El Salvador

Sustainable Livelihoods Program: In 2017, four different institutions—Seattle University, the UCA-El Salvador, St. Joseph’s Parish in Seattle and its sister parish, the San Bartolomé Parish in Chalatenango, El Salvador—began collaboration on a three year pilot-project to generate a replicable model of youth-led, entrepreneurial projects through the promotion of partnerships between local municipalities, NGOs, and the UCA-San Salvador. The Sustainable Livelihoods Program builds on the longterm relationship and youth scholarship fund established as part of the sister parish relationship between St. Joe’s and San Bartolomé. It has also been able to leverage the longterm commitment of the UCA-El Salvador with the Chalatenango department of northern El Salvador. Entrepreneurial ideas generated by the Arcatao community fuel the Sustainable Livelihoods project. Presently, we have funded 16 businesses and more are in the pipeline. To learn more about Sustainable Livelihoods, watch the video that SU professor Claire Garoutte made.