Profiles of New Engagement Mechanisms of the Colombian Agency for Reintegration 

The Colombian Agency for Reintegration, within the framework of its 17 years of experience, has managed to consolidate a strong relationship with strategic external stakeholders that have supported the Socio-Economic Reintegration Policy from different fronts. 

The "volunteering" is not becoming involved per se; it is rather a way to do things. In this vein, it has been established that the contributions of external actors can occur in two ways: 

The New Engagement Mechanisms are divided into two large groups:

1. Actions aimed at strengthening Individuals in the Process of Reintegration, their families, productive projects and communities. This category encompasses: Labor Inclusion, Fostering Labor Inclusion, Well-being, Strengthening Business Units and Spaces for Reconciliation.
2. Actions aimed at strengthening the Socio-economic Reintegration Policy and the Agency. This category includes: Positioning, Institutional Strengthening.

1. Mechanisms aimed at strengthening Individuals in the Process of Reincorporation, their families, productive projects and receiving communities: 

Fostering Labor Inclusion:

• Training in soft skills: spaces focused on developing interpersonal skills so that Individuals in the Process of Reintegration effectively operate in work environments.
• Training for the trades: educational offer focused on occupational, non-professional training programs.
• Productive environments: processes designed for the training of skilled labor in specific areas and fields.          

Strengthening Business Units:

• Training: activities focused exclusively on the development of skills related to the improvement and strengthening of business and production issues.        
• Productive chain: inclusion of business units appertaining to Individuals in the Process of Reintegration into the value chain of companies.
• Financial strengthening: donation of seed capital to improve the conditions of business units appertaining to Individuals in the Process of Reintegration.        
• Marketing spaces: sales spaces in which business units appertaining to Individuals in the Process of Reintegration participate. Includes fairs and/or showrooms. 

Well-being:

• Education: all actions aimed at managing training activities that are not linked to production. These literacy processes, formal education processes and training of various kinds.
• Health: all the steps, activities and actions aimed at enabling Individuals in the Process of Reintegration and their families to enjoy a healthy life. This includes actions focused on improving the living conditions of Individuals in the Process of Reintegration who are disabled, who have orphan diseases, high cost diseases or mental health affectations, or who have difficulties due to problems with Psychoactive Substances (PAS).
• Habitat: all actions aimed at facilitating the acquisition of housing and its improvement.
• Personal: all activities aimed at materializing formal links with social programs
• Family: recreation, culture and sports activities aimed at strengthening the relationships of the family nucleus of the Individuals in the Process of Reintegration.
• Citizenship: Support for legal benefit management: actions designed to guide participants in the characteristics of their legal situation related to the reintegration process.

Spaces for Reconciliation:

• Recruitment prevention: Strategies that seek to strengthen the family, school and home as protective environments through the development of regional initiatives with an artistic and cultural focus.
• Community reintegration: strategies that seek to build links between participants in the Reintegration Process and their receiving communities, as well as between these communities and local institutions, in order to promote spaces of coexistence and reconciliation.
• Social Service: actions aimed at generating reconciliation spaces between demobilized people and the community, through the donation of their time and work, with the aim of improving the quality of life of those who receive them.
• Territorial actions: community-based initiatives that arise in the territories and aim to generate reconciliation processes between the participants in the Reintegration Process and the communities.

2. Actions aimed at strengthening the Socio-economic Reintegration Policy and the Agency

Positioning: 

Actions focused on disseminating (amongst strategic external actors) the agency's work in pursuance of its mission.

• Dissemination: meetings with representatives of companies, public institutions, etc., with the aim of presenting the components of the PRSE and seeking to establish partnerships.
• Strategic visit: visits to territories in which the ACR has an institutional presence to disseminate the PRSE in an experiential way amongst external actors.
• Political tour: spaces that seek to promote the exchange of experiences and knowledge through a theoretical-practical methodology of workshops, conferences and experiential visits to the territory.
• Participation in events: institutional participation in events prioritized for their strategic nature, being spaces with the presence of the most important economic, political and social sectors in the country.

Institutional strengthening:

• Technical support: activities designed to strengthen the skills of the Agency's collaborators.
• Logistical support: donations in kind to facilitate the development of institutional activities (tents, snacks, etc.).