Currin Macarena
Organization: Rodelillo Foundation
Year Founded: 1987
Country: Chile
Website: www.rodelillo.cl
Geographic Area of Impact: Chile.
Model: Hybrid Non-Profit ,Social Business
Focus: Education,Homelessness & Housing.
Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Chile, 2006 The Innovation Rodelillo helps families to transform histories of poverty and dependency into lives of opportunity and self-reliance. Working with business, government institutions, foundations and the local community, Rodelillo’s 18-month psycho-social family companionship has assisted thousands of poor Chilean families to make such transformational changes. Rodelillo has also launched three social business ventures linked closely to the institution’s core mission that generate new sources of income and positive social impacts. The first social business venture, Rodelillo Takes Flight, is a fee-for-service vocational training institute with ISO 9001 and UKAS certifications. It was launched in mid-2006 and already contributes about 13% of the Foundation’s annual budget. It is growing rapidly. The second, called Rodelillo Inside the Company, works with medium-to-large businesses to install Rodelillo’s model for the benefit of those employees/subcontractors and their families.who are committed to take charge of their dreams and destinies. This program is ideal for companies wishing to materialize their Corporate Social Responsibilities and increase their workforce’s well-being, productivity and stakeholding. The third social business was initiated in 2007 as a Social Housing Brokerage Agency which has prepared several hundred families to become homeowners. Finally, Rodelillo continues to bid successfully for publicly-funded social projects, thereby increasing its economic sustainability and social impact. Background In addressing poverty, Latin American societies have tended to rely on paternalistic approaches rather than encouraging personal development, independence and entrepreneurship. Chile is no exception. But Rodelillo refuses to follow a one-size-fits-all, bureaucratic solution for the poor. The key to positive social change lies in the many untapped strengths in each family. Rodelillo helps families to draw on those strengths, and to respect and believe in their latent capacities to be the protagonists of their own development; this in turn reinforces their sense of self-worth and confidence in their ability to achieve self-defined goals. Strategy During its 21-year history, Rodelillo has worked with about 8, 000 poor Chilean families, or some 30, 000 individuals, helping them to set and accomplish their goals. More than 5, 000 families have graduated from, or are currently participating in, Rodelillo’s 18-month family accompaniment programs. Many of these families have also become owners of one of the almost 1,800 homes designed and built by Rodelillo. As the conditions in which we live evolve, so has Rodelillo. The Foundation’s community-based family accompaniment program is an effective and replicable model. At the same time, Rodelillo Foundation has modified its organizational structure so it can reach thousands more poor or socially-vulnerable families. Such families are organized not solely by geographical proximity but also by a common employer or industry, common associations or memberships, and common needs such as social housing or vocational training, or other shared identities. This new structure means that Rodelillo will eventually become fully self-sustaining financially, replicable and portable, without involving significant increases in personnel or fixed costs, thus permitting the Foundation to expand and reach countless other needy, determined families who will also create a path for themselves out of poverty and dependency. Rodelillo performs a rigorous quantitative and qualitative evaluation process every six months to measure and interpret its results. The Foundation is also routinely audited by the government Ministries and Departments with whom it collaborates on some of its social programs. The Entrepreneur As a result of 25 years as a Social Worker in Chile and 5 in the United States, an unusual family history and her intensive academic preparation, Macarena Currín understands societies as “co-constructions” among social actors; that is, as the product of the actions that legitimize the voices and contributions of diverse sets of stakeholders towards materializing common goals, including strengthening family bonds, providing education and employment training, promoting health and ecology, co-constructing definitive housing solutions, and preparing at-risk groups for self-dignity, empowerment and responsible citizenship.
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