladeira dos Tabajares and Morro de Cantagalo).
- Fully integrate ESI (environmental and social impact) training and evaluation into the mentoring given to Projeto Hub participants.
- Train at least one individual (an existing entrepreneur from the favela community) to be a community mentor for small business development with each project cycle to offer ongoing guidance to participants and other community entrepreneurs.
Our Partners
