City Government of Rio de Janeiro

The “Agentes da Liberdade” program is a policy to provide support to and in particular to enhance the employability of men and women as they are released from the prison system; We have 20 Agentes da Liberdade already working in the city; our goal is to provide support to 500 persons released from prison per year. In Brazil, on average 80% of persons released from the prison system return to prison; up to 99% are unable to obtain formal-sector employment. “AGENTES DA LIBERDADE”

“E AGORA SÓ FALTA VOCÊ” This program (“And now all that’s needed is you”) is geared to residents of homeless shelters operated by the city government of Rio de Janeiro. It fosters the unity, initiative, and genuine involvement of the whole city to solve the problem of the homeless. The project began with 114 Committees for Solidarity Work, who provided support to a total of 146 persons at the shelter Fazenda Modelo for two months. The objective is to help those living in the shelters find formal-sector employment. The goal for 2003 is to form 500 Committees for Solidarity Work.

“E AGORA SÓ FALTA VOCÊ”

“COM LICENÇA, EU VOU À LUTA” This program (“Excuse me, I’m going to join the struggle”) is geared to mothers and grandmothers of students in the local school system -- women over 40 years of age -- who live below the poverty line, are alone, and never worked or have not worked for some time. Objectives:. To increase schooling. To providing training in two vocational programs of study. To increase women’s self-esteem, by holding them in higher regard. To make it possible to increase family incomes. To offer internship opportunities in the Committees. To steer them to formal-sector employment

“COM LICENÇA EU VOU À LUTA”

SOCIAL INTEREST LENDING (CRÉDITO SOCIAL) This program makes it possible to provide loans to the low-income population through a community fund, to enable them to carry out income-generating projects. In consideration of the loan, community services are provided. The team evaluates the proposed microenterprise operation, facilitates the provision of equipment and/or raw materials, and monitors the work and the provision of community services. The project’s objective is to encourage the start-up of operations by these future entrepreneurs in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

SOCIAL INTEREST LENDING

“MY FIRST JOB” (MEU PRIMEIRO EMPREGO) This Project, “my first job,” is geared to youths ages 18 to 24 years who have concluded their primary education in the youth education program of the municipal education secretariat and who are from families with per capita incomes up to one-half the minimum salary. Objectives:. To combat the exclusion of youths from very low-income families. To provide assistance to gain access to the labor market. To provide vocational training. Digital inclusion. Cultural immersion, in partnership with the municipal culture secretariat. Course on citizenship and human rights. Encouraging the practice of voluntary activities in one’s community. Internship in the Committees. Help direct participants to their first job

SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COOPERATIVES The objective of this project, “support for the development of cooperatives,” is to implement within one year and provide advisory services for the formation of Grassroots Cooperatives (Cooperativas Populares), fostering and strengthening initiatives to generate employment and incomes. The formation of these cooperatives is organized into five stages:. Mobilization and raising awareness. Course on the cooperative movement and cooperative management. Setting up and monitoring the chartering assembly. Legal registration. Planning, monitoring, and management of the cooperative. 20 cooperatives have already been formed in 2003.

CENATA The CENATA acts as an intermediary between self-employed professionals and the customers who need their services. The project generates employment and income for self-employed workers, offering the consumer quality, convenience, and fast service. The goal by June is to shift the responsibility for the CENATA, which today is under the municipal government, to the self-employed professionals themselves, by providing technical and financial incentives for the creation of a cooperative of self-employed workers.

“SOLIDARY ENTERPRISE SEAL” (SELO EMPRESA SOLIDÁRIA) The “solidarity enterprise seal” is granted to those public or private enterprises that hire workers who have come out of the programs of the city government. It symbolizes the public-private partnership in seeking solutions to the social problems faced by the population of the municipality. The Committee on Employability has a complete registry and serves as intermediary between the partner enterprises and the workers in the registry, offering all support needed to both parties. At the first ceremony, 18 enterprises were awarded the seal.

ALTERNATIVE SANCTIONS AND MEASURES The program for alternative sanctions and measures aims to foster the inclusion and re-socialization of a part of the population that has been subject to much discrimination. It supports efforts to expand the array of possible alternative sanctions and measures that can be set and complied with more expeditiously, and where the labor in question is needed. The Court of Criminal Enforcement channels the beneficiary to the municipal labor secretariat, which maps out the possibilities for placement in the different sectors of the city government, analyzes the profile of the beneficiary, and, after cross-referencing these two items of information, channels him or her to the best of the existing options.