C.A.R.T.S.: AN ASSET-BASED APPROACH TO A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN PUERTO VIEJO DE TALAMANCA, COSTA RICA

Erica Lynn Thomas B.S., California State University, Sacramento, 2007

PROJECT

Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE

in

RECREATION ADMINISTRATION

at

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSTIY, SACRAMENTO

SPRING 2010

ii

C.A.R.T.S.: AN ASSET-BASED APPROACH TO A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN PUERTO VIEJO DE TALAMANCA, COSTA RICA

A Project

by

Erica Lynn Thomas

Approved by:

_______________________________________, Committee Chair __________________________ Gregory B. C. Shaw, PhD Date

_______________________________________, Second Reader __________________________ Katherine J. Pinch, PhD Date

iii

Student:

Erica Lynn Thomas

I certify that this student has met the requirements for the format contained in the University format

manual, and that this project is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for the

Project.

__________________________________, Graduate Coordinator _________________ Katherine J. Pinch, PhD Date Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism Administration

iv

Abstract

of

C.A.R.T.S.: AN ASSET-BASED APPROACH TO A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN PUERTO VIEJO DE TALAMANCA, COSTA RICA

by

Erica Lynn Thomas

This project attempts to take an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach when creating a women’s recycled-art collective. The ABCD approach is discussed in depth by John Kretzmann and John McKnight in the book Building Communities from the Inside Out (1993). The project partnered with a local non-profit institution to help the local community build new collaborative relationships and mobilize local assets and capacities that were previously overlooked or under-utilized. The coordinator desired to facilitate the creation of an asset-based framework that enabled the formation of mutually beneficial relationships between members of the collective and members of the local community, local businesses, tourists, and the Talamanca Association of Ecotourism and Conservation (ATEC). The desired outcome of this project was to empower the members of the collective with the skills necessary to manage the newly formed enterprise with decreasing intervention from the local institution that supported its creation.

_______________________________________, Committee Chair Gregory B. C. Shaw, PhD

____________________ Date

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Acknowledgements ……………………………………………….……………..……………………...…viii

Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………….…………………………… 1

Need for the Project ………………………………………...………………………………...…… 3

Purpose of the Project ……………………………………..……………………………………… 4

Definition of Key Terms ……………………………………..…………………………………… 5

Delimitations ……………………………………………………………………..……………..… 6

Limitations ………………………………………………………………………………..….…… 7

2. LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………………………………………......… 9

Traditional Community Development Strategies ………………………………………….……… 9

A Shift Towards Capacity-Focused Community Development ………………………….....….... 10

Principles of the ABCD Approach ……………………………………...……………………….. 11

The Role of Social Capital ……………………………………………..………………………... 11

Linking Social Capital to Other Types of Capital Formation ………………………………….... 12

Tourism and Ecotourism ……………………………………………..………………………..… 13

Costa Rica’s Role in Global Ecotourism ……………………………………………...…….…… 15

The Talamanca Region of Costa Rica ………………………………………................................ 15

The Talamanca Association of Ecotourism and Conservation (ATEC) ………………………… 16

3. METHODS ……………………………………….……………………………………………………. 18

Project Background …………………………………………..……………………………..…… 18

Motivating the Community …………………..………………………………………………..… 21

Identifying Assets and Opportunities ……………………………………………………….....… 23

Linking, Mobilizing & Organizing …………………………………………………………....… 24

Prioritizing and Scheduling Work …………………………………………………...……...…… 25

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Moving Towards Auto-Administration ………………………………………………...……...… 30

Evaluation ……………………………………………………………………………...……….... 30

4. PROJECT RESULTS …………………………………………………………………….………....…. 32

The Project Team & ATEC …………………………………………………………………...…. 32

Motivating the Community …………………………………………..………………………….. 36

Identifying Assets and Opportunities …………………………………………………..……...… 38

Linking, Mobilizing and Organizing ……………………………………...…………………...… 40

Prioritizing and Scheduling Work ………………………………………………………...…...… 44

Moving Towards Auto-Administration ……………………………………...………...………… 48

Evaluation ……………………………………………………………………………………...… 49

Appendix A. Map of Talamanca …………………...…………………………..……………...… 54

Appendix B. Neighborhood Needs Map …………………………………..………………..…… 55

Appendix C. Community Assets Map …………………………...………………………...…….. 56

Appendix D. Modified Micro-Planning Process with Tools and Techniques ............................... 57

Appendix E. Asset Inventory Tool Used by ATEC ……………………………..………………. 58

Appendix F. Meeting Invitation Presented to Community Members ………………………...…. 59

Appendix G. Exit Survey Given to Meeting Attendees on August 8, 2009 …………………...... 60

Appendix H. Anticipated Administrative Time Allocations ………………………………..…… 61

Appendix I. Expected First Year Collective Budget …………………...…………………...…… 62

Appendix J. Promotional Flyer for the Second Saturday Event ……………...……………..…... 63

Appendix K. Promotional Flyers for the Collective (English & Spanish) ……...……..………… 64

Appendix L. Meeting Notes from July 23, 2009 ……………………………………...……….… 66

Appendix M. Meeting Agenda August 8th 2009 ………………………………..………………. 69

Appendix N. Exit Survey Results Summary …………………………………………………..… 71

Appendix O. Meeting Notes September 4, 2009 ……………………………………………...… 76

Appendix P. CARTS Product Catalog ……………………………………………..……..…...… 80

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Appendix Q. CARTS Accounting Spreadsheet .………………………………………..……….. 95

Appendix R. CARTS Informational Card ………………………..……………………...………. 97

References ……………………………………………………………..………………..……..… 98

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project reflects the hard work and dedication of several outstanding citizens. The project would not have had the momentum to grow had any member of the project team not been as committed as they were. Much gratitude is given to Alaine Berg, Ashley de Regil, Tirza Morales Sanchez, Karla Solano Dannemberger, and Susana Schik for their contributions to the project.

The artists involved in CARTS are to be acknowledged for their willingness to participate and contribute their time, energy, skills, and materials to a new project with an uncertain future. Without the artists, this project would not have existed. The commitment of the artists helped to establish CARTS but their commitment and never-ending creativity towards the project is what helped the collective blossom into a successful business and community asset.

The coordinator would also like to acknowledge the Puerto Viejo Development Committee for their solid support since the first day they learned about the project. Such open support by a respected community institution encouraged the support of local businesses and residents, adding to the success of the project. The donations of space to host CARTS events also contributed to connecting with more members of the community.

Gratitude also needs to be paid to the local businesses and community members that went out of their way to support the project and promote its value within the community. Together the project was able to reach more clients than CARTS would have been able to alone. As a result, more community connections have been made that leverage the local resources and make Puerto Viejo a more cohesive community.

Finally, the ATEC staff and the many resources provided willingly by ATEC need to be acknowledged for the tremendous contributions that were made to the project. CARTS could not have grown as successfully as it did without all of the late night assistance, last minute tasks and errands, and never-ceasing administrative requests that the staff provided with a smile. Above all, ATEC needs to receive the grandest thank you for all of the financial, spatial, and administrative resources that were given to CARTS; the project would truly not have existed had it not been for the limitless generosity and support on an extremely restricted budget.

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Taking an asset-based approach to community development is the driving concept behind the

paradigm shift that is a growing worldwide movement. By focusing efforts on the assets, abilities, and

potentials of a community rather than on the needs and deficits, community builders are having greater

success empowering citizens and mobilizing positive community action. In the opening remarks of a

speech given at the “From Clients to Citizens Forum” (2009), John McKnight highlighted the three

universal and abundant powers of this movement. He cited those powers as being the gifts and assets that

the community has, how working with associations within the community magnifies those abilities and that

the gain should be shared with as many people as possible. McKnight also acknowledged that “asset-based

community development” and “community builders” are just names that have been used to explain this

growing phenomenon (2009). Even though there is ample theory to support the success of the asset-based

approach to community development (ABCD), the truth behind the movement is that it all starts with

groups of local people that “have the courage to discover their own way – to create a culture made by their

own vision” (McKnight, 2009, p. 1).

This project attempted to progressively mobilize social capital by taking an asset-based approach

on a community development project in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica. The project operated

initially by partnering with an established local conservation-focused, grassroots nonprofit, the Talamanca

Association of Ecotourism and Conservation (ATEC). The association agreed to provide various types of

resources and capital until the project became profitable and could be operated by the community members

that participated. The project team reached out to interested community members whom determined that an

artisan collective with a conservation, recycling and education focus would benefit the most people, in

addition to themselves. The collective focused on creating useful art out of materials that are not recyclable

in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica. The collective, named Colectivo Artistico Reciclando en

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Talamanca por la Sostenibilidad (CARTS), aimed to be a community partnering project and create multiple

connections between organizations and people living in and visiting the Puerto Viejo community.

Outreach was conducted by the project team in order to connect with local artists and people

whom were interested in developing a community partnering project that utilized unrealized community

assets and created new social connections locally. The project team and local community members worked

together to develop a project concept that required little outside resources, was economically feasible, and

was intrinsically meaningful. The project presented here is the coordinator’s attempt to assist in the

creation of a women’s recycled-art collective that utilized the ABCD approach discussed in “Building

Communities from the Inside Out” (1993), by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight.

The Talamanca region is located in the southeastern section of Costa Rica. This project took place

in Puerto Viejo and surrounding communities located along the coast of the Caribbean Sea and the Panama

border (Appendix A). Puerto Viejo has been evolving from a coastal fishing and farming village into a

laid-back, lesser-developed tourist destination since the 1980s. ATEC was established in 1989 to provide

services and programs for tourists and local community members that facilitate sustainable development,

genuine cultural exchanges and collaborations with other non-profit organizations and community projects.

ATEC initially focused most effort towards training local tour guides, as more time passed ATEC added

different tourism-related services to the organization.

In 2010, ATEC was still seen as a pillar in the community. ATEC offered dozens of different

tours provided by over 100 local guides and provided the main source of income for over 90 families in the

area. ATEC worked closely with three indigenous groups living in territories in the area. The ATEC

office, located in downtown Puerto Viejo, sold local tours, local art, souvenirs, school supplies, drinking

water, and books about the area. The office also hosted a communication and business center that was

utilized by both tourists and local residents. ATEC also supports initiatives that helped the local

community develop sustainable business practices and enhanced local tourism and conservation activities.

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Need for the Project

Tourism generated the majority of revenue in the Puerto Viejo area. Shifts in the global economy

and have decreased the number of tourists visiting the Puerto Viejo area. The tourists that visit expect

more for their money and spend less overall. Local businesses were reporting decreased profits. At the

time of this project, business was slower than it had ever been; many people were either out of work or

searching for ways to make additional money.

The slower economy also lowered the price of real estate and forced local business owners to sell

their businesses; foreign investors purchased many of the businesses that were put up for sale. The two

main foreigner-owned business trends seen in the region were: businesses with outside investors that

supplied their own workforce and foreign-owned businesses that were managed by foreigners and rarely

hire local people. Both types of businesses had an advantage over locally-owned businesses because

starting capital, business experience, and technological resources were in abundance. These types of

enterprises had a reputation of being consumptive, commercialized, and took jobs and money away from

the local community. Often, little or none of the profits were reinvested into maintaining the environmental

integrity of the destination.

In addition, the grant that had been funding the local recycling services ran out and the policies

and procedures were changed following a four month hiatus from all services. Trash that was picked up by

the local municipal services got taken to a landfill fifteen kilometers outside of town and other trash

(including plastic) was burned in town and on the beaches. The recycling services were reduced to number

one and two plastics, glass, and aluminum cans. The days of service were also changed and all of the

employees at the recycling center were fired due to lack of funds. The sorting that took place at the

recycling center was done by volunteers from the community. These factors caused confusion and

frustration; many people quit trying to sort their recyclables and just sent it all to the landfill or burned it.

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The community of Puerto Viejo would benefit from a project that was able to utilize the

community’s capabilities, resources and assets that were already present and connected local associations

together to multiply their benefits for as many people as possible. The project should also address the needs

to: generate more money for local people and locally-owned businesses, teach new skills, create more jobs,

increase social capital by extending community connections, raise awareness, and educate nationals and

tourists about recycling and conservation initiatives in the area.

Purpose of the Project

The purpose of this project was to increase social capital in the Puerto Viejo community by

teaching community members how to identify and utilize overlooked assets and connections existing within

their community. This project aimed to teach the community members that participated in the project with

the skills and resources necessary to successfully operate and expand the project once the administrative

assistance provided by ATEC ceased. People and businesses in the community that were not a member of

the collective still benefited by learning about local conservation initiatives or by participating in the artistic

skills workshops hosted by the collective. The project concept, as determined by interested community

members, was to create a collective of artists that focused efforts on reusing discarded materials to create

their artwork. The collective was composed of only local artists from the costal Talamanca region of Costa

Rica, specifically Puerto Viejo and surrounding communities. With the administrative support of ATEC,

the coordinator aimed to assist in the creation of a valuable entity that enabled mutually beneficial

relationships to form between members of the collective and members of the local community, local

businesses, tourists, and ATEC. This project also attempted to strengthen the social networks of local

citizens that take pride in the community, art, and sustainable living.

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Definition of Key Terms

This project is best understood by its readers if the coordinator first defines the key terms that are

found throughout this document. The terms are organized below by the importance of the role they played

in this project.

CARTS - acronym that is used when referring to the collective of artists that was formed as the basis of this

project. CARTS stands for Colectivo Artistico Reciclando en Talamanca por la Sostenibilidad, the

English translation of this name is artist collective for recycling in Talamanca for sustainability.

ATEC - acronym that is used when referring to the Asociación Talamanqueña de Ecoturismo y

Conservación or in English—the Talamanca Association of Ecotourism and Conservation. ATEC is a

conservation-focused nonprofit association in Puerto Viejo de Limón, Costa Rica. ATEC served as the

overseeing organization and financial resource for this project.

Project team - term used to identify the group of people that were involved with the creation of this project

and provided time, resources and administrative support. The project team was made up of four Puerto

Viejo community members and the coordinator. Three of the four community members of the project

team were also members of the collective, CARTS. All five members of the project team were either

employed or volunteer regularly with ATEC.

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) - the focal strategy that was taken when executing this

project. ABCD is a community development strategy that helped community members identify

underutilized and unrealized resources that existed in the community. This strategy interconnected

community resources to multiply their strengths and emphasized the capabilities, skills, and assets of

all community members.

One of the main objectives of this project was to create more social capital in the Puerto Viejo

community. For the purposes of this project, social capital will be defined as the trust that exists in

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relationships within social networks. This project sought to gauge the benefits received from the creation of

new connections within the community between citizens, businesses, institutions, and local associations.

This project took place in the Talamanca region located in the south Caribbean of Costa Rica,

which is in the Limón province. More specifically, this project takes place in the coastal community of

Puerto Viejo. A map of the area is provided in appendix A.

Membership in the collective was restricted to artists that were born in Costa Rica and had been

living in the Puerto Viejo area for more than a few years. For the purposes of this project, such people are

referred to as local citizens, or locally-born. People that have lived in Puerto Viejo or Costa Rica for many

years but were born outside of the country are referred to as foreigners. People that came to Puerto Viejo

for a visit of one year or less are referred to as tourists, even if they were born in Costa Rica.

Some promotional activities for the collective took place online through a website called Facebook

(www.facebook.com). When Facebook is referred to in this project, the coordinator is referring to the free

social-networking webpage that was set up for CARTS on the website. Readers can view the page set up

for CARTS by searching CARTScr@gmail.com on www.facebook.com.

Delimitations

The scope of this project has been restricted to creating only the initial asset-based framework and

launch of the artist collective. This project limits its scope to the period of time prior to auto-administration

of the collective. Providing business management education to the collective members was critical to the

success of an internally-managed collective, but fell outside the scope of this project.

The delimitations imposed on this project limit the generalizability of the project. The final

outcome of this project was dependent upon the continued effort of the local community members and the

project team. The extent to which ATEC and members of CARTS desired to expand after the project

conclusion was their decision.

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The project restricted focus to community members who are Costa Rican nationals that voluntarily

participated in this project and whom had an interest in creating art out of discarded, secondhand, and non-

recyclable materials. Puerto Viejo had many artists whom were interested in participating in this project

but worked with new materials and not born in Costa Rica. All community members were invited to

support and participate in events hosted by the collective, but collective membership is restricted to Costa

Rican nationals.

This project also limited scope to operations that were part-time rather than full time. None of the

artists or organizational administrators had the time or ability to dedicate more than a few hours a week to

meetings, administration, events, promotion or production. Thus, at the time of creation, the collective was

not intended to become the sole source of income for any of the collective members. If the collective

proved successful, the members and the project team intend to allocate more time to collective-related

activities.

Limitations

Due to the time, energy, and commitment required, this project concluded prior to the collective

becoming completely internally-operated. To help promote the success of this project the coordinator

ensured a long-term commitment by ATEC to the project and outlined recommendations to assist with

preparing the collective members to take full responsibility of the collective’s operations.

The initial establishment period of the collective was limited by the availability of the coordinator.

The last day of the project was in April 2010, when the coordinator relinquished her role on the project

team and was replaced by a member of the collective that was from the Puerto Viejo community. The

objective of creating a collective during the slower tourism period was to have sufficient merchandise and

experience to meet product demands and establish a business framework in order to be operational

throughout the high tourism period. The peak tourism period coincided with many different holidays in

November and December, the collective wanted to sell recycled art to tourists who were seeking holiday

8

gifts and souvenirs. If time was not a limitation, the design of the project would be strengthened by

arranging for long-term interaction between the coordinator and the collective members. It is important to

note that during the high tourism season, the time of ATEC and Finca la Isla administrators was allocated

to existing projects within their respective organizations; during those periods it was the responsibility of

the collective members to carry out all administrative duties required by the collective.

Another limitation of this project was the Spanish speaking ability of the coordinator. Although

the skills of the coordinator were sufficient, with assistance, to successfully communicate with community

members, not being completely fluent did detract from the project being executed as efficiently as it could

have been. The majority of ATEC employees and collective members spoke Spanish as their first language;

the coordinator’s primary language is English.

An additional limitation of this project was the observational and analytical skills of the

coordinator. The data collected and analysis performed possesses an inherent bias due to the interests and

personal viewpoints held by the coordinator, despite all efforts that were made to exclude those biases. The

influence of the coordinator’s subjectivity and bias were attempted to be negated by relying heavily on the

suggestions made by the project team and collective members for decision making and project execution.

The coordinator instead inquired with ATEC administration as to what type of project would be the most

beneficial for the community and the organization while meeting all of the stated needs of the project.

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Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

“We have a calling. We are the people who know what we need. What we need surrounds us. What we need is each other. And when, we act together, we will find Our Way. The citizen’s way. The community way. The democratic way. We are called to nothing less. And it is not so wild a dream” (McKnight, 2009).

Traditional Community Development Strategies

Traditional community development strategies focus on a “community’s needs, deficiencies, and

problems” (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.1). Not only does this strategy require large amounts of

financial and human resources, it also provokes clients to “see themselves as people with special needs that

can only be met by outsiders” (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.2). Needs-driven community

development strategies often turn clients into “consumers of services with no incentive to be producers”

(Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.2). In fact, local neighborhood residents in these types of situations lack

the power to influence the community development and instead often focus their efforts on outwitting or

bypassing the system (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993). Despite the low success rates of deficiency-

focused community development strategies, the method is perpetuated by foundations and government

service agencies that allocate funding based on problem-oriented data collection (Kretzmann & McKnight,

1993). The insatiable hunger of the mass media for violent and problem-laden reports also contributes to

the wall that is created between “lower income communities and the rest of society – a wall of needs which

, ironically enough, is built not on hatred but (at least partly) on the desire to ‘help’” (Kretzmann &

McKnight, 1993, p.2). The tool that is most commonly used and associated with deficiency-focused

approaches to community development is the Needs Map (Appendix B). The popularity of the needs map

has resulted in devastating consequences for residents of low income neighborhoods (Kretzmann &

McKnight, 1993). The most tragic consequence, according to Kretzmann and McKnight, is that the

residents begin to think of the map as the “only guide to the reality of their lives” (1993, p.4), believing

themselves and their neighbors to be fundamentally deficient. As a result, clients often view themselves as

10

“victims incapable of taking charge of their lives and their community’s future” (Kretzmann & McKnight,

1993, p.4).

Heavy reliance on the needs map by deficiency-driven community developers generates many

additional negative effects than the ones listed above. Utilization of the needs map breaks down a

community’s own problem solving capabilities by portraying a community as a never-ending list of

deficiencies, causing fragmentation of the problem-solving efforts being made (Kretzmann & McKnight,

1993). In order for community leaders to attract the resources prescribed by the needs map, they must

ignore their community’s inherent capacities and strengths while highlighting their problems and

deficiencies. In doing so, neighbor-to-neighbor connections are undervalued compared to connections with

outside resources that fund service providers rather than community members (Kretzmann & McKnight,

1993). Once funding is awarded, problems need to appear worse than the year before to ensure continued

funding, inevitably “deepening the cycle of dependence” (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.5).

A Shift Towards Capacity-Focused Community Development

Clearly, deficiency-focused development strategies and a reliance on the Neighborhood Needs

Map is likely to do more harm than good; an alternative approach is imperative according to Kretzmann

and McKnight (1993). That alternative path “leads towards the development of policies and activities

based on the capacities, skills, and assets of a community” (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.5). Putting

aside momentarily the slew of problems associated with the deficiency model, two positive factors support

the adoption of an alternative model. Those factors are: significant community development only takes

place when the residents of a community commit themselves and their resources to development efforts

and; the prospect for outside funding at this time is very bleak (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993).

Waiting for outside help to arrive, in many cases, is futile. In order to begin development from the

inside out, it is necessary to first identify all of the local assets. Similar in format to the Neighborhood

Needs Map but fundamentally different is the Community Assets Map (Appendix C) which can be used as

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a valuable tool in assisting communities to identify all of the assets, capabilities and skills that exist locally

(Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993). Opportunities to regenerate and rebuild exist everywhere, even in the

poorest of communities; successful community development connects local assets “with one another in

ways that multiply their power and effectiveness” (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.5). Once a

community adopts the capacity–focused Community Assets Map in place of the Neighborhood Needs Map,

it can begin to assemble its strengths into new combinations, new structures of opportunity, new sources of

income and control, and new possibilities for production” (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.6).

Principles of the ABCD Approach

Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) stated that the majority of a community’s capabilities, assets,

and abilities lie within its individuals, associations and institutions. The ABCD approach is designed to

help communities identify and map their assets, as well as mobilize them for development purposes. The

first principle of the ABCD approach is to focus on what is already present, rather than what a community

is lacking. The second principle of the ABCD approach is that the community development process be

dedicated to being internally-focused, meaning that “the development strategy concentrates first of all upon

the agenda building and problem-solving capacities of local residents, local associations, and local

institutions” (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.9). The third main principle of the ABCD approach is to be

relationship-driven, “thus one of the central challenges for asset based community developers is to

constantly build and rebuild relationships between and amongst local residents, local associations, and local

institution” (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.9).

The Role of Social Capital

Asset-based community development required that citizens within a community take on a more

active role in local democracy. According to Mark Silverman (2004) “the social capital debate should be

viewed as an effort to account for this shift in public sentiment and develop strategies for responding to it”

(p.1). Jan Jacobs (1961) is most often credited with the concept of social capital in terms of “relationships

12

of trust embedded in social networks” (Silverman, 2004, p.20). However, most current formal definitions

stem from the work of James Coleman (1988). According to Coleman (1988), social relationships become

capital, and retain value when “participants can rely on one another to uphold social norms reciprocate

favors” (Light, 2004, p.20).

Social capital is often conceptualized differently by political scientists and sociologists. Political

scientists support a “general definition for social capital, focusing on its role producing cohesion at the

societal level” (Silverman, 2004, p.5). Sociologists, in contrast, conceptualize social capital to emphasize

“the manner in which social networks are embedded in specific social structures” (Silverman, 2004, p.5).

There is also a progressive response that focuses on integrating these two perspectives that supports both

“the need for social capital to be embedded in parochial networks, while also maintaining a focus on

cultivating social capital that facilitates the integration of local communities through a shared investment in

democratically grounded community-based organizations” (Silverman, 2004, p.6). Further, a progressive

approach would seek to develop means by which social capital could be leveraged, enhancing the

participative role of citizens in revitalization activities (Silverman, 2004). Specific local focus increases the

opportunities for all citizens, especially marginalized citizens, to become involved in the local democratic

process (Silverman, 2004, p.8).

Linking Social Capital to Other Types of Capital Formation

Where classical economists once only recognized physical and financial capital, Social Science

research in the past twenty-five years has changed the perspective of what is recognized as capital today

(Light, 2004). Newly recognized forms of capital include social capital, human capital and cultural capital.

While each type of capital exists independently, they are “best understood in their interconnection” (Light,

2004, p.19).

Human Capital is considered to be the effort and resources consumed or invested in ones’ self to

increase productivity, like school or training (Light, 2004). Cultural capital is “high cultural knowledge

13

that confers economic and social advantage” (Light, 2004, p. 21). Social capital has already been defined

as the trust that exists in relationships within social networks, however, “the value of social capital lies

precisely in its conversion into other desirable resources” (Light, 2004, p. 19).

Social capital can be leveraged in a fashion similar to financial and physical capital to produce

capital gains. However, in order to use existing capital to create additional capital, one must first possess

capital to leverage. Most people, even in the poorest of countries, have at least one type of capital to

leverage. Even the most limited means opens up the capital stake. “Their strongest capital suit is their

relative capital advantage. Relative advantage in some form of capital facilities the process of bringing the

less abundant forms of capital up to the level of the most abundant form” (Light, 2004, p. 26).

Community-based organizations, like ATEC, can focus on three main areas to improve their

effectiveness in linking social capital to community development efforts. Those three areas are: linking

social capital to the other elements of capital formation; increasing community presentation in policy-

making circles, taking exclusiveness into consideration; and attempting to empower marginalized members

of the community (Light, 2004). In practice, low-income collectives enjoy a relative capital advantage in

social capital; they do not have an abundance of property money or education, but they do trust each other

(Light, 2004). This capital can create additional social capital simply by relying on it often: “the more

social capital is used, the more of it one has” (Light, 2004, p. 28).

Tourism and Ecotourism

Since the term ecotourism was coined by Ceballos-Lascuráin in early 1980s the concept has yet to be

given one set definition that is universally accepted within the industry. Similar to tourism, a definition is

difficult to arrive upon due to the depth of which it is interwoven into the economy, environment, and

culture of any destination (Fennell, 2008). In order to effectively present some of the more widely

accepted definitions of ecotourism, the reader should be aware of the progression of tourism in the last

century and the shift towards being more aware of the impacts tourism developments have on the local

14

people and the local resource base.

Within tourism, one major competing paradigm exists: mass tourism versus alternative tourism.

Conventional mass tourism rarely has long-term positive impacts on a destination (Fennell, 2008). Most

often mass tourism is characterized by its dominating nature to overpower the local tourism industry while

transforming destinations and unsustainably consuming natural resources. Further, mass tourism often has

a non-local orientation and very little of the revenue generated by mass tourism is reinvested into the

destination (Fennell, 2008). Mass tourism has deeper consequences for the local population that is

employed by jobs that depend solely on the volume of tourists visiting. The marketing strategies of such

ventures are highly commercialized and seek to attract the highest number of visitors possible, regardless of

the capacity of the destination’s infrastructure. The result is a destructive cycle of peaks and plummets that

leave destinations and their economies unstable and unhealthy (Fennell, 2008).

In the 1980s, tourism research began to advocate for a tourism approach opposite of mass tourism that

would emphasize the demand for unspoiled environments and take the needs of the local population into

consideration (Krippendorf, 1982). Alternative forms of tourism have since evolved to provide the means

for countries to take back some of the decision making power that supported the formation of a new form

of tourism that was much more ecologically and socially responsible. Ecotourism was then born out of this

need as an extension of alternative tourism. The niche that ecotourism fills is still changing as different

types of tourism continue to develop. This project pertains specifically to the deeper types of ecotourism

that are characterized “according to intrinsic-value, small scale development, community identity,

community participation, and the notion that materialism for its own sake is wrong” (Fennel, 2008, p. 19).

The main principles of ecotourism that were considered as part of this project and congruent with ATEC

operations are: the project must contribute to local conservation efforts, provide revenue for the local

community, and educate visitors about and help preserve the culture that is endemic to the area (Goodwin

1996).

15

Costa Rica’s Role in Global Ecotourism

In the 1960s and 1970s most of the tourist resorts were developed by Costa Rican entrepreneurs for

domestic tourism. Beginning in the mid 1980s, Costa Rican visitor and investment patterns shifted; the

numbers of international travelers grew, as did financial assistance from international, primarily U.S.,

sources. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and USAID gave generously to the Costa

Rican government in return for the quiet support of the U.S. war against Nicaragua, the privatization of

government industries, and the promotion of exports and foreign investment (Honey, 2008). In 1987 the

Costa Rican President, Oscar Arias, won the Nobel Peace Prize that projected Costa Rica into the

international spotlight as a peaceful country and launched the ecotourism boom (Honey, 2008). In the early

1990s international hotel chains moved into Costa Rica. By 1992 the U.S. Adventure Travel Society

considered Costa Rica the number one ecotourism destination in the world (Honey, 2008). In addition to

five percent of the world’s biodiversity within just 0.035 percent of the earth’s surface, Costa Rica

abolished its army, had a well-functioning democracy and the highest literacy rates and standards of Latin

America (Honey, 2008). By the early 1990s, an estimated ninety percent of Costa Rica’s beachfront

property was owned by foreigners (Honey, 2008).

The Talamanca Region of Costa Rica

The Talamanca Region of Costa Rica was inhabited only by indigenous people prior to the 1750s when

turtle fisherman from Bocas del Toro, Panama and Nicaragua began to set up provisional camps during the

fishing season that lasted March through September. The fishermen lived in wooden shacks during their

stay and planted coconut, yucca and green plantain, which was harvested the next fishing season (Palmer,

1993). In 1828, one of the seasonal fisherman, William Smith, decided to take permanent residence in the

area and was soon joined by other settlers that spread themselves out amongst the stretch of Caribbean

coastline from Chauita to Manzanillo (Palmer, 1993). A few of the settlers brought their families, while

others made families with the Talamanca Indigenous, originating the interracial population that is

characteristic of the region today. The area continued to develop in the 1850s as more settlers came from

various origins of the Caribbean and more so in the 1890s when Jamaican workers came for the railroad

16

construction in Limón. The Talamanca region’s economic activities depended on the demand of the

international market and were subject to the boom and bust of exports such as: lumber, cacao, bananas,

coffee, turtle shells, meat, and eggs (Honey, 2008).

The area continued to develop and survived off of agricultural exports that were exploiting the natural

resources of the region. The United fruit company built a railroad that was completed in 1936; a local coal

mine was discovered that provided a convenient and ample supply of coal. Many local farmers cut down

their cacao trees to plant bananas to sell to the Penshurst Banana Company (a business partner of the

United Fruit Company) that had a monopoly on the area (Palmer, 1993). In 1942 the buying stopped due to

WWII making sea travel difficult. Penshurst abandoned Talamanca, disabling the train service and leaving

farmers no way to fill banana orders to private buyers (Palmer, 1993).

In the 1980s the area began to see its first influxes of tourists coming to visit the beautiful coast. The

President of Costa Rica had also issued a campaign highlighting Costa Rica as a premier ecotourism

destination. By 1984 tourism had reached popularity that afforded the people living in the Talamanca area

decent opportunities to make a profit from tourism activities.

The Talamanca Association of Ecotourism and Conservation (ATEC)

A group of Talamanca citizens began meeting in to discuss their concerns over rapid social, cultural,

and economic changes accompanying increasing tourism. In 1989 this group became an incorporated

grassroots, non-profit association and called themselves ATEC—the Asociación Talamanqueña de

Ecoturismo y Conservación or in English—the Talamanca Association of Ecotourism and Conservation.

Talamanca is the “canton” which is home to the communities of Puerto Viejo, Manzanillo, Cahuita, BriBri

and many other culturally and ecologically rich villages.

ATEC opened an office in the town center of Puerto Viejo with international grants. In 2010, ATEC

was Puerto Viejo’s only non-profit organization that offered tours with local guides, a business and

communication center, and a retail space featuring the work of local artists and literature about the area,

local culture and history. ATEC was a self-sustaining non-profit association that supported itself and its

efforts through donations.

17

This previously isolated area has since undergone many rapid changes due to easier accessibility

and its natural beauty and charm. ATEC desired to maintain the area’s natural beauty and sustain the local

culture. ATEC offered programs that created more opportunities for local residents. The programs offered

by ATEC had many different objectives, but the main objective of ATEC was to eventually be completely

operated by local residents. ATEC administration was hopeful that this project would yield some

information about what techniques may work best in the community to find, train, and keep local residents

that were interested in administrative positions at ATEC.

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Chapter 3

METHODS

This chapter discusses the methods that were used to create CARTS, a women’s recycled art

collective that took an asset-based approach to community development. To increase the chances of the

project being successful, the coordinator consulted various guidebooks and manuals that mapped the

Assed-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach. The consulted literature was used to support

and guide the actions of the project team. The methods that are presented in this chapter follow the

Modified Micro-Planning Process (Appendix D) that is presented in “An Asset-Based Approach to

Community Development: A Manual for Village Organizers,” produced for the SEWA Jeevika Project by

Coady International Institute (2006). The coordinator also incorporated supporting concepts from the five

steps to create a Community Partnering project, as presented in the resource kit “Shifting Focus:

Alternative pathways for communities and economies” (Cameron, J. & Gibson, K., 2001) and the tools for

creating an asset-based framework provided in the community-building workbook "Discovering

Community Power: A guide to mobilizing local assets and your organization's capacity" by John P.

Kretzmann and John L. McKnight (2005).

Project Background

This project takes place in Puerto Viejo, located on the Southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica in the

Talamanca Region. The coordinator worked closely with the Talamanca Association of Ecotourism and

Conservation (ATEC) in the development and execution of this project. ATEC Administration expressed

interest in working with the coordinator to create a community partnering project that met the

organization’s objectives and was in-line with ecotourism best-practices. ATEC was willing to commit

total support for the project from July 2009 to April 2010, but on a very modest budget. Most of the

resources that ATEC was able to commit to the project included personnel, physical space, and community

connections. The specific assets will be looked at in more depth later in this chapter. ATEC administration

19

and the coordinator agreed that taking an asset-based approach in creating a new community partnering

project would have the highest chance of being successful long-term. Although the guides that were

followed sought to alleviate poverty and focused efforts towards the poorest of the poor, this project never

intended to have the same objective. Community members of varying levels of economic stability were

invited to participate in this project. The members of the collective that committed to participation were

not representative of any specific demographic in the Puerto Viejo community, rather citizens that had an

interest in participation.

After the decision had been made to move forward with a new community partnering project, the next

step was to find community members that were interested in a new project, had additional social networks,

were trusted within the community, and had experience developing community projects. The project team

needed community coordinators. Community researchers play a critical role in the success of a community

partnering project. They are noted by their commitment to contributing to their communities, possess good

communication and listening skills, have the ability think creatively, and work as a team. Community

researchers must also have an interest in learning new skills and working with different groups of people

(Cameron, J. & Gibson, K., 2001).

The search for community researchers for this project began in July 2009. The coordinator and

ATEC administration contacted local community members that had past experience mobilizing community

assets, had broad social networks, or exhibited exceptional creative skills. In a notably short period of time,

three community researchers committed their efforts to the project. The project team was officially

mobilized on July 23, 2009 and was composed of the coordinator, the director of ATEC, and three

community researchers. Background information is provided about the community researchers as reasons

supporting their selection.

Tirza Morales Sánchez was a University of Costa Rica student and artist of indigenous BriBri

decent. She had also worked for ATEC for four years prior to this project. She had lived in the Talamanca

region her whole life. Three years ago Tirza created her own line of art which included paintings and small

20

crafts made from recyclable materials. Her products were sold by different merchants in Puerto Viejo and

in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Ashley de Regil moved to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica from Canada when she was eleven. She

attended college in Canada and moved to the Talamanca region in 2007. Ashley was an administrator of

Finca la Isla Botanical Garden in Puerto Viejo, was active on the board of CoopeSOS Talamanca (the local

biofuel initiative), and has worked on various projects with ATEC in the past. Ashley has a degree in

social work from the University of Toronto. She has also helped organize a collective of women in India in

2006, which was still thriving in 2010.

Susana Schik was a Peace Corps volunteer in Puerto Viejo in 1985. She has lived in the area since

her volunteer term ended in 1987. Susana is married to a Costa Rican national and has one daughter.

Susana has a long history of being involved in numerous projects in the community, had far-reaching social

connections, and was respected in the community. She generated income by being the liaison between

tourists and school groups with project leaders in the community.

Alaine Berg was one of the directors of ATEC. She played the role of a community researcher in

this project because of her reputation within the community of always putting the locals first and being

honest. Alaine and her husband have shared the director’s position at ATEC for nine years. They were

actively looking for community members to train to take over their position.

The project team was officially mobilized at the first meeting held on July 23, 2009. The main

outcomes of that meeting were: to identify local people to work with; identify specific assets that ATEC

was going to contribute to this project; draft a Community Assets Map; and brainstorm project concepts

that had potential to leverage existing community assets. The information collected was presented at the

first meeting with interested community members.

Brainstorming community members that might have been interested in participating in a new

community partnering project was the most important objective of the meeting. After several community

21

members were identified, the list was divided and the project team committed to speaking with each of

them face-to-face about the opportunity for a new project and inviting them to the upcoming meeting. The

community members that were invited to the meeting were also encouraged to bring any examples of

artwork that they had made from recycled materials or anything else that they wanted to share. Each

invitee was presented an invitation with all of the meeting information on it (Appendix F) and told that they

could share the invitation with other people they knew that might be interested in attending the meeting.

In order to begin to draft concepts of a possible project, ATEC administration needed to identify

exactly what they would be able to contribute to a new project. The asset mapping tool provided in

“Discovering Community Power: A guide to mobilizing local assets and your organization’s capacity” by

John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight (2005) (Appendix E) was used to identify what assets ATEC and

members of the project team could contribute to the project.

Lastly, the project team brainstormed project concepts that could help facilitate the flow of ideas

in the meeting with community members. The project team attempted to come up with various concepts

that would fit into the mission of ATEC and address some of the known needs of the community.

Motivating the Community

After the first meeting held with the project team, the community researchers contacted the

identified community members and invited them to a meeting that was held on August 8, 2009 in the

classroom adjacent to the Casa de la Cultura, in the center of Puerto Viejo. The main objective for the

meeting was to gather community members to discuss ideas for a new community partnering project. The

meeting was designed to be a casual brainstorming session where people could openly share ideas and talk

with one another about project concepts. ATEC administration also wanted to take the opportunity to

introduce themselves to the community members that they had not worked with in the past and speak about

the organization’s mission and the resources that could be provided for a project.

22

The project team attempted to employ tactics of appreciative inquiry by asking community

members to bring examples of things that they had made or pictures of things that they would be interested

in making. This was done to create an informal environment in which to display items that the community

identified as “successful” examples of useful recycled-art and generate discussion about why they were

considered successful, how they could be better, and inspire related ideas.

To help the meeting attendees analyze local examples of successful projects that were similar to

this project’s initial concept, ATEC attempted to contact members of other projects to share their insights.

There were two successful artisan groups in the Talamanca coastal area at the time this project was starting.

Both were women’s groups operated on different indigenous territories nearby. Members from the Yüe

group were invited to the meeting to discuss their successes and obstacles regarding their project.

Unfortunately, no one from the Yorkín group was invited due to their remote location and lack of electronic

communications. Travel time to the territory is a minimum of three hours from Puerto Viejo; none of the

project team members were able to afford a trip at that time. The project team felt that they had adequate

experience working with the Yorkín group to speak a little about the success that they had experienced, it is

recognized that the reflections would have been more meaningful coming from an actual member of the

group. Discussing similar local projects was intended to help the meeting attendees identify the strengths

and assets that were needed for a new project to be successful.

The desired outcome of the meeting held on August 8, 2009 was to connect community members

and get people talking. Having people bring art and other ideas was intended to help people see that there

are unutilized resources all around the community, maybe right even under their feet. To help the project

team gauge the interest level of the community members, an exit survey was administered. The survey was

optional and could be anonymous. A copy of the exit-survey is located in appendix G. The questions on

the survey were intended to generate feedback about the project idea, about the attendees’ feelings about

the meeting, and anything else that the community members wanted to share with the project team.

Enough interest was expressed by the community regarding this project. The project team decided that an

23

additional meeting would be necessary to discuss the concept of an artist collective, the assets that would

be required for a collective, and the opportunities that would be created by this community partnering

project. Meeting attendees were encouraged to invite people they knew to attend the second meeting and to

keep searching for new ideas. They were each given two hours of free internet access from ATEC to do

research. They were also offered technical assistance if they needed help doing internet research or using

the computer. The next meeting was scheduled for September 4, 2009 at a time and location that was

suitable for the majority of the group. The project team reminded the invitees the week of the meeting.

Identifying Assets and Opportunities

The objectives of the meeting that was held on September 4, 2009 was to identify the assets and

opportunities in the community and create a plan of action to connect the project to the identified assets.

The meeting also aimed to guide the attendees in taking the next step towards forming a group and setting

the project in motion. The project team agreed that the meeting would be the right time to encourage some

commitment by the community members to the project. The project team aimed to establish a product line

and generate discussion about a name for the collective.

The project team planned to discuss the assets and opportunities within the community. To help

the community members decide how to increase the project’s value for them, the project team guided a

conversation that linked the skills and assets of the individuals and ATEC to the local community. The

project team was anticipating that the discussion would yield a plethora of ideas about products, places to

sell, activities to host, and community connections.

By creating a plan of action, the project team was looking for community members that were

going to take on a leadership role for the project and to gauge the willingness of the community members to

commit support to the project. The second meeting with the community members was designed to prepare

willing participants for the next steps in the community partnering project process that called for immediate

action.

24

Linking, Mobilizing & Organizing

The objective to linking, mobilizing and organizing community members was intended to produce

a plan for immediate action. Producing immediate action was also the main objective of the meeting that

was held on September 17, 2009. ATEC was able to purchase samples of the artwork that the artists

brought to the meeting, thus providing an immediate benefit. Other mobilizing actions included deciding to

make a public debut of the collective at the local organic farmer’s market, deciding the subjects of the first

three workshops, communicating to the local community about donations that could be made in the form of

secondhand and recyclable materials, and contacting local businesses to introduce the collective and ways

they could help support it.

By the third meeting, the project had become a collective with a fairly established membership;

nine women artists, three of which were on the project team. By mid September there were enough

products made by the collective to go and sell them at the local organic farmers market, more commonly

referred to as the feria. The feria was open on Saturdays from 7:00am to 11:00am. Community members

could get a stall for approx $3.50 per Saturday. The feria was located right behind the Casa de la Cultura, in

the center of Puerto Viejo. The group was called to a meeting to decide if they wanted to get a stall at the

feria, who would work the stall, what products were to be sold, and what the table display should look like.

The workshop topics were also on the agenda to be discussed at the third meeting. The collective

members and the project team had discussed hosting educational workshops at second meeting. The next

step was to decide what workshops to host and who should teach them. The project team wanted to make

sure that the collective members had enough materials. To keep items from going into the landfill or being

burned, the project team called upon the local community to donate their unusable and non-recyclable

materials to support the collective’s need for raw materials. The project team was hopeful that local

businesses, like hotels and restaurants, would contribute materials in addition to local households. A

brainstorm of materials and businesses was executed at the third meeting held on September 17, 2009.

25

Another key outcome of the third meeting was to identify economic opportunities that existed

outside of selling at the feria and at ATEC. The project team planned to lead a discussion on how to utilize

resources that were available, but the collective was not utilizing. The aim of the discussion was to

mobilize the artists to pursue the economic opportunities presented by the unutilized assets.

Prioritizing and Scheduling Work

The fourth meeting that was scheduled with the project team and members of the collective was

held on October 8, 2009. The meeting was intended to encourage continued progress of the collective. The

objectives of the fourth meeting were to finalize a name for the collective, create a mission and a vision for

the collective, decide how the first official collective event should be executed, and begin planning

upcoming activities in the community.

Deciding a name for the collective and outlining a mission and a vision was intended to get the

members to define their purpose for participating in this project and communicate to the community their

intentions. The project team was optimistic that the activity of citing purpose of actions for the collective

would motivate the women to help each other in order to achieve a common goal and benefiting the

community as a whole. The project team understands that the project needed to be meaningful to the

members if the collective was going to gain commitment. Identifying a mission and a vision was also

designed to see if the members were finding the project to be meaningful to them and if they were

interested in voicing a commitment.

Planning the first “Second Saturday” event was the most important objective of the fourth meeting

held with the collective members and the project team. The collective was required to decide what they

wanted to offer, how the event should be promoted, and who was going to work at the event. The project

team was experimenting with the collective members taking over the planning and executing

responsibilities of the upcoming event. The project team was still actively participating but encouraging

the members of the collective take on leadership roles.

26

The collective decided that the Second Saturday event would be made up of three different

activities. The first activity would be having a stall at the feria on October 10, 2009. After the feria was

over, the collective wanted to host a community-wide yard sale and give local people a chance to get

involved. The intent was that the yard sale would allow the community to sell their items, practicing

reusing items, and make a little money as a reward. Items could be donated and sold to benefit the

collective. Finally, the Second Saturday event was planned to have a workshop for children that made

different figures out of corks. It was the responsibility of the collective members to identify what was

needed and what tasks needed to be done before the event and assign people to specific tasks.

In addition to the work that was done by the members of the collective, the project team mapped

out an estimate of how the administrative work for the collective would be divided (Appendix H). This was

done to help the project team allocate time and resources to the project and provide clues as to which area

would require the most assistance before the collective members were able to take over the project

completely. The main areas of the initial framework are: accounting, inventory management, outreach,

education, and promotion. The descriptions below are an estimate of the time allocations that were

required for the collective up until the middle of April 2010. Time allocations would need to later be

revised to calculate the increased capacity during the high tourism season. The members of the collective

would also need to decide if they were willing and able to allocate more time for production in addition to

events.

Accounting functions were anticipated to require 15% of the collective management team’s time.

Simplicity was an inherent goal in the accounting operations, especially in the initial stages of the

collective. When the collective was ready to move to an internally-managed system, the accounting system

would require revisions to suit the needs of the collective and the person responsible for overseeing

accounting. For the purposes of this project, the accounting operations were undertaken by the collective

management team, specifically ATEC administration.

27

To sustain operations of the collective and provide a source of revenue for collective promotion

and operations, an account was created to hold contributions from all collective members from the items

sold. Initially, this account was managed by ATEC administration, once the account had a steady balance

it was moved to a bank account managed by the collective. Contributions were made to the account every

time in item was sold by a collective member. Ten percent of the sale price of every item was put into the

collective account and the artist received the remaining 90%. Items sold at ATEC had 10% mark-up added

to the sale price to help cover administrative expenses, doing so does not take away any money that would

go to the artist or the collective. The artist gained the same if ATEC was able to purchase their art or if the

product was in consignment at ATEC. Revenue generated from merchandise sold at the feria was divided

10% to the collective and 90% to the artist. ATEC did not earn any income from merchandise sold at the

feria, even if ATEC administration was working at the collective’s stall. Artists that were present at the

feria received money at the close of the feria. Fifteen percent of sales were contributed to the collective

fund from items that were sold in bulk to local businesses (i.e. drinking glasses sold to restaurants).

Collective members were responsible for being honest about their sales and contributing the correct amount

to the collective account.

The artists were not prohibited from independently selling their artwork. In such cases,

contributing ten percent of sales to the collective fund was voluntary. Taking into account the different

sales prices of the art that is sold through the collective, sales records separated sales by artist. For the

initial stages of the collective, and for the duration of this project, contributions made to the collective fund

equal ten percent of sales made through the collective.

The project team created an anticipated budget for the collective’s first year of operations. The

budget, located in appendix I, included trips to go visit other women’s groups, meeting expenses, workshop

expenses, and building a workstation for the collective and the community on an unused section of land

adjacent to ATEC. This budget was used as a funding solicitation that ATEC administration received an

28

invitation to apply for in August 2009. The budget should be revised in mid April 2010 to reflect the

income that had been generated and other actions and assets of the collective.

Inventory management was anticipated to require 30% of the time allocated to the collective. The

artists needed to make items to sell and the project team oversaw sales in the ATEC office and found other

businesses that were willing to buy or sell the art made by members of the collective. Members of the

collective had the opportunity to take orders for items, but no production quota was placed on the artists.

All inventories were produced voluntarily and membership in the collective did not restrict the actions of

the artists in any way. Artists were also encouraged to bring new merchandise to the feria, but not required.

Outreach functions included finding community members that may have been interested in

becoming a collective member or teaching a workshop. The collective also pursued outreach activities that

targeted local community members, local businesses, tourists, and resources outside of the community.

The listed functions were anticipated to consume 15% of the collective’s administrative functions.

Reaching out to find new collective members and people to teach the workshops relied heavily on word of

mouth, especially on the part of the collective members. At this point in the community partnering project,

the project team felt that it was no longer appropriate to find new members for the collective. The

members also agreed that there were enough participants at the moment and waited before searching for

additional members. Finding teachers for the workshops was expected to be done by members of the

collective rather than the project team. The artists themselves could teach a workshop if they wanted to

share their craft, or they could involve community members that they knew that did something that they

would like to learn. The workshops were open for attendance by anyone and they were free for community

members. The goal was to try and host one workshop a month at the Second Saturday events at the feria.

The project team also spent approximately 15% of the administrative time creating an educational

component to the community partnering program. The objective of the workshops were to serve as the

educational component of the community partnering project that helped promote community health,

utilized and developed new community assets. The project team also aimed to educate the collective

29

members about different community assets that were available to them and small business administrative

functions that would enable them to operate the collective without assistance from ATEC or the project

team. This project also attempted to educate the local community about ways to create, conserve and reuse

and how to utilize the recycling services that were offered in the area. This community partnering project

also aimed to educate the tourists about some of the waste management issues that the area had, how they

could help, and what the community was doing to improve the situation.

Successful promotional strategies helped increase awareness of the collective and were anticipated

to take up 25% of allocated time. The collective relied heavily on word of mouth and face-to-face

connections in the initial phase of the project and then moved towards a strategy that utilized flyers and a

product catalog. Word of mouth and face-to-face connections played a critical role in the first phases of the

community partnering project because the project team needed to speak with potential members of the

collective to discuss all of the different possibilities the project had for them. Since there was a significant

inventory of art for sale at ATEC, the project team took the opportunity to talk to customers about the

collective face-to-face while showing them specific products. The project team also created a series of

flyers, located in appendices J and K, which informed the community about the collective, how they could

get involved, and the Second Saturday events.

The Second Saturday events that took place monthly from October 2009 until February 2010 were

a team effort between the collective members and the project team. Other promotional and educational

activities that the collective participated in were: attending the Planet, People, Peace conference in October

2009 and the Limón recycled art show in November 2009. Both events showcased art made from recycled

materials and allowed for interactions to take place between artists from all over Costa Rica and people

looking to buy recycled artwork. The collective was also searching for ways to sell products beyond

ATEC, the feria, and seasonal events like conferences and expos. An official CARTS email account and

Facebook account were opened to help the collective stay in contact with everyone interested in the project

and simplify sharing news, events and the product catalog.

30

The product catalog was intended to be foundation in the promotional strategy of the collective.

Once the collective had established itself and a product line, the coordinator worked with all of the

collective members to create a product catalog that told the background of the collective, the artists, the

products, and provided an opportunity for people to easily purchase items from the collective or place large

and custom orders.

Moving Towards Auto-Administration

From mid February to mid April 2010 the collective members began taking on more

administrative responsibilities. These activities included managing sales, inventory, marketing, Second

Saturday events, accounting, and the email and Facebook accounts.

Evaluation

To gauge the increase in social capital and increase in local responsibility, this project was

evaluated by its ability to influence all seven of the local responsibilities identified by John McKnight in

the opening remarks of his speech given at the “From clients to citizens forum” (2009). The project was

also evaluated on its ability to accomplish the three operational goals detailed below.

The seven areas of local responsibility that this project sought to benefit were: community health,

community safety, environmental health, increasing local enterprises, to be in-line with the local food

movement, focus on youth, and recognizing caring as the basic power of citizens.

The three operational goals were set for this project by the project team were: 1) The collective

will be 50% internally managed by the middle of April 2010. 2) The collective members will have

experienced net gains from being part of the collective. And 3) The collective will sell products through at

least two different venues by mid April 2010.

The extent to which the members of CARTS assumed responsibility for its existence directly

influenced the collective’s survival. If the collective was perceived as valuable by its members, it would

31

continue. Otherwise, the collective would disassemble and no cost or consequence would be upon any of

its former members or project team. In either situation it is important to view the collective as a successful

attempt to create more social capital in the Puerto Viejo community by mobilizing citizens and overlooked

assets.

32

Chapter 4

PROJECT RESULTS

This chapter presents the results of the methods that were explained in chapter three. This chapter

follows a format similar to the previous chapter, using the Modified Micro-Planning Process that is

presented in “An Asset-Based Approach to Community Development: A manual for village organizers”

produced for the SEWA Jeevika Project by Coady International Institute (2006). The results also utilize

many of the tools provided in the community-building workbook, “Discovering Community Power: A

guide to mobilizing local assets and your organization’s capacity” by John P. Kretzmann and John L.

McKnight (2005). By using key points from these two guides, the coordinator was able to illustrate the key

components of the ABCD approach that were incorporated into the execution of the project and highlight

local impacts of the project more thoroughly.

The Project Team & ATEC

The coordinator felt that ATEC was the most appropriate institution in Puerto Viejo to execute this

type of project and community development approach. Just as this project was designed to address some of

the social, environmental and economical issues in the community, ATEC was established in response to

the social, cultural, and economic changes that we accompanying the increasing tourism in Puerto Viejo in

the late 1980s. ATEC was perceived as a trusted organization in the community and had far reaching social

networks.

Results of this project began following the selection of the community researchers and the

formation of the project team. The mobilizing of community researchers was much easier than anticipated

by the coordinator. Such timely action was critical to the progression of the project. From the first meeting

that was held with the project team, the coordinator was confident that all of the skills necessary to create a

new community partnering project were possessed by the members of the project team.

33

Each member of the project team filled roles that were not foreseen by the coordinator. The

initiative taken by the project team greatly influenced the success of the collective. Specifically, Tirza took

on a leadership role but listened first to the feedback given by the collective members. Even though Tirza

worked for ATEC as a receptionist and had her own recycled art business, the roles that she played on

behalf of the collective were complimentary yet separate. Working in the ATEC office gave her the ability

to talk to more people about the collective and showcase the artwork at ATEC. Tirza was also instrumental

in finding teachers for the workshops and even taught the workshop that was held for children at the first

Second Saturday event on October 10, 2009. Susana was skilled at identifying the assets of other

community members whom could benefit the collective. One example was when she found a local graphic

artist to draft logos for the collective. The graphic design artist came to a meeting and made new

connections with the project team and the collective members. Ashley facilitated the formation of the

collective by sharing her experiences helping to form a women’s artisan group in India. She was also

skilled at identifying community members whom reused items to create other items as a livelihood, but

were not necessarily art. One example of this is a local family that made their own coconut oil and used

reused bottles to package the oil. Alaine was an outstanding community researcher because her ideas were

unique and creative. She was instrumental in identifying some of the unrealized resources, like broken

umbrellas, that the group had overlooked. Her social connections helped the collective receive an

invitation to apply for grant funding.

As the project team noticed less reliance by the collective on the guidance given, the project team

could dissolve from its original form and play different roles in this community partnering project. Some of

the members of the project team either continued to be members of the collective while other members

decided to become supporters and participants in the events that the collective hosted, rather than taking a

leadership role.

34

The meeting that was held on July 23, 2009 with the project team and two volunteer student

researchers yielded a list of community members to invite to a brainstorming workshop, possible project

concepts, and a map of ATEC’s assets. The notes from that meeting are provided in appendix L.

The project team identified a few project concepts to suggest at the meeting with the community

members. The original concept was an artisan group that focused on recycled and local art. ATEC was

willing to support the project with loans and administrative assistance. The project team referenced the

organization asset mapping tool provided in “Discovering Community Power: A guide to mobilizing local

assets and your organization’s capacity” by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight (2005), which is also

found in appendix E, to map the assets that ATEC and members of the project team were able to contribute

to the project. The identified assets were presented in the following groups: personnel, constituents, space

and facilities, expertise, network of connections, materials and equipment, and economic power.

ATEC sustained itself and its projects on a very modest budget; the organization has so many

assets to offer, but a large amount of funding was not one of them. Instead, the project team looked at the

personnel that could help make this project successful. In addition to Alaine and the coordinator, Tirza

shared a wealth of information and experience with the community members that formed the collective.

Any of the receptionists that worked at ATEC provided assistance with internet research and office

equipment.

ATEC’s constituents were not only all over the community, but all over the world. Having been

established for twenty years, ATEC has been successful in reaching out within the global community and

attracting the support of tourists whom understand that promoting a healthy community is essential to

tourism activity. ATEC planned to continue to use the connections that they have made over the years to

support this and other community partnering projects. One specific interest that ATEC administration had

was to think of resourceful ways to clean up some of the trash that was in the streets and on the beaches.

Raising awareness about the issue and using the connections with the local recycling institution, ATEC was

35

able to yield positive impacts from this program that resulted in people being more aware of what they

leave on the beach and how they dispose of unwanted items.

Physical space was one thing that ATEC was able to contribute to this project. There was ample

room for the art from the collective to be sold inside of ATEC and on a patio in front of ATEC for artists to

work and serve as a meeting place for the collective. The vice-president of ATEC owned a restaurant a

block away from ATEC. She allowed the collective to use part of the dining area for meetings. The ATEC

office also served as a place where community members could drop off requested items. There was also a

back room that was not heavily used that was converted into a place that donated items were organized and

stored until the artists were able to pick them up to use them. There was even a small room inside the

ATEC office that was offered to the collective as a space to showcase all of the products for sale.

ATEC administration had decades of experience working with the community on various projects.

Some specific expertise included: computer skills, various craft skills, business management skills,

accounting, and inventory management. The selection of the project team took other areas of expertise that

would be crucial to the success of the project into consideration.

Connecting the collective to the assets existing within the community by using ATEC and the

project team’s social and business networks was the main objective of the project team. Over the twenty

years ATEC had been operating, all of the projects that had taken place involved collaborations between

local schools, government, churches, and unnamed social networks within the community. ATEC’s

connections were equally as strong with the non-native Costa Rican residents in Puerto Viejo as they were

with the Costa Rican nationals. ATEC intended to utilize all of the relevant social networks they had to

contribute to the project’s success.

The materials and equipment that ATEC contributed to this project included: computers, internet,

copy machines, printers, paper, phones, use of the laminating machine, and other general items that were

36

needed for promotional and research purposes of the collective. ATEC was also able to provide displays

that were used at the feria and a camera to take pictures for the catalog.

ATEC had sufficient economic power to execute this community partnering project. The

economic power that ATEC possessed came from the organization’s dedication to training, hiring only

local residents, and sponsoring fundraisers. ATEC was a nonprofit organization that qualified for various

funding opportunities that supported community projects.

The project team initially identified fourteen community members that were interested in

participating in a new project. The people that were chosen were identified by their resourcefulness,

creative skills, motivation, or had expressed interest. In an attempt to initiate the mobilization of

community members, the project team personally contacted twelve of the original fourteen community

members identified. Long travel distances and the lack of alternative methods of communication were the

reasons cited for not personally inviting a community member. They were still informed of the project at

the next opportunity. Meeting invitees were given a paper invitation (Appendix F) and were told that they

could invite other people if they knew someone that was interested.

Motivating the Community

Out of the twelve community members invited to the meeting on August 8, 2009, five attended.

The project team and two volunteer student researchers also attended the first meeting with the community

members. The main objective of the meeting was to connect community members and get ideas flowing.

An exit survey was also used to help the project team understand how the meeting attendees felt about the

meeting and the ideas that were discussed. The notes taken at this meeting are found in appendix M.

The project team tried to take a very open approach to the meeting. Each of the five community

members brought something that they had made or something that they would liked to have made. The

project team also provided numerous examples of items that they felt were useful and made out of reused

materials. ATEC administration spoke briefly about the goals of the organization and how they would be

37

willing to support a new project. Together, the project team and the community members discussed what

they would be able to contribute and some of the benefits that they might receive by being a part of the

project. The project team presented the project concepts that they had brainstormed and opened the floor

for discussion and more brainstorming. The community members were interested in participating in a

project, but wanted to learn more about what being in a collective meant for them. After the discussion,

refreshments were provided and time was spent talking to each other about the meeting and the art that

people had brought to the meeting. The project team also gave each of the meeting attendees two hours of

free internet at ATEC that could be used to do research about the project. They were informed that

technical help would be provided if it was needed. An exit survey was given to the attendees to help the

project team gauge the general perception of the idea and inquire for further ideas and feelings.

The results of the exit survey are provided in appendix N. The general analysis of the results

follows. When the meeting attendants were asked about what they thought in general, the exit survey

results indicated that everyone who filled out a survey was interested by the ideas presented at the meeting.

Some of the notable responses indicated that the women liked the idea because a collective would allow the

artist the security of belonging to a group and the opportunity for an artist to develop their skills and, as a

result, be able to help them in supporting their family. Other responses indicated that the community

viewed this project as having long-term potential and having the ability to connect the community artists in

a strengthened social network. Some of the things that were suggested that the project should change or

add included: ways for the group to communicate with each other and build camaraderie amongst the

members, a name and a logo, and more diversity amongst the members. Everyone who took the survey

indicated that they were interested in participating in the new project. Some of the reasons that they were

interested had to do with the focus on conservation and the opportunity to collaborate with other artists.

The artists also indicated that they knew some additional people that would be involved in the project. It

was also suggested that the collective incorporated children into the activities; a workshop was suggested.

38

Overall, the meeting held on August 8, 2009 met its objectives of connecting community members

and generating discussion about a new community partnering project. The willingness of people to bring

the art that they had made or would like to make showed interest in the project from its first stages. The

project team and the coordinator felt that the identification of community members was a successful

strategy to generate the most amount of interest in the given time period. The second meeting was set for

September 4, 2009, almost a month after the first meeting. The date for the meeting was determined by the

availability of the community members and the project team. The project team was fearful that the

momentum created by the first meeting could be lost within a month. The community researchers made

sure that all of the previous meeting attendees and other interested community members were reminded

about the second meeting five days before the meeting and again the day before the meeting. In the time

after the first meeting before the second meeting, two of the meeting attendees used the internet to do

research about the project. Interest was expressed by one community member who did not attend the first

meeting; she was invited to the second meeting.

Identifying Assets and Opportunities

The second meeting held was intended to let the community members who were interested in the

project come forward with ideas of how to make the project meaningful for them. The project team led a

discussion about the assets and opportunities in the community and how the assets of the project could be

connected to the assets of the community to magnify the benefits. This took place by first bringing the

collective together as a unit to so they could determine what they had to offer the community and then

having them identify resources that they could utilize to benefit the collective.

The meeting was held on September 4, 2009 in the meeting space at a local restaurant. Three

community members that attended the August 8th meeting were present in addition to one new artist and

four members of the project team. The artists brought more artwork to share with group. It was evident

that all of the women from the first meeting had put in considerable time and energy into making things

that could be sold. Some of the artists that were not able to attend the meeting sent their work with another

39

meeting attendee. The notes taken at the meeting held on September 4, 2009 can be found in appendix O.

The first discussion of the meeting was about a name for the collective. Several names were discussed, but

no name was unanimously decided upon. The next order of business at the meeting was to establish a

product line. Alaine, one of ATEC’s directors, was able to make the decision to purchase all of the artwork

that was brought to the meeting. The artists were able to receive the money immediately and the

collective’s account gained starting cash. The items that were purchased were displayed for sale at ATEC.

Together the artists and the project team outlined a list of nine artists that would be considered members of

the collective and the products that they made. Fortunately, all of the artists required different materials

and made different products so that no two artists would be in direct competition for sales or materials.

A brief description of the artist and their products are as follows, pictures and descriptions are

presented more detail in the C.A.R.T.S. product catalog provided in appendix P of this document. Suzeti

Rodney was an artist who made purses and patchwork blankets out of material scraps, Rebecca made

purses and reusable shopping bags out of old clothes and broken umbrellas, Karla made candles in recycled

tuna cans, Ligia made baskets out of potato chip bags and other metallic papers, Rosa made various baskets

out of newspaper, and Ana was able to weave plastic bags into purses. Members of the collective that were

also members of the project team include: Tirza, Ashley and Alaine. Tirza made several different types of

items. She utilized plastic soda bottles and Tetra Brik® boxes to make wallets and change purses; she also

made ashtrays out of aluminum cans. She also painted pictures that were inspired by life in the Caribbean,

but was unsure if they fit into the objective of the collective because they do not utilize anything that was

reused. Ashley was also in the same situation, she had been experimenting with making different types of

natural paper, but wanted to incorporate conservation before she sold anything through the collective. She

experimented with using old office paper and other white paper scraps to make paper that could be

accented with natural leaves and petals. Finally, Alaine made drinking glasses out of wine and other bottles.

The outcome of the second meeting was to identify places that the items could be sold and to

make a plan to contact the selected venues. The members of the collective that were at the meeting came

40

up with more ideas than the project team had brainstormed. Some of the ideas were places to sell that

included hotels in the area, places in San José, at the feria, various stores, at the Botanical Garden and

through a product catalog that would first be printed and eventually go online. The collective identified

that they wanted to be selling in other stores within a month and that the catalog needed to be ready in early

March 2010. The collective decided that they would have a stall at the feria on September 19, 2009. The

meeting attendants also decided that all of the merchandise that ATEC purchased would be for sale at the

feria, in addition to what the women made in the time before September 19th. The next meeting was

scheduled for September 17th to make all of the final preparations the collective felt that it needed to make

before making their first public appearance at the feria.

Linking, Mobilizing and Organizing

The third meeting was held two days before the collective was planning to attend the feria. Three

artists and two members of the project team were present at the meeting on September 17, 2009. At the

meeting, one of the artists stepped up by taking on the role of secretary. Karla Solano Dannemberger took

the minutes for the meeting and was excellent about keeping the meeting on track without being

overbearing. The project team just stepped back and watched the meeting proceed.

The main objectives of the third meeting included: organizing the logistics of the feria, deciding

the subject of the first three workshops, and communicating to the local community about ways they could

support the collective. The meeting attendants were still in agreement of having a stall at the feria. Alaine

had spoken to the president of the Puerto Viejo Development Association about the project and he invited

the collective to have a stall at the feria for free until the project became more established. The meeting

attendants were motivated by the good news and felt that it was important to make a good presentation.

Karla led the group in assigning shifts for Saturday morning. There was also a discussion about the

appearance of the table. The group decided to use the tables that were provided at the feria, make a display

to hold the purses, use some of the display materials at ATEC, and make a banner for the stall.

41

Next, the meeting attendees brainstormed ideas of workshops that the collective could host and

who could teach the workshops. The collective decided that they wanted to host a workshop with children

that would make figures out of corks, a workshop that featured crocheting plastic bags, another that showed

two techniques to making drinking glasses out of bottles, and a workshop on how to make recycled paper.

Karla had donated a large bag of corks for a project that Tirza had been experimenting with, so the

collective had numerous corks would have otherwise not been used. Tentative dates were set for the

workshops, but the workshop instructors still needed to give final approval. The first workshop was

planned to be a workshop with kids making different things out of corks from wine bottles on October 10th.

The group planed a workshop every weekend and then decided that every weekend was too large of a

commitment. The idea was presented that the collective have one big event a month. The idea further

developed into an event that would happen on the second Saturday of the month and feature music,

workshops and a community-wide garage sale. Karla committed to the responsibility of being the contact

person for the garage sale. The collective postponed the discussion about the name, mission, and logo of

the collective until the next meeting.

The collective had a stall at the feria on September 19, 2009 for the first time. No name had been

decided on at that time, so community members were encouraged to share ideas if the subject came up in

conversation. The feria was seen as a good opportunity to connect with the community and tourists, to sell

products, talk about the project, let people know the items that they could donate, and show support for the

local food movement. The collective planned to have a stall at the feria for three consecutive weekends

starting on the 19th of September.

The project team was responsible for getting the items out of ATEC that would be displayed at the

stall in the feria. The collective members were invited to help out at 6:00am, but no one showed up to help

with the set-up process. Two artists, Ana and Rosa Amelia, showed up later and worked at the stall. They

spoke with customers about the project, their inspirations, and their products. The project team assisted

with customers that were unable to communicate with the artists in Spanish. The project team and the

42

collective distributed flyers that outlined how to get more information about the collective and items that

could be donated to the collective (Appendix K). A spreadsheet of the sales from the feria is provided in

appendix Q. The items that ATEC had purchased were displayed at the feria along with items that the

artists had made. Twenty percent of the sale items went into the collective fund and the artist received the

remaining eighty percent. At the close of the feria, the project team reminded the collective to decide who

would work the following weekend. The project team also committed their assistance. The first time

attending the feria was a learning experience in consumer demands. Talking with customers, the project

team and the artists were able to learn what consumers were looking for and identify the collective’s

demographic amongst feria attendees.

The following weekend at the feria, only the project team showed up to work at the stall. The

artists that were committed to work cited family-related issues and rain as the reasons they were unable to

attend. The project team still worked at the feria stall on behalf of the collective. There was a substantial

amount of rain during the feria on September 26th, and therefore not many customers attended. The sales

from the feria yielded only one purse made from recycled pants. The collective members were contracted

following the close of the feria. They were informed that a member of the collective needed to be at the

next feria to work in the stall. This was done to emphasize that the collective would only survive if they

wanted it to. Commitments were made for the following weekend.

The night before the feria the following weekend, the project team contacted all of the members of

the collective to determine who was going to be responsible for representing the collective at the feria. The

two members of the collective that had committed to working had to go out of town for a family

emergency. It was decided amongst the project team and the collective that there would be no stall at the

feria the weekend of October 3, 2009. The project team was worried about the impact this decision would

have on the turnout of the event that was scheduled for the following weekend. The issue was brought up at

the meeting held on October 8, 2009.

43

Hosting a stall at the local feria presented more social opportunities than it did economic ones.

The majority of the people that came to the feria were local residents. September to mid November was

considered the slowest tourism period of the year, which may have also contributed to the low sales.

However, there were multiple connections made between the local community members and the artists,

especially with foreign residents. The community members that were spoken to about the agenda of the

project were excited and eager to donate items and participate in workshops. Connecting with other

vendors at the feria was an overlooked asset that the project team had missed but quickly utilized. The

vendors at the feria were welcoming and supportive of the project. One vendor even purchased items from

the collective that he intended to use in his display for the feria.

Generating incomes from multiple sales outlets was one of the administrative goals that the project

team had set for the collective. In attempt to tap into the local economic opportunities, the collective

decided to approach local restaurants. Alaine, approached a few of the local restaurants to see if they would

be interested in buying drinking glasses that could be used in the restaurant made from the bottles of their

choice. The first day of solicitation yielded two orders; one for forty glasses and one for fifteen glasses.

Local restaurants showing support for the collective was mutually beneficial because the

restaurant was able to purchase glasses that were comparative in price to other glasses, but the money

stayed local and the amount of trash was slightly reduced. The restaurant could also save the bottles that

they wanted made into glasses. The collective benefited not only by the sale of the glasses and the

connection with the local business owner, but also by the conversations that were generated by people

drinking out of the glasses. To capitalize on this, the project team produced an informative card that was

displayed at the restaurants to let people know the story behind their drink ware and where to get more

information about the collective. An example of this card is displayed in appendix R.

44

Prioritizing and Scheduling Work

The meeting held on October 8, 2009 was intended to ensure that the collective was ready to host

an event and a stall at the feria after a one week hiatus. The meeting was held at the same local restaurant as

the previous two meetings. Three artists and four members of the project team were present at the meeting.

Karla took on the role of secretary again and everyone seemed pleased with her decision. The meeting

attendees finalized a name and outlined a mission for the collective, took care of all of the logistics for the

upcoming event on October 10th, and set the next meeting date. The notes taken at the meeting are located

in appendix S.

Deciding a name for the collective was a very important decision because the name needed to

provide ample information about the collective while being meaningful to its members. Administration

facilitated multiple brainstorming sessions at various meetings; the final decision was made solely by

collective members. The name chosen for the collective was C.A.R.T.S. which is an anagram for Colectivo

Artistico Reciclando en Talamanca por la Sostenibilidad. English translation of the name is Recycled Art

Collective in Talamanca for Sustainability. This name was meaningful to the members of the collective

because Costa Rican oxcarts (carretas, in Spanish) are a unique symbol of pride that Costa Rican nationals

have for their country and heritage. Other names that were discussed are listed on the notes from the

meeting held on September 4th in appendix O.

Creating a mission for the collective was also an outcome of the October 8th meeting. A mission

can be used to help unify the efforts of the collective and be used to communicate to the community and the

public. The mission that was agreed on at the meeting was:

“Colectivo Artistico Recicloando en Talamanca por la Sostenibilidad (C.A.R.T.S.) aims

to connect artists from Talamanca with one another and provide opportunities to sell art work,

learn new creative skills, teach, and secure materials. The collective strives to use as much

second-hand and recyclable materials as possible in the creation of artwork. The collective aims

45

to build social capital by providing opportunities that encourage multiple types of community

participation. The collective also seeks to develop an educational environment founded on

sustainable living, continuous personal growth, and synergistic relationships.”

Getting ready for the first Second Saturday event was easier than anticipated by the coordinator.

The members of the collective took the initiative and were excited about the event. The Second Saturday

event was divided into three parts: the feria, a workshop, and a yard sale. The feria portion of the event

was similar to the other weekends the collective had a stall. This time the intention was to inform people

coming to the feria that the collective would have a stall every second Saturday of the month and the

collective also planned to have a yard sale and a creative skills workshop. The collective decided that a

flyer needed to be made and posted around town, Karla offered to put her phone number down as the

contact person for the yard sale. Originally, the collective had planned to have a basket-making workshop

on the 10th of October. The artist was not able to accommodate that date so Tirza volunteered to teach the

workshop for children that would make figures out of corks. The collective agreed that a workshop for

children with materials that were already in the collective’s possession was the best idea for a last minute

change of plans. Quarter-sheet flyers were made and distributed in both English and Spanish. The feria

stall was open from 7:00am to 2:00pm, the yard sale was open from 11:00am to 2:00pm, and the workshop

went from 1:00pm to 2:00pm on October 10, 2009. Karla had some items for the yard sale and a

community member had donated two bags of stuff that could be sold to benefit the collective. The flyer,

located in appendix K, told people where and what to donate, how they could participate in the workshop,

and when the yard sale was going to be held.

The collective also discussed what they wanted the product catalog to look like and the

information that should be included in it. They wanted to put the story behind the collective, the

collective’s mission and their personal stories. The artists also decided that they should feature the raw

materials used to make their products and all the products that they were selling. The collective was still in

agreement that the catalog should be completed by early March 2010 and be in both English and Spanish.

46

The next meeting was set for October 15th to discuss the outcomes of the Second Saturday event and to

clean out the storage room that ATEC was donating to the materials for the collective.

The tenth of October was a successful day for the collective. There was at least one member of

the collective present at each stage of the event and sales were good. The weather was nice and the feria

was busy, which provided the perfect opportunity for the artists to make more connections with tourist and

local residents. Since the collective members had scheduled themselves in overlapping shifts, there was

someone available to promote the yard sale and the workshop.

The yard sale was successful in raising awareness about reusing items. Yard sales were not a

common occurrence in Puerto Viejo, so it was a good opportunity to tell shoppers the purpose behind the

sale. Sales from the yard sale were decent, but the location of the sale made it impossible to see from the

main road. Exact sales figures are located in appendix Q. Discussions at the yard sale by the members of

the collective indicated that promotions should start more than a week before the next Second Saturday

event so people could have more time to get items together to sell.

The workshop was very successful. Two artists and two members of the project team helped

facilitate the activity that encouraged children to make figures with corks, glue, and other miscellaneous art

supplies. One member of the collective and one member of the project team walked around Puerto Viejo

and told people about the free workshop and invited them to come. The promoting that took place

immediately before the workshop was the most effective for increasing participation. Overall, twelve

children and one parent participated in the workshop. The children ranged in age between one and twelve,

with most of them between the ages of seven and ten. Informal interviewing indicated that the children and

parents enjoyed participating in the event.

The Second Saturday event held on November 14, 2009 yielded approximately $25USD in sales,

80% of which was given directly to the artists that sold artwork (Appendix Q). Two collective members in

addition to the coordinator worked at the CARTS stall at the feria. Karla knew of a woman that was

47

interested in taking over management of the yard sale; her first day was November 14th. She had much

more merchandise than CARTS could get donated. She sold both her stuff and the CARTS donated stuff.

She gave CARTS a 15% donation of all of the sales she made that day (Appendix Q). The workshop

hosted featured making recycled paper and was taught by Ashley. The workshop reached maximum

occupancy at twelve people.

The Second Saturday event held on December 12, 2009 was much less successful. No sales were

made and no one was available to teach a workshop. There was no Second Saturday event help in January

2010 due to lack of people willing or able to work at the feria or teach a workshop. The coordinator was

out of the country for both dates listed above, which may have been a contributing factor to the decrease in

coordination and execution. The events demonstrated to the coordinator that more effort was needed to be

able to successfully move towards auto-administration of the collective.

The Second Saturday event held on February 13, 2010 was much more successful. Sales were

made and a workshop was held with the maximum number of participants. Ancel, a supporter of the

collective and administrator of Finca la Isla botanical farm, hosted a workshop that taught six participants

how to crochet plastic bags into purses. The participants learned the new skill quickly and enjoyed the

workshop.

There were three major promotional activities that helped CARTS expand their consumer

awareness in the marketplace. The first was attending the Planet, People, Peace Conference held in San

José, Costa Rica in October 2009. The conference had many international ecotourism professionals in

attendance and dozens of other vendors with similar product concepts. The coordinator and one member of

the collective, Tirza, hosted a CARTS table at the conference. The conference yielded numerous contacts

for the collective, but a lower amount of sales than were anticipated. Two business owners from San José

expressed interest in selling CARTS artwork at their retail outlets in consignment. The first business sold

many different types of Costa Rican art and the second business is an upscale hotel with a small gift shop in

the lobby. CARTS accepted both invitations and Tirza agreed to oversee the consignment management.

48

The second promotional event in which CARTS participated was the Recycled Art Feria that took

place in Limón on November 28-29, 2009. Limón is the capital city of the canton of Limón and is located

forty minutes from Puerto Viejo. CARTS funded food and transportation costs for three artists to go to

Limón. All three artists had family that they could stay with near the feria’s location. Sales were lower

than expected, but the artists were able to connect with other artists and discuss best practices and

consumer trends. Technically, CARTS lost money by attending, but the losses were decidedly accepted

due to the gains made in experience and knowledge.

The third promotional activity that took place was the creation of an email and Facebook account

for the collective. Creating an account for use by the collective members simplified mass communications,

encouraged feedback, allowed CARTS to maintain relationships and share updates and the product catalog.

Initially, Ashley and the coordinator were the only people that maintained the accounts, but full access was

granted to all of the collective members on February 13, 2010.

A product catalog with information about the artists was completed in March 2010. The

modifiable electronic format of the catalog is also in possession of the collective members. The catalog is

intended to be modified as the collective changes. The first completed draft is provided in appendix P. The

catalog was created to be used by the members of the collective to take larger orders and sell items that

they do not have on hand. The catalog is bilingual and available at ATEC and at Second Saturday events.

It could also be viewed on the CARTS Facebook webpage. The collective wanted to open sales

internationally and across Costa Rica. As of mid April 2010, online purchasing was not available.

Moving Towards Auto-Administration

The final meeting with the project team as the main administrators of CARTS took place on

February 13, 2010. At the meeting all of the artists were given any money that they had yet to receive and

ATEC was repaid in full for any administrative expenses that were covered on behalf of the collective.

Such resources included starting cash for the cash box, copies and color printing. The remaining balance of

49

approximately $40USD was given to Tirza to manage, as she had agreed to take over CARTS

administration until someone else expressed interest. Tirza was the member of the collective with the

greatest ability to take over CARTS because she was familiar with the artists, worked at ATEC, and had

her own recycled art business with established clients and accounting practices. She had also agreed to train

the artists how to use the email and Facebook accounts or any other administrative task the desired to take

on.

Evaluation

To gauge the increase in social capital and increase in local responsibility, this project was

evaluated by its ability to influence all seven of the responsibilities of our movement that were identified by

John McKnight in the opening remarks of his speech given at the “From clients to citizens forum” (2009).

The project was also evaluated on its ability to accomplish the three operational goals detailed below.

The first method of evaluation seeks to determine the influence, if any, the creation of CARTS had

on the seven areas of local responsibility (McKnight, 2009). The seven areas of local responsibility are:

community health, community safety, environmental health, increasing local enterprises, to be in-line with

the local food movement, focus on youth, and recognizing caring as the basic power of citizens (McKnight,

2009). The coordinator, as well as the reader, must acknowledge the influence or contributed benefit by

CARTS was on a very small scale and was the perceptions of the coordinator and the project team.

The first area of local responsibility evaluated was contributions that could be credited to CARTS

for improvements in community health. The health of the community was strengthened by the creation of

CARTS through the formation of new social relationships, specifically relationships amongst the artists and

the relationships with local business owners, vendors at the feria and people outside the Talamanca region.

Community health has also improved as a result of the awareness campaigns that shared

information about local recycling services and conservation initiatives locally. In doing so, it is possible

that the information shared through CARTS has slightly decreased the amount of recyclable materials that

50

went to the landfills instead of being recycled. CARTS could also take partial credit for teaching the

community new skills that helped individuals creatively reuse some of their waste and be more conscious

about their consumption. Connecting community members contributes to social and emotional health,

improving waste disposal procedures contributed to physical health, and learning new skills contributed to

the mental health of the community.

The second area of local responsibility that this project sought to influence was community safety.

As mentioned above, CARTS raised awareness about the recycling services in the area. In the same breath,

the dangers of burning trash, especially plastics, were discussed with community members. Even though

the contribution was small, burning trash was a big issue in Puerto Viejo. Therefore, any defensive

discussion made an incremental improvement in the safety of the community. Environmental health, the

third area of local responsibility, related very closely to the preceding two areas already discussed.

Working towards decreasing the amount of trash burned or improperly discarded, like on streets and

beaches, contributed to the environmental health of the area.

Out of the seven areas of local responsibility, the coordinator felt that CARTS had the second

most positive influence on the fourth area: increasing local enterprises. Local enterprises increased when

CARTS created a source of income for nine local artists. The woman who took over the yard sales held at

the Second Saturday events was permitted in January 2010 to open a semi-permanent yard sale and

clothing exchange in the building adjacent to the location of the feria in Puerto Viejo. The business

became her main source of income and was open six days a week beyond the conclusion of this project.

The workshops that were hosted aimed to teach new skills to community members that could be used as

income-generating activities. At the conclusion of the project, no new enterprises had been created by

workshop attendees, but two local men were discussing taking over Alaine’s position in the collective by

making drinking glasses from recycled bottles.

This project had a smaller influence in the local food movement, however, by working with the

Puerto Viejo development committee, CARTS was able to show support for the local food movement.

51

Building relationships with other feria vendors strengthened the social network of the feria and even helped

the vendors and feria attendees recycle while they helped CARTS. One example of this was the vendor

that purchased drinking glasses from CARTS to be used at his local and organic coffee house and chocolate

factory in Puerto Viejo.

CARTS expressly put focus on youth by hosting the first community workshop exclusively for

children. Children of the artists and project team were almost always in attendance at the meetings. People

who worked the stall at the feria would also take time to explain the importance of recycling to children

who expressed interest. At the conclusion of this project, discussions took place about activities that could

be taken into schools or take place over summer breaks.

The final area of local responsibility that this project sought to influence was recognizing caring as

the basic power of citizens. The coordinator counts this area as the most influenced area out of the seven

areas of local responsibility. It was the genuine caring of the artists for the project that enabled its

formation. Their personal viewpoints and motivations are presented in the catalog in appendix P. The

project team’s continuous caring about CARTS, especially the support of Alaine in congruence with the

support of ATEC, is one of the key enabling forces behind the success of this project. All other members

of the project team cared enough about the collective to willingly give themselves beyond the initial time

allocations. This project would not have existed had the power of caring by the project team been absent.

Community members in Puerto Viejo helped dispose of their waste more effectively saving the household

items that CARTS was requesting (Appendix K). Local businesses that purchased CARTS artwork to use

at their businesses cared enough about the artists and the project to post signs about CARTS and spend

their money locally (Appendix R). One business owner was pleased by all of the conversations that were

generated by the drinking glasses that he purchased. Creating a Facebook account allowed the collective to

connect with people that cared about the project but were outside of the local area. One Facebook friend

offered to create a promotional video for free. He had begun filming the artists and workshops before the

52

conclusion of the project. The video was expected to be completed shortly after the conclusion of the

project.

The first of the three operational goals that were set for the collective by the project team was to

be 50% internally-managed by April 2010. Even though CARTS was operating at a lower volume than

initially anticipated, due to severely decreased tourism, the collective was more that 50% internally

managed. Several members of the project team have been replaced by members of the collective. At the

conclusion of the project Tirza was overseeing CARTS administration and accounting. The money

belonging to CARTS was still stored in the ATEC bank. Tirza was also an ATEC employee, giving her

access to the funds.

The second operational goal was that all collective members would experience net gains from

participating in the project. This goal was successfully accomplished. Exact figures for each of the artists

can be seen in appendix Q. Even if the collective failed to continue, no members would incur any type of

debt. By ensuring that all items were sold at fair market value and far above the cost to create the artwork,

no losses were incurred through sales.

The final operational goal set for the collective was to be selling through at least two different

venues, by April 2010, CARTS was selling products through four different venues: ATEC, the feria, Ecolé

and the Parque del Lago hotel. The goal was accomplished, but more local venues would better suit the

community building purposes of the collective.

53

APPENDICES

54

APPENDIX A

Map of the Talamanca Region of Costa Rica

Map retrieved from: http://www.test.procat-talamanca.org/projectDescription.php on October 15, 2009

*Note: labels and arrows were added by the coordinator for the purposes of this project.

Puerto Viejo

Costa Rica

The Talamanca Region of Costa Rica

55

APPENDIX B

Neighborhood Needs Map

Kretzmann, J., & McKnight, J. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: a path toward finding

and mobilizing a community’s assets. Chicago: ACTA Publications. p. 3.

56

APPENDIX C

Community Assets Map

Kretzmann, J., & McKnight, J. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding

and mobilizing a community’s assets. Chicago: ACTA Publications. p.7.

57

APPENDIX D

The Modified Micro-Planning Process with Tools and Techniques

“An Asset-based Approach to C (2005).

Coady International Institute (2006). An asset-based approach to community development: a manual for

village organizers. Retrieved on June 15, 2009, from

http://www.coady.stfx.ca/tinroom/assets/file/resources/abcd/SEWA%20ABCD%20Manual.pdf. p. 27.

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APPENDIX E

Asset Inventory Tool Used by ATEC

Kretzmann J., & McKnight J. (2005). Discovering community power: a guide to mobilizing local assets

and your organization's capacity. Retrieved on June 18, 2009, from

http://www.abcdinstitute.org/docs/kelloggabcd.pdf. p. 20.

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APPENDIX F

Meeting Invitation Presented to Community Members

English translation: Creation of a recycled art group with ATEC and the Botanical Garden at Finca

la Isla. You are invited to participate in a new project. Please come and brainstorm with us to share your

ideas about this new opportunity that unites art and conservation. The meeting is on August 8, 2009 at

noon in the classroom next to the cultural center. Questions, call ATEC.

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APPENDIX G

Exit Survey Given to Meeting Attendees on August 8, 2009

Nombre (opcional): _______________________________________________

Que piensa de las ideas presentadas durante esta reunión? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hay algo que quiere cambiar o agregar? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Está interesada/o y es capaz de participar en este proyecto? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Conoce otras personas que quisieran participar? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Otras sugerencias? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Qué dia de la semana queda conveniente para reuniones? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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APPENDIX H

Anticipated Administrative Time Allocations

Initial Collective Anticipated Time Allocations for Administrative

Functions

Inventory Management

30%

Promotion25%

Accounting15%

Outreach15%

Education15%

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APPENDIX I

Expected First Year Collective Budget

First Fiscal Year anticipated financial needs August 2009 to August 2010

# of persons Price

# of times Total

Transportation, Expenses, Communications Collective meetings 12 $4 2 $96 INA Recycled Art course 12 $4 2 $96 Phone calls, internet use $40 materials distributed at Collective meetings 12 $5 2 $120 meeting refreshments 12 $4 2 $96

Product research Internet rental for online research 6 $3 2 $36 Transport to Visit other Recycled Art Collective 12 $10 1 $120 Lunch 12 $8 1 $96

Microloan funds Materials to get folks started 12 $50 1 $6001 Equipment for making art 5 $100 1 $5002

Promotional materials Logo & Poster Design 1 $50 1 $50 Constructing display stands for sales 1 $25 10 $250 Posters 1 $5 50 $250 Tags for merchandise 1 $0.05 1000 $50 Display materials for ferias 1 $50 1 $50 table and display materials for feria booth 1 $50 1 $50 Salary 10% $250.00 10% unforeseen 10% $250.00

Total: $3,000

Turn the alley adjacent to ATEC into a workshop

$2,0003 Total with workshop: $5,000 Notes: 1. For glue, string, needles, simple materials. 2. Some people will need bigger loans, but not all. 3. To change the unused alleyway alongside ATEC into a workshop and exhibition area for the artists.

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APPENDIX J

Promotional Flyer for the Second Saturday Event held on October 10, 2009

64

APPENDIX K

Promotional Flyers for the Collective (English & Spanish)

65

66

APPENDIX L

Meeting Notes from July 23, 2009

1st Meeting: 23/7/2009 at 1:30 pm, Veronica’s Place

Present: Alaine Berg (ATEC), Anouck Bessy (ATEC/student), Ashley de Regil (Bio-fuel cooperative/Botanical Garden), Siobhan Gallagher (Botanical Garden/student), Tirza Morales (ATEC), Susana Schick (ATEC), Erica Thomas (Coordinator/ATEC).

Background: ATEC has a history of microloans in the community but has not retaken up this practice in years. A specific idea emerged of providing one small loan (200-300 USD) and also a sewing machine to a group of women as a pilot project but also focused on doing recycled and local art projects (“useful art”). Through this project, ATEC will offer support through loans and project assistance.

1. Ligia Sanchez (Tirsa’s mom)- TIRSA

List of community members to invite:

2. Yessenia (“Tica” de Bambú)- SUSANA 3. Maria (Abilio’s wife)- ASHLEY 4. Yüe Ladies: Rosa Amalia y Suzetti (makes toys)- SUSANA 5. Nuria 6. Magda Vargas 7. Mauricia (Volio)- ASHLEY 8. Amparo 9. Anais- ASHLEY 10. Karla (Kio)- ASHLEY 11. Tirza 12. Gerardo 13. Francisco 14. Jaqueline

Personnel

What can ATEC contribute?

• Tirza • Erica • Alaine • Susana • Ashley Space & facilities

• Place to sell items • Tables and displays

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Expertise

• Business experience • Art experience • Management experience • Computer skills • Experience with the community • Experience with similar projects

Networks of connections

• ReciCaribe • ATEC board of directors

Economic power

• Local businesses • Businesses outside of Talamanca • Tourists • Internet store

Materials and Equipment

• Computers, printer, copier, phone, etc. • Glass cutting machine • Sewing machine

Potential areas for selling products:

Brainstorm of Assets and possible project concepts

• ATEC and ATEC online store

• Botanical Garden • Luluberlu • Casa Verde • Feria del agriculture • ECO Books? • San José: Ecole travel store • San José: Pulperia arte • Jacó?

Emerging questions and discussion

• Should this group become a coop? An Association? An open, ongoing women’s group at ATEC? Legal implications should be considered.

:

• For now we propose a women’s collective

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• ATEC can offer assistance in several ways: • Labels, branding and promotion in general • Gathering recycled materials • Offering internet and computer time • Offer sewing machine and some cash as a loan to get started • Apply for further funding • Offer stand at Feria? • Botanical Garden can assist in these processes as well. • Convenio can be made with Recicaribe to pay going rate for certain recycled materials.

• Sewing Machine: Could be given as a loan to one woman who can pay back over time from profits from recycled art.

• Yoga bag, purse projects. • ATEC can receive old clothing and rags.

• Who decides what will be made and how? Discuss in meeting with women. • Each woman can do her own project/product but women can also share ideas and

techniques. • Products can be shared: example one member makes the object, another member • Other local artists could support with ideas, skill-building workshops, advice, etc.

• Business plan? • Erica or others qualified could offer assistance in creating business plan. • Could also encourage saving schemes. • Women could do initial market survey to find potential sales locations. • Women could offer to provide hotels/stores with a display table/shelving, etc.

Next Steps

• Bring examples of recycled art

: Initial meeting with women: August 8th, 2009 at 12 pm in “aula” room.

• See agenda below

• Promotion • Workshops? • Visit and research other similar projects/ women’s coops in the country: • WIDECAST • Sarapiqui

• Note: Other ideas emerged for project making cement and glass blocks using recycled bottles. This idea can be pitched at the meeting or for another time.

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APPENDIX M

Meeting Agenda August 8th 2009

Please note that the following document has been translated from Spanish. The original document is provided following the translated information.

Call for artists that would be interested in forming a group that specializes in making art from recycled materials.

Organizers: ATEC; Finca la Isla's Botanical Garden; Susana Schik

Agenda: August 8, 2009

12:00-12:15 pm: Arrival and welcome

12:15 pm: Artist and project team introductions. Artists share the ideas/examples they brought.

12:45 pm: Present the ideas and motive for the project. Administration shares examples of items made from recycled materials

1:15 pm: Brainstorm and Comments

1:45 pm: Distribute cards for free internet at ATEC and set the date for the next meeting

2:00 pm: Reception and time to talk to each other and the project team

Thank you for coming and sharing your ideas!

Contacts:

Alaine Berg-ATEC (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays 9am to 3pm)

Susana Schik-

Ashley de Regil- Botanical Garden (Fridays through Mondays 10 a 4pm):

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Meeting notes appear below in the original format. Notes were originally taken by Ashley de Regil and translated from Spanish into English by the coordinator with assistance from Ana Piedra, ATEC employee.

Convocatoria de grupo para arte reciclado

Organizadores: ATEC; Jardín Botánico Finca la Isla; Susana Schik

Agenda 8 de Agosto 2009

12:00-12:15 pm Llegada y bienvenida

12:15 pm Presentaciones de asistentes

12:45 pm Exposición de la idea y el motivo para el grupo, demostración de ejemplos y servicios ofrecidos por ATEC, Jardin Botanico, etc.

1:15 pm Lluvia de ideas y comentarios

1:45 pm Conclusion: Distribución de fichas para internet y acuerdo para próxima reunion.

2:00 pm Refrigerio

Gracias por venir y compartir!

Contactos:

Alaine Berg-Atec (martes, jueves y sabados, 9 am a 3 pm):

Susana Schik-

Ashley de Regil- Jardín Botánico (Viernes a Lunes, 10 a 4pm):

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APPENDIX N

Exit Survey Results Summary

Note: Survey results have been translated from the original format. The translated text follows the Spanish text and appears in italics. Responses were received in Spanish and then translated into English by the coordinator with assistance from Ana Piedra, ATEC employee, for the purposes of this project.

1. Que piensa de la ideas presentadas durante esta reunión?

Ana: Me parece muy bien, son interesantes

1. What do you think about the ideas presented during this meeting?

Ana: The ideas seem to be very good and interesting.

Rosa: Es muy interesante ya que seguir, protegiendo el medio y asi familia puede ayudarse economicamente y desarrollar sus abilidades

Rosa: Very interesting because it will contribute to protecting the environment and help families generate more income and improve abilities.

Tirza: muy importante porque ya existen muchos artistas, lo que falta es formar el grupo y que en realidad quievan trabajar juntos.

Tirza: it is very important because there are many artists here and this is a good opportunity for them to form a group of the most dedicated.

Ahsley: Muy buenas, muy dinamicas

Ashley: Really good and dynamic ideas

?: Muy interesantes y con mucho futuro

?: Very interesting and long-term potential

Anais: Exelentes

Anais: Excellent

Maria: Pienso que esta bien y estan interesantes

Maria: The idea is good and interesting.

Rebecca: Me parecen muy interessantes todas las ideas

Rebecca: All of the ideas are interesting

Susana: Super!

Susana: Super!

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2. Hay algo que quiere cambiar o agregar?

Ana: Lo veo bien creo que no hay modo que cambiar

2. Is there anything that you would like to change or add to the idea presented?

Ana: To me its good, there is nothing I would change.

Rosa: Por el momento esta bien

Rosa: For the moment it’s good.

Tirza: Es muy importante en un grupo la comunicacion y companerismo, o para primero conocercen y luego ayurdarnos mutualmente

Tirza: It’s important that the group communicates and creates a partnership. First we need to get to know each other and then we can help each other.

Ashley: Involvar mas personas y mas diversidad

Ashley: involve more people and more diversity.

?: No

?: No

Anais: Lugar , nombre, y logo que nos identifique. Dar clases.

Anais: A name, place to sell and logo should be made to identify the group. We should also teach classes.

Maria: apoyo entre todas y ayuda para aprender nueva ideas

Maria: We need someone to help us learn new skills.

Rebecca: Me gustaria que hayan proyectos grupales aprender como reutilizar cosas que talvez no se sabia

Rebecca: I would like to have more group projects in order to learn how to reuse things that we didn't think to reuse.

3. Esta interesada/o y es capaz de participar en ester proyecto?

Ana: Si estoy interesada y me siento capaz porque me gusta el reciclaje

3. Are you willing and able to participate in this project?

Ana: Yes, I am interested and I feel that I am able to participate because I like recycling.

Rosa: Si con mucho gusto, y si en algo puedo colaborar estoy dispueste

Rosa: Yes with much pleasure, and if I can help in any way I am available.

Tirza; Si estoy interesada porque me gusta el arte, ademas apoyando cuidar el planeta por este nuevo proyecto estoy muy contenta

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Tirza: Yes I am interested because I like art and helping to take care of the planet through this project.

?: Si estoy interesada y deseo participar en el proyecto

?: Yes, I’m interested and I want to participate in the project.

Anais: Si

Anais: Yes

Maria: Si porque me gusta

Maria: Yes, because I like it.

Susana: Si!

Susana: Yes!

Ashley: Si

Ashley: Yes

Rebecca: Estoy completamente interesada

Rebecca: I am definitely interested.

4. Conoce otras personas que quisieran participar?

Ana: Si una persona

4. Do you know anyone else who would want to participate?

Ana: Yes, one person.

Rosa: Si

Rosa: Yes

Tirza: Mi mama, y una amiga que vive en Hone Creek pero no asistio en esta reunion

Tirza: My mom and my friend who lives in Hone Creek, but she couldn’t come to the meeting today.

?: Mi hija

?: My daughter

Anais: Si

Anais: Yes

Maria: No

Maria: No

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Susana: los ninos

Susana: The children

Rebecca: Creo que es possible

Rebecca: I will try to think of people.

5. Otras sugerencias:

Ana: Dios quiera y todo siga bien y adelante

5. Other suggestions:

Ana: I am praying to God that this project will work.

Rosa: Felicitacion por este idea es geneal, Dios va a bendecir este proyecto adelante

Rosa: Congratulations for this great idea. God is going to bless this project.

Tirza: Pienso que si alguien ocupa de mi ayuda puedo hacerlo con mucho gusto

Tirza: I think that if someone needs my help, it would be my pleasure to help them.

Anais: Tenemos un grupo que represente a Puerto Viejo en derias nacionales he internacionales

Anais: Now we have a group that represents Puerto Viejo and different nationalities.

+ En un stand en el parque

+ An artisan stand in the park

+ Murales en las ecuelas

+ Murals in the schools

+ Talleres en las escuelas de toda Talamanca

+ Workshops in schools in Talamanca

Maria: Mi familia trabaja de artesanias con canastas y bolsas pero viven en Amubri

Maria: My family makes handcrafts like baskets and bags but they live in Amburi.

Susana: Invitar algunos ninos interesados a los talleres!

Susana: Invite kids who would be interested in workshops.

Rebecca: Trabajar en equipo

Rebecca: Work as a group.

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6. Qué dia de la semana queda conveniente para reuniones?

Ana: Cualquiero menos domingo

6. What day of the week is the best to have a meeting?

Ana: Any day but Sunday

Ahsley: Cualquier dia menos domingo

Ashley: Any day but Sunday

Rosa: Sabado

Rosa: Saturdays

Tirza: Por el momente los sabados, pero en setiembre regreo a lecciones pero que tendre un espacio para ayudarlas y participar

Tirza: At the moment Saturdays, but in September classes will begin for school, but I think that I will still have time for the project.

?: Sabado

?: Saturdays

Anais: Sabado o domingo en la manana

Anais: Saturday and Sunday in the morning

Maria: Viernes

Maria: Fridays

Susana: Cualquiera menos domingos y fuera de horas escolares

Susana: Any day but Sundays and during school hours.

Rebecca: Entre semana cualquier dia

Rebecca: Only weekdays

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APPENDIX O

Meeting Notes September 4, 2009

Meeting notes appear below in the original format. Notes were originally taken by Karla D. and translated from Spanish into English by the coordinator with assistance from Ana Piedra, ATEC employee.

Notes from the Recycled Art Collective meeting

In Veronica’s Restaurant

Karla said lets sell the bags at the Feria.

Agenda:

1. We need a name

2. Logo

3. Places to sell

Ideas:

1. Name

Otra vez (organización talamanque;a reutilizando por el arte)

English translation: “one more time”

Reciarte, Reusarte

Reutilanzo con Creativadad... el Caribe

CART (colectivo artistico reutilizable talamanque;o) en espanol carreta!

CAT colectivo artesanal de talamanca

tu desecho es para nuestro provecho

English translation: “we use your garbage”

tu desecho es mi provecho

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Tirza will speak with Karina, the graphic designer, about drafting logos for the collective and ask her to present them at the next meeting.

2. Logo

3. Selling Logistics

PRODUCTS

.

1.TIRSA=Coin purses, ash trays, and painting on any surface

2.SUSETI= Patchwork bags and sheets

3.REBECA= Bags made from umbrella fabric

4.ALAI= drinking glasses made of wine bottles

5.KARLA= candles in candle holders made out of tuna cans

6.ASHLEY=cards made from recycled paper

7.LIGIA = baskets made of metallic paper

8.ANA= Purses and bags to carry eggs, decorative mobiles, baskets and bags made from plastic bags

9.ROSA EMILIA= Wastebaskets and other baskets made from newspaper.

PRICES

• Retail stores: shops can decide how much to mark-up, but we suggest 50% • The artist should choose the price

PRICE POLICIES

Percent contributed into the collective account

• For items sold to hotels and restaurants, the collective will gain 10% of the sale price for the items. • For items sold to retail outlets (including ATEC), the collective will gain 15% of the sale price for the items. • For items sold at the feria, the collective will gain 20% of the sale price for the items.

Places to sell:

• Treasurer will control the money for the collective, ATEC administration for now, but a treasurer needs to be chosen soon.

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The following is the original format of the notes taken at the meeting held on September 4, 2009. Notas de la Reunion de Colectiva de Artesanos Reutilando En Restaurante Veronica's Karla said lets sell the bags at the Ferria. Agenda: 1. Necesitamos un Nombre 2. un Logo 3. Puestos 1. Nombre Ideas: Otra vez (organización talamanque;a reutilizando por el arte) Reciarte, Reusarte Reutilanzo con Creativadad... el Caribe CART (colectivo artistico reutilizable talamanque;o) en espa;ol carreta! CAT colectivo artesanal de talamanca tu desecho es para nuestro provecho tu desecho es mi provecho 2. Logo Tirza va a hablar con Karina la espanola. --es desenador grafico 3. Puestos . PRODUCTOS 1.TIRSA=monederos, ceniceros, pintura sobre x elementos. 2.SUSETI= bolsos y sabanas Patch wook. 3.REBECA=bolsos de tela y sombrilla. 4.ALAI= vasos de vidrio con botellas de vino 5.KARLA= candelas de latas 6.ASHLEY=tarjetas de papel reciclado 7.LIGIA = canastas de papel metalico 8.ANA= monederos, hueveras, moviles, canastas de bolsas de plastico. 9.ROSA EMILIA= canastos de papel periodico. PRECIOS tienda :decide su porcentaje. Pero se sugiere 50% colectivo, % artista, fija el precio del producto POLITICA DE PRECIOS % del colectivo 10% margen para hoteles y restaurantes 15%margen para tiendas 20%margen para ferias PUESTOS: Tesorera, control del dinero del colectivo promotoras, logo, comunicación visual, exibidores. ALAI Y TIRSA ATEC

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ventas/ hacer los clientes. KARLA en hoteles y restaurantes ASHEY en tiendas TIRSA San Jose! REBECA , mantenimiento de tiendas 1er mes! ERICA hace el catalogo (nov listo) LISTA DE CLIENTAS 1.ATEC 2.COPRENA cliente en San Jose gestado por Tirsa.COOPERATIVA DE TURISMO RURAL. 3.JARDIN BOTANICO 4.FERIA DEL AGRICULTOR PRIMERA VENTA DE FERIA 19 de septiembre en la Feria del Agricultor Ashley y Alai vender y promocionar el 12 de set vamos a tener un volante anunciando lo que vamos colectando y anunciando que vamos a estar ya en la ferria CATALOGO TIENDA foto de productos foto del colectivo ficha del producto historia personal del artista introduccion (por que el grupo y sus materias primas). Puntos de venta y contacto. Everone bring their description of their product and description of self.

Cada Artista va a traer su descripcion de su producto y su persona a la proxima reunion.

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APPENDIX P

CARTS Product Catalog

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The items pictured above were made by Tirza Morales Sánchez. This and the previous page are

displayed side-by-side in the catalog.

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The items pictured above were made by Suzeti Rodney. This and the previous page are displayed

side-by-side in the catalog.

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The items pictured above were made by Rebecca Ortiz. This and the previous page are displayed

side-by-side in the catalog.

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The items pictured above were made by Karla Solano Dannenemberger. This and the previous

page are displayed side-by-side in the catalog.

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The items pictured above were made by Ana Roth Molina Bejarano. This and the previous page

are displayed side-by-side in the catalog.

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The items pictured above were made by Rosa Emilia Cruz Cambronero. This and the previous

page are displayed side-by-side in the catalog.

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APPENDIX Q

CARTS Accounting Spreadsheets

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APPENDIX R

CARTS Information Card

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