Construction of Comprehensive Care Routes for School Coexistence in Cali, Colombia: Systematization of the Experience

Abstract

Children and adolescents in Cali (Colombia) face several problems in the school environment that affect their rights and physical and mental health. This paper describes the systematization of an experience aimed at designing comprehensive care routes to address school bullying, sexual violence, consumption of psychoactive substances, and the adolescent criminal responsibility. This project was developed by the Municipal Committee for School Coexistence of Cali between 2015 and 2017. This systematization followed the five-stage method proposed by Jara-Holliday. The experience was led by a social worker from the municipal government with participation of other social workers, professionals and university students and professors. The process involved representatives of several local, regional and national organizations in an intersectoral and interdisciplinary work experience. It was recognized in Colombia for being the first intervention that developed care routes for the aforementioned problems in the young population. In addition to describing the experience based on the professional intervention methodological process, this paper highlights the achievements, strengths and barriers of the intervention, as well as three main challenges: 1) the implementation of the developed routes in the education system, 2) the comprehensive application of the four approaches used to guide the intervention, and 3) the necessity of including critical abilities in the training of social workers to develop this type of interventions in the school environment.