IRD employees working with community leaders to develop a business strategy and timeline, Montenegro
	Women participating in community action group organized by IRD, Iraq

IRD believes that linking governance and civil society initiatives with other development programs produces greater results than the programs can achieve separately. Working with IRD’s Economic Development, Health, Food Security and Infrastructure programs, the Civil Society sector promotes strong community participation and advocacy and helps leverage local resources. Across all sectors, IRD seeks to build informed citizens who can participate in the democratic process in areas ranging from HIV/AIDS awareness, to education and road building, to business development.

IRD’s current Civil Society portfolio includes programs in vocational training, life-to-work education and community social work. These programs are implemented in vastly different contexts – Afghanistan, Indonesia and post-Katrina Mississippi – each with its own unique set of challenges. What binds these programs together, however, are IRD’s efforts to promote the empowerment of individuals and communities, as well as the long-term sustainability of its interventions.

In Jalalabad, Afghanistan, IRD operates the Construction Trades Training Center (CTTC), a vocational training school. In the first year of the USAID-funded CTTC program, IRD graduated more than 1,000 students in intensive painting, construction, electrical wiring, plumbing and contractor programs. In the fall of 2006, IRD initiated a short-term program that trains between 30 and 40 tradesmen each week. Importantly, many of the students who enroll in the Center are individuals most at risk of engaging in insurgency activities. IRD ensures the long-term sustainability of the Center by providing a range of marketable construction and educational services to contribute to the reconstruction effort.

IRD supports innovative approaches to life skills education in Indonesia under the USAID-funded program Decentralized Basic Education: Objective 3 (DBE3). In partnership with Save the Children, the Academy for Educational Development and The Asia Foundation, IRD is working to improve the quality of formal and informal secondary education by increasing its relevance to life, work and community development. To date, IRD has developed educational modules and provided training to over 1,300 district teachers, tutors and managers working with at-risk youth. IRD has also completed an educational assessment in Papua and Irian Jaya Barat to explore the possibility of expanding DBE3 activities into those provinces.

IRD seeks to leverage its wealth of international experience in its domestic Civil Society programs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Through its Gulf Coast Community Service Center in Gulfport, IRD provides comprehensive case management services to victims of Hurricane Katrina with funding from the Mississippi Department of Health and Human Services, the American Association of Retired Persons, the Reformed Church in America and Capital Groups. In addition to connecting victims with the services they need to begin rebuilding their lives, IRD also delivers financial and housing counseling as well as emergency preparedness seminars.

Current Projects

• Afghanistan – Construction Trades Training Center (CTTC)
• Indonesia – Decentralized Basic Education: Objective 3 (DBE3)
• Iraq – Iraq Community Action Program (ICAP)
• Montenegro – Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA)
• Serbia – Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA)
• United States – Gulf Coast Community Service Center