Core Competencies

Community Education

Community Education projects vary from teaching English as a second language to literacy education to teaching basic math and science skills. Many projects involve collaboration with government and private school systems, vocational training programs or informal community groups requesting specific knowledge and skills to improve their lives. Many programs focus on empowerment, music, art and sports.

Entrepreneurship

Projects focusing on the financial progress of individuals. These projects will often include some type of initial investment of time, materials or capital to assist in the creation of small businesses or enhancing individual capacity to increase profitability. Topics commonly addressed include; small business development, business and personal finance classes, microcredit, computer skills, vocational skills training, etc.
 

Public Health

Projects with an emphasis on the health of a targeted group of individuals. These projects usually incorporate a high emphasis on health education though they can also include clinical projects assisting in hospitals, dental offices, etc. Topics commonly addressed include HIV/AIDS prevention, water sanitation and latrines, nutrition lessons, chronic disease prevention and promoting healthy lifestyles and more.

Construction

While hard manual labor isn’t required of HELP participants, it may be part of any project. Improving local infrastructure is oftentime extremely important in ensuring a successful project, and aspects of construction are found in all three core competencies. For example; in order to improve a community’s education potential for their children, a team may need to find a way to build a school or add classrooms onto a school. For someone’s small business to be productive it may be important to construct mushroom huts, chicken coups or pig pens. A community’s health may depend on the construction of improved latrines, or even a clinic room for medical professionals to work from. These are only a few examples of construction in each core competency.