Bidlisiw Foundation, Inc. is a social development agency operating for 28 years now. Being a community-based agency, the Foundation developed its programs and services as well as the methodologies tailored fit to the needs of children in need of special protection (CNSP) and their families. Bidlisiw#s Child and Family Healing Recovery and Reintegration (CFHRR) Framework of Intervention is an innovation and is now being recognized by various agencies for best practice. In the locality, only Bidlisiw provides community-based therapeutic interventions and reintegration services aside from the Social Welfare Office whose capacity is limited due to few numbers of social workers, and oftentimes the psychologists are hired as retainers or on calls. Bidlisiw also implements advocacy work, organizes special events to raise awareness, participates in local governance through the special bodies to lobby on issues affecting children as well as other gender-related advocacies.

Project Title: EQUIP -YP ( Economic Equality Initiatives for Productivity of Marginalized Young People)

The project is about piloting and enhancing a design that will prepare and provide access to vulnerable/marginalized young people ages 15-24 years old for economic inclusion. It will also attempt to implement, come up with a model design for the Tulong TrabahoAct (RA 11230) targeting the former beneficiaries of Bidlisiw who underwent the healing and recovery program as well as those who are residing in the same communities who are also marginalized because of their socio-economic conditions. RA 11230 is very new and based on consultation with TESDA Region 7 and CebuProvincial Office, this is not yet fully implemented in the area. There are many designs circulating around towards economic empowerment however the inclusion of the recovered drug addict, survivors of trafficking, those with low educational qualifications are not able to cope with the opportunities provided due to various circumstances such as discrimination, lack of life skills, and other job readiness issues. Bidlisiw’s clienteles are children-youth in need of special protection such as drug users/surrenderees, commercially sexually exploited children etc. who mostly are non-high school completers, some are overage for her/his current educational attainment thus going back to formal school is no longer their priority. In our own data, among those highly vulnerable, 87%of young people would want to proceed to wage employment while only 13% would want to become entrepreneurs. However actual family profile of enrolled beneficiaries showed only 38% are wage-employed which is a big discrepancy of their own aspiration and interest. Among those who are self-employed, 90% belongs to the informal economy. The main program of Bidlisiw which is the child and family healing recovery and reintegration (CFHRR) is focused on trauma recovery and strengthening of the personal resources. However, sustaining the behavioral changes is a challenge because once they become young adults, access to economic productivity is difficult because of their background. Relapse may happen if they are not supported in this area. Many of the opportunities around are given to young people who are privileged, qualified, job-ready leaving behind this type of young people. Also, it was noted in our experience, even those who are senior high completers are unable to pursue college. They have limited access to information on job vacancies and skills training available. It was also notable that some beneficiaries are showing low self -esteems as they got to compare themselves to others who have achieved a lot. Some companies in the past have created biases on individuals living in those types of communities where Bidlisiw beneficiaries reside. They are judged as liabilities of the society and trust is at times absent. This oftentimes leads to young people settling for informal/laborious type of jobs inside their communities where social security, the minimum wage are not secured where the risks for labor exploitation and the dangers of relapse become big as they face the economic pressures. This prompted Bidlisiw to create phase 2 of the CFHRRwhich will develop their life skills for employability and facilitate economic inclusion of vulnerable young people and convince the private sector to open doors for marginalized youth. The above concept will provide changes at the youth level making them equipped with life skills for employability, the organization is able to establish a program for economic inclusion of the marginalized sector, and at the level of the private sector making them more sensitive, non-judgmental, and inclusive.