Adriana Stainfeld, Director, Fundación Salir Adelante

Getting Ahead through Education
Fundación Salir Adelante

The Program Salir Adelante was started in 2009 following an initiative of B’nai B’rith Uruguay. It was designed as a non-formal education coaching strategy, to provide young people with tools that would enable them to thrive with their formal education and expand their academic performance.

In Uruguay, only 4 out of 10 young people complete secondary school, a figure that places us below the Latin American average (INEEd, 2020). As we focus on the socioeconomic dimension, we see that those who come from “very favorable” backgrounds are almost five times more likely to finish secondary school than those from “very unfavorable” backgrounds (68.7% and 17.8%; Source INNEd 2019).

In view of this, our Program works with state-run (public) high school students from vulnerable socioeconomic backgrounds and with a good academic performance. They are offered support during the three years of high school, including material support (food, cleaning items, books); technology-digital items (computer and internet connectivity); and socio-educational support, through individual and group tutorships.

The objectives of the tutorships include:
– To expand education performance, helping them pass their academic year.
– To provide them with skills so that each student may discover their vocation.
– To generate opportunities through the expansion of socio-educational networks.
– To develop interpersonal social-emotional skills
In 2012 we began working with ReachingU; that enabled us to double the number of young people that entered the Program that year. For 10 years in a row they have supported us with significant economic contributions that have given sustainability to the program (accounting for the total coverage of 10 young students). It also offers us instances of training, spaces for the exchange of knowledge, opportunities for the dissemination of our work, and multiplication of socio-educational networks.
With the 13th generation that joined the program in 2021, we reached a total of more than 300 youngsters, with a high impact:

86% of graduates completed high school
95% were the first in their family to finish high school
16 university graduates, including nurses, notaries, public accountants, medical doctors, and social workers, to mention a few.

Behind every youngster there is a story, a person that feels and grows, young people that question themselves and create their own life projects. They are the main protagonists of Salir Adelante. We are excited to quote the words of one of our young graduates “The Program Salir Adelante has allowed us to closely follow our own progress, incorporating tools to enhance our own autonomy. They will prevail lest we lose track when facing future scenarios, keeping us focused through our internal compass”