It is not uncommon for those driven by the best intentions to promote social impact and transformation to arrive at a socially vulnerable environment – filled with energy, enthusiasm, and the tools to make things happen – and encounter a reality of needs and demands they did not envision at first. Lara Abad, 16, was “utterly disappointed” when she began working on the very first social innovation project that Avenues has been promoting on neighboring communities Real Parque and Jardim Panorama. The idea was to map out local community-based NGOs and institutions and create a network. “I didn’t see the point. It took me quite a while to understand it and to feel motivated”.

But eventually she did, and very much so. “I built up resilience and learned to be patient. These things take time”. Almost two years after her class first initiated the project, she is one of those still devoted to it – and passionately so. The extremely positive feedback she and her teammates received from the community is a powerful booster. “These institutions didn’t know about each other and suddenly they were working together. Our work made a real difference”.