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About El Puente

Table of contents About Ana Ferro About El Puente Interview: Tackling poverty Interview: A multifaceted approach Interview: Health's determinants Acknowledgements

(C) FOSIS

El Puente

El Puente, or "The Bridge", is a programme of Chile's Solidarity and Investment Fund (FOSIS). The principal goals of El Puente are:

• To support families living in extreme poverty so that they may receive an income above the extreme poverty line;
• To enable families to develop the personal skills they need to become autonomous, meaning that they should be aware of their rights as citizens and able to access the subsidies and services available to them to empower them to resolve their problems independently.

El Puente consists of four principal components: 1) Psychosocial support to families living in extreme poverty; 2) Funds for initiatives; 3) Monitoring and evaluation; 4) Training and supervision.

A Family Support Counselor is assigned to each family for a 24-month period. The Counselor comes weekly at first, then biweekly, and then - gradually - monthly. The Counselor guides the family in establishing a benchmarked process to improve their living conditions and reach their objectives.

The programme’s efforts are directed towards supporting families so that they can work to construct seven “pillars of support” in their lives. These pillars correspond to the categories of necessities that will be dealt with throughout the intervention: personal identification, health, education, family dynamics, housing conditions, employment and income.

For each of these pillars, the programme has defined a set of minimum conditions that the families should attain as a result of this intervention and the work done with them. Many of these can be achieved at the beginning of the intervention. In this case, the family support counsellor must work with the family to reinforce them and ensure that they are maintained over time. In case the minimum conditions are not immediately achieved, they then become priority work areas for the family.

During the 24-month programme period, the family also receives a monthly voucher, which diminishes as time progresses. The programme emphasizes empowering families to take charge of their own future by giving them the necessary tools to begin.

El Puente's intervention is implemented through a methodology based on defined family work sessions and the signing of task contracts between the family and the Counselor. The process is supported with a communication tool that resembles a board game, which is easily accessible by all members of the family and in case one or more family members is illiterate.

The desired outcome is that at least 70% of participating families reach the ideal set by the Programme, which is to be families that:

• support each other;
• are well-integrated into their local environment;
• take advantage of the social benefits offered to meet their needs;
• are integrated into existing local networks;
• have an income above the level of extreme poverty.

FOSIS

The Solidarity and Social Investment Fund (FOSIS) is a public agency of the Chilean Government dedicated to poverty reduction in Chile. It was created in 1990, with the return of democracy to Chile, and works with the poor and the poorest of the poor in the 13 Regions of the country. FOSIS interacts with the Presidency through the Ministry of Planning and Cooperation (MIDEPLAN).

FOSIS aims to participate in the national effort to eliminate poverty by contributing original responses to emerging problems and engaging in complementary action with other public services and ministries. Beginning in the year 2002, FOSIS has used Social Risk Management as its programme approach. FOSIS contributes to poverty reduction to the extent that it enables poor people, families and communities to manage or face the risks to which they are especially vulnerable, given their condition of poverty.

FOSIS understands poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, requiring interventions focused on diverse areas:

• ECONOMIC: People and families living in poverty do not have the economic resources needed to satisfy their basic needs. Desired results: increased income.
• SOCIAL: People and families living in poverty do not have the opportunities nor the support needed to realize their potential and fully integrate themselves into the national development process and access the goods and services offered to them. Desired results: increased social capital
• ENVIRONMENTAL: The place where their daily activities take place does not offer appropriate conditions to improve their standard of living and complicates their full social integration. Desired results: improved quality of community life.

The Chile in Solidarity (Chile Solidario) System is a governmental initiative designed to eliminate extreme poverty in Chile by bringing the following two elements together in one intervention:

• The progressive installation of an integral social protection system for Chilean families living in extreme poverty. (Social Network led by the Ministry of Planning and Cooperation)
• The provision personalized attention to these families, enabling them to effectively integrate themselves into the service networks and governmental programs intended for them.

In having success, the two elements combined aim to allow 225.000 families to rise above extreme poverty.

El Puente is one of FOSIS' programmes. The others are: Improvement of occupational skills; Support for economic activities in impoverished communities; Employment and reinsertion into the job market; Social development; Promotion of community participation; and "A neighbourhood for my family".

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