Intersectorial educational incentive and youth leadership program: promoting opportunities

Abstract

The Poupança Escola Program, created by municipal law and part of the Prevention Axis of the Niterói Pact Against Violence, aims to encourage young people from low-income communities and members of Bolsa Família Program, to study and complete high school. To receive the financial incentive in addition to the annual approval, the student must participate in mandatory extracurricular activities offered by the Municipality, such as courses and workshops on financial education, health education, entrepreneurship, among others. Its implementation results from a collective construction, wich had the participation of Niterói Pact Against Violence's secretariats and the Program Supervision Commission, in order to stimulate the agreement and shared management. In 2019, of 281 eligible students, 231 pre-registered on the program's website and of this total, 72.29% students opened their savings account in a public bank. After analyzing the 2019's monitoring informations of Niterói's public schools, students who met all requirements were identified and the first financial incentives was paid, totaling R$ 41.400,00 (about $ 10,000). For that, it was necessary an intense work of intra-municipal articulation and partnerships: the Government of Rio de Janeiro and federal schools, strengthening the reduction of school dropout. In 2020, the challenge will be to expand the availability of extracurricular activities, through public partnerships and non-governmental institutions, with the aim of improving the professional and citizen training of young people, encouraging their autonomy and protagonism over their future and contributing to the reduction of inequities. It is important to highlight the potential for replicability of the experience in other units of the federation and also for other countries. Key messages As a public policy, Poupança Escola encourages low-income youth to develop professional and citizen training, contributing to the reduction of risk factors that influence youth violence rates. Extracurricular activities expand opportunities for generating skills and abilities, contributing to the reduction of inequalities in access for low-income youth.