What's the Casa?

Closed on its 5th birthday in February 2008, the Casa do Gestor Catalisador (Casa), loosely translated as "Catalytic Community Organizers' House," was a space for community organizers to access tools, information, and networks important to the development of their projects. In five years of operation the Casa established itself as a reference for the development of community projects in Rio de Janeiro. Different to a traditional Community Technology Center (CTC) that offers capacity-building workshops to train community residents to enter the workforce, our technology resources were focused on strengthening the work of people dedicated to community and social projects. The Casa was also a place for meetings and exchanges, different to an office or cybercafe. At the Casa community leaders posted projects to and consulted our Community Solutions Database (CSD), conducted research online, wrote funding proposals, organized, participated in capacity-building workshops, and met to unite efforts. We believe that the exchange of ideas and experiences between these leaders was a fundamental step towards true improvement of Rio´s communities.

From meetings at the Casa numerous partnerships arose. Maybe more importantly, community organizers knew that there existed a safe, positive and trustworthy space, where their ideas on how to create a better world could be nurtured. It was never necessary to conduct outreach for the Casa. Following its launch in February 2003 the Casa reached full activity by word-of-mouth. Without a formal campaign more than 1200 people from 159 different neighborhoods in Rio, 7 other Rio municipalities, 19 Brazilian states, and 19 countries visited the Casa and now are part of CatComm´s network.

We were able to pull together a significant base comprised of people involved in social and environmental initiatives throughout Rio de Janeiro. Click here to read testimonials from organizers that use the Casa.

To learn about the Casa's closing, visit the Casa blog.

In Rio de Janeiro, the organizers of projects documented in our Community Solutions Database who live throughout the region had a central space in which to meet, exchange ideas, and share experiences. The connections made and information exchanged were unpredictable and depended on those that frequented the space. Our function was to maintain the space as inviting and nurturing of community activities. We would like to share experiences with and help inspire similar spaces elsewhere.

The following is a list of the characteristics of the space (see the Casa questions in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the site for more details about the space):

• A location accessible by one ride on public transport from any location within the metropolitan region;
• A"homey" space: the fact that it was a house we found to be important in building a fraternal culture of comfort, exchange, and dialogue;
• Staff and frequent visitors presented the Casa and its objectives to all visitors and received them with coffee and biscuits, in order for them to quickly feel at home;
• There was no charge for use of the space given the low socio-economic level of community organizers in Rio de Janeiro; in addition we found that the exchange of monetary resources among staff and community organizers weakened the bonds of trust and camaraderie, and so must be avoided to ensure the healthy nature of the space;
• The connections made and information exchanged at the Casa were unpredictable and depended on the organizers that visited the space; the staff's role was to maintain a friendly space that nurtured and stimulated natural and strengthening exchanges;
• Workshops, debates and lectures offered in the space were organized by volunteers including community organizers that sought out CatComm staff to make use of the space, as were meeting rooms and computer facilities; CatComm staff did not actively direct the use and content of the space;
• The space was specifically available to support people in their effort to further projects related to community organizing or social mobilization; individuals wanting to use the space for personal, rather than collective aims, were directed to other Internet café's or locations for those activities;
• The space was neutral relative to differences in gender, race, religion, age, or sexual orientation;
• Community organizers used the Casa's resources independent of the thematic focus of their work;
• Exchanges among community organizers with diverse interests were actively encouraged; for example, a health project, AUAPARN, organized a computer skills workshop with a women's group, Woman in Action, and with a homeless movement, Chiquinha Gonzaga;
• Outreach happened mainly naturally, by word-of-mouth; by attentively following these precepts, the space had become a reference among community organizers in Rio and new leaders visited us almost daily thanks to positive outreach by other leaders themselves;
• Our staff offered to one only what we could offer to all; this encouraged us to develop stronger bonds with community organizers and volunteers themselves, who effectively drove activity in the space while CatComm had a small staff to simply administer and maintain it;
• Regular open meetings were held with Casa users to determine how the space and CatComm's website could better serve them, and to discuss important issues currently affecting local projects;
• Every visit and the use of computers and meeting spaces was registered in a customized database in order to determine how the space was being used, what worked, and what could improve.