USAID Youth Led Activity in the Dominican Republic

The purpose is to integrate opportunity youth with strong levels of vulnerability from poor and marginalized neighborhoods into the opportunities produced by economic growth and address challenges described above, thereby contributing to productive future lives and active citizenship.

This requires mitigating, reducing, and eliminating all factors which contribute to a young person not being able to access these opportunities within their communities and eventually falling into lifestyles that lead to crime and violence.

Communities that strengthen their resilience and reduce risk factors which foster youth crime and violence are critical in reducing the traditional patterns of intergenerational poverty and resulting behaviors (i.e, gender-based violence, machismo, school desertion, early and forced unions, bullying, etc.).