Need Assessment: Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES AT A GLANCE (Community Development)

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT


Needs

Infrastructure
  • Promote research and public forums aimed at catlayzing public sector investment at the local and state level for improvements in basic infrastructure including, but not limited to, clean water, sewage treatment, electricity services, public transportation, mail delivery, telephone service, paved roads in urban and rural municipalities and sanitary facilities for garbage disposal, recycling and waste handling services.
  • Decent, affordable housing for incoming migrant populations.

Social

  • Support services for abused women and children.
  • Recreational activities such as sports teams and investment in community recreational spaces such as soccer fields.
  • Create sports promotion councils.
  • Programs to promote greater public participation and civic engagement.
  • Coordination and communication among nonprofits, government agencies, and private sector actors to comprehensively address community priorities.
  • Professional training for local nonprofits to improve management capacity.
  • Community development programs that in rural and urban communities on the benefits of conservation and sustainable exploitation of their natural resources.
  • After-school programs in communities where children are at a high risk of becoming involved with drugs and gangs.
  • Programs designed to create awareness for the growing drug problems in the state, as well as to provide rehabilitation services to addicts.
  • Create neighborhood watch groups.
  • Expand nonprofit and civil society capacity to better assess long term impacts of planned future growth on available water resources, environment, economy and urban landscape.
  • Develop quality of life indicators to better assess progress in the areas of education, health and environmental quality over time.

Opportunities for Philanthropy:

Giving


  • Community centers and programs targeted to senior citizens, children and youth, families with disintegration problems, people with disabled siblings and women and children that are victims of violence.
  • Funding to support research, expanded public participation and improved government transparency regarding financing for public infrastructure projects.
  • Develop programs for communities that are situated near oases, as well as the design of sustainable economic projects.
  • Funding for municipal plans for affordable housing, land use, and water management.
  • Capacity-building to improve nonprofit management, board development, and fundraising.
  • Funding and in-kind support for drug rehabilitation centers and programs in drug-prone areas.
  • Encourage nonprofit organizations from other regions of Mexico to leverage best practices and their experience to provide low-cost housing solutions for Baja California Sur’s growing migrant workforce.
  • Nonprofit exchange and training between groups in Baja California, the interior of Mexico, and those in Baja California Sur.
  • Support expanded public participation by electronically publishing reports, plans and maps.

Volunteer Opportunities


  • Volunteer leadership to encourage greater public participation and civic engagement.
  • Sister City technical exchange of best practices in the area of municipal finance and best in class public infrastructure (including desalinization facilities).
  • Volunteer home building projects.

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