By Matt Landau | Project Leader
Because You're Invited...
As Fortaleza Tours, the third business to emerge from the Esperanza Social Venture Club, celebrates 365 days of transformation with a toast to all its supporters this Saturday in the Callejon at 7pm.
It’s relevant to point out that most gang reintegration programs of the world operate in one of two ways:
Either they open their door and say, “Come to us as an individual and we’ll help you get out of a gang.”
Or they say, “Come to us as a group and we’ll help deconstruct your gang so that each can go on his own path.”
But as you may have gleaned, Esperanza is a little different.
We attempt to harness the very characteristics that made that gang “functional” in it’s own unique way…and divert those dynamics in a pro-social direction.
That’s why younger graduates choose to be placed in a formal job setting.
While the higher leaders of the gang who have charisma, leadership skills, and hustle can actually launch their own business...
The process of training the young men that now operate Fortaleza Tours went something like this:
Step 1: Graduate meets with small business specialist to design dream business plan (in the case of Fortaleza, walking tours of a former red zone)
Step 2: Graduate learns Powerpoint and Excel
Step 3: Graduate presents business proposal to panel of Casco Viejo business leaders
Step 4: If approved, Esperanza provides seed capital to graduate’s start-up business
Step 5: If proven motivated, Esperanza provides graduate with ongoing legal, marketing, and moral support via our content mentors and volunteer network
It should be noted that we didn’t come up with this process entirely on our own…
We had help from a team from MIT’s Sloan School of Business Management, who expressed interest in helping simply because they had never seen a program like this executed before. And neither had we!
But suffice it to say, today three months into operation, Fortaleza Tours is bringing in approximately $3,000/month in revenue and social metrics are all pointing in the right direction.
If you are wondering what Fortaleza's impact on the neighborhood looks like...check out the attached map:
It shows that in the past 15 months, there have been ZERO REPORTED CRIMES in the Fortaleza territory. This is something the police, our neighbors, and the members of Fortaleza itself are very grateful for.
Apart from being featured in all kinds of positive press outlets, we all think this is really the cause for celebration, and we hope to share the moment together!
Sincerely,
- Matt, KC, & The Entire Esperanza Team
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