The Education and Coexistence project is a Global Development Alliance (public-private partnership) with the Salvadoran Business Foundation for Educational Development (FEPADE) to leverage private sector support for safe schools and communities for crime prevention and to reduce illegal migration to the United States.

USAID and FEPADE and private sector partners assist public schools and communities in reducing violence in the most vulnerable municipalities of the country, by modifying attitudes and developing educators’ (families and teachers) skills to promote positive behavioral changes and to improve the communities’ quality of life.

The project helps transform schools into integral centers for violence prevention within the community. In order to achieve this, the project strengthens the capacity of educational communities to prevent violence and enhance community harmony and well-being through the generation of public-private alliances.

Activities improve the quality of education and promote community involvement to motivate children and youth to stay in school.  Teachers and parents work together towards educating 

children and youth to be positive leaders who know how to coexist in peace, without using violence to resolve their problems.

To achieve this, the project creates “educational corridors” that include schools and the communities where they are located to promote community involvement in education and position schools as community centers.  The educational corridors strategy impacts educational quality in the area surrounding the selected schools, by working with neighboring schools and the communities that are served by them. This strategy not only creates synergies among the schools and their staff, but also strengthens their capacity to become strong and resilient centers to protect children and youth against violence and to change violent behaviors.

Through the educational corridors, the project expects to reach at least 100 schools and 150 communities, which will benefit 20,000 students and 45,000 community members in places with high crime and high out-migration.

The project provides teacher training, equipment and furniture for schools, extracurricular activities, youth leadership training, and strengthening values and community harmony. 

The participation of the private sector of El Salvador is a key factor for leveraging resources for schools. The private sector’s involvement will focus mainly in providing cash and in kind contributions to award scholarships to high performing students in the selected schools; acquiring equipment and furniture for schools and community spaces; carrying out training and coexistence activities; and improving or building new infrastructure.