This case study is part of a series on Youth Democracy. Click to find the others on Nuortenbudjetti: Helsinki’s Youth Budget and Forum Jove BCN: Barcelona’s Youth Forum.

 

Introduction

Approximately 40% of Chile’s elderly population suffers from depression.¹ Nursing homes constantly face the challenge of being unable to provide adequate physical and mental stimulation for their elderly residents.¹ To address this unmet need, in 2021, Natalia Alfaro Pedrero, a 21-year old civil engineering student at the Universidad de la Frontera en Temuco, launched Sembrando Sonrisas (Sowing Smiles). The project focused on creating accessible wellness spaces–in the form of greenhouses–for elderly residents within two nursing homes in the Araucanía region of Chile. This project ensures that elderly people in these residences engage in physical activities like gardening, as well as social interactions that provide them with mental stimulation. Sembrando Sonrisas is one of 48 projects that have been executed by Chilean youth through participation in the program, Creamos.²

 

Established by INJUV (Chile’s National Youth Institute) in 2020, Creamos is an open innovation competition and co-creation program which empowers young people (ages 15-29) in Chile to design and implement social innovation projects in their communities. Each year, young people submit their ideas in response to an open call posted by INJUV via an online platform built upon CitizenLab, a community engagement platform designed for local governments. INJUV provides training, mentorship, funding and support for winning projects, allowing young people to turn their ideas into reality. 

Fig 1: A photo of the Creamos logo. ³

 

According to program manager Mr. Benjamin Prado, Creamos was created to engage youth in community development The goal of the program is to combine youth participation, and leadership, within an interactive platform, that in turn facilitates the implementation of young people’s ideas. 

 

How Does It Work?

Creamos is a year-long, annual program that consists of five stages:

 

1. Application/Idea Submission: Applications to join the Creamos program are made through the Citizen Participation Platform.² In Spring of each year (Autumn in the southern hemisphere), potential participants  submit their ideas for social change projects through an online application.⁵ For the year 2022, this process runs from mid-March to mid-May. The platform then encourages submitees to comment on, debate, and vote on the ideas that have been generated.⁶ In addition to submitting their ideas, applicants are required to provide biographical information about themselves, including their motivations for participating in Creamos.

INJUV then evaluates each proposal based on three criteria (project relevance, their value proposition, and the motivations of each applicant)— in order to choose the participants who will advance to the next stage.⁴ INJUV also takes the socio-economic standing of applicants into consideration when selecting applicants for its mentorship program, i.e. those from at-risk neighborhoods are given additional priority. In addition, proposals with high peer engagement (i.e. comments and votes) and which include a video, gain additional points during the selection process.

Although only selected applicants are able to benefit from the program’s funding opportunities, all applicants, selected and not, gain access to Creamos’ online leadership courses. ⁷

 

2. Training and Consulting:  In this stage, young people who have been selected to participate in Creamos are invited to join a leadership training program to help develop their ideas into implementable social change projects.² In 2022, the Training and Consulting phase runs from early June to mid-August 2022.⁶

 

The training program involves:⁷

 

• Online training courses and webinars about topics such as Management of Social Projects, Information Technology, Human Rights, Socio-Environmental Challenges, and Leadership for Social Innovation. 

 

• Specialized Mentoring:  Local leaders or experts in areas related to each participant’s ideas are assigned to the participants as mentors. INJUV assists participants in locating these leaders and experts, and also provides methodological and logistical support regarding mentorship-related activities.

 

• Virtual Regional Meetings: Eight weekend sessions are curated, totaling 16 hours. These sessions support Creamos participants in their analysis of challenges within their communities.⁷

3. Implementation of Youth Advocacy Projects: After completing the training program, Creamos participants are then eligible to apply for funding from INJUV. Funding provides a crucial step in turning their projects from ideas into realities. The funding application/implementation phase for 2022 will run from mid-August to the end of November.

 

Prior to completing the financing phase, INJUV evaluates suggested projects in terms of their impact, feasibility and prospective results. Upon conclusion of this evaluation, INJUV finances at least 30 projects that have been developed for implementation in areas across Chile. There is a 2 million pesos cap—approximately $2,300 USD— on financing support per project.

 

4.  Evaluation and Closing: After several months, INJUV reaches out to Creamos participants who have had their projects implemented in order to evaluate each project’s outcome, gain insights into the participants' experiences, and see how INJUV can help participants continue to be successful youth leaders.³ For the year 2022, this follow-up will take place in December.

Who Participates?

The Creamos initiative targets Chileans ages 15-29. According to the project organizers, it is their understanding that this specific  population tends to be most interested in facilitating positive change within their communities. “They like to make themselves visible,” Mr. Prado told us. ⁴

 

To reach the target population and encourage young people to participate in the program, INJUV makes use of social media advertisements, webinars, and emails.

 

As of 2022 there are over 41,000 people registered on the Creamos platform.⁸ Approximately 27, 000 of those who are registered on the platform are young people—aged 15-29 years old.⁴ People outside of this age range (e.g. relatives of people submitting ideas) can register for the platform but are not eligible to participate in the Creamos program. 

 

Among registered users, 61% of Creamos’ participants are female, 36% are male, 2% are of an unspecified gender, and 1% did not indicate a gender.⁶

 

The number of individuals selected to participate in the program changes yearly, as it is dependent on the amount of resources allotted to the program each year. In the year of the program’s creation, 2020, Creamos selected 327 individuals to participate in the training program. In 2021 the program hosted 300 participants, and in 2022, 450 applicants are expected to be selected as beneficiaries of the Creamos program.

Outcomes and Impacts

As of 2022, INJUV has trained over 600 young people in social innovation and leadership skills through the Creamos program. Following this training, 48 projects have been executed across Chile.² The proposals that were developed through Creamos encompassed a variety of topics, but many popular topics touch upon areas highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as education,  climate change and sustainability.

 

An example of a popular idea that has been developed through Creamos is “Formación sexual integral para adolecentes” (meaning “Comprehensive sexual education for adolescents” in English). This idea calls for the creation of workshops for women about sexual and reproductive health. Another example of a popular idea that has been developed through Creamos is “¡Voy Contigo!” (“I am with you”). This idea focused on developing a  volunteer network to give a helping hand to elderly people in Chile. ⁷

 

Mr. Benjamin Prado, Program Manager of Creamos, notes that ”the main impact  of Creamos is the opportunity of empowering young people.” ⁴ The Creamos program has empowered young people to implement social impact projects within their communities.⁴ Mr. Prado also notes that Creamos has “improved youth civic engagement in Chile.” ⁴ This is because INJUV has been able to use the Creamos platform to actively engage with young people, and incentivize this engagement by providing them with mentorship and resources that they need to solve problems within their communities. 

Challenges

In an interview with Mr. Benjamin Pradohe highlighted a number of challenges that INJUV has encountered in facilitating the Creamos program: 

 

• Changes in Administration: Because Creamos is overseen by INJUV—a government agency which falls under the federal Ministry of Social Development— changes in the Chilean government administration have a tendency to affect ideas and plans to improve or expand Creamos. For instance, Chile’s recent election of new president, Gabriel Boric, will likely influence the upcoming growth of Creamos, as any plans for Creamos in the near future would have to align with the Boric and his administration's  policies and agendas.

 

• Organizational Challenges:  According to Mr. Prado, ”INJUV has a lot of organizational challenges.” ⁴ These challenges are linked to the institute’s inability to effectively consolidate its new program structures and provide consistent or progressive financial resources to its programs each year. As an example, each year, Creamos only accepts a number of participants based on the financial resources allocated to the platform within each given year. In response to this, Mr. Prado points out that the Creamos program is now taking steps to “consolidate its methodologies, and understand how participation and activities are relevant, consistent, and can lead to a proven outcome.”  ⁴
  

 

• Short Implementation Timeline: Within Creamos’ yearly process, the implementation stage runs for 3 months. At this stage, participants are required to report back with data about their accomplishments during the program–in order to evaluate the program’s results by the end of each year, as part of a compulsory evaluation that each of Chile’s national programs undergo annually. The short implementation period for projects has caused Creamos’ participants to express concerns, and poses the risk of forfeiting long term impact evaluation. 

 

Lessons Learned

• Create Incentives, Attract and Sustain Participation: Mr. Prado notes that Creamos is constantly in competition with other youth engagement opportunities in Chile, making it difficult to catch and maintain the attention of young people since “they live in a culture of immediacy.” ⁴ While Creamos experienced a high level of participation in its first year (likely bolstered by the overall increase in online participation during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), participation declined slightly in 2021. In the future, INJUV will be developing additional incentives to maintain and increase participation from year to year. For instance, they are considering providing certificates that young people who participate in the program could add to their resumes, with the idea that holding this credential could help make young people more competitive on the job market. They are also thinking about ways to incorporate the Creamos platform into additional youth engagement programs.⁴ For other institutions that are looking to mimic Creamos’ success. This experience underscores the importance of building incentives into the design of youth engagement initiatives in order to sustain participation in the long-term. 

Empower Regional Teams: INJUV operates 16 regional offices across Chile, with a central office that is headed by Mr. Prado. In the case of other youth institutes like INJUV–that are looking to recreate a similar platform to Creamos, as well as a regional framework – it would be helpful to take steps to empower each region to ensure that they operate optimally. In the case of INJUV the institute  is looking to “empower its regional teams within the platform, by providing them with resources that they need to better facilitate INJUV’s activities–such as Creamos–in their respective regions.” ⁴