"I did not want the project to end. For me, it should last forever": exploring a community development framework based on learned lessons from marginalised youth voices in Brazil

This chapter focus on the development of approaches to working with marginalised young people involved in drug trafficking. It aimed to produce a better understanding of these young people’s life circumstances, and new methodologies of work to support them when making their way out of criminal networks. In the context of the experience presented, which took place in Brazil, issues of structural racism and discrimination are highlighted as challenges to the design and implementation of more inclusive programmes, policies, and practices.
There is a need to consider the role of community development and participatory methodologies to not only rethink the actions of government agencies, but also practitioner’s attitudes to create a bridge to a humanised practice. One of the key elements of that is the recognition of young people not as “objects” of intervention, but as agents of their own future. Principles of community development in Paulo Freire’s formulation have been at the heart of the core values underpinning the Escape Routes project which is explored in the chapter. Participant observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with former project participants were conducted to create a retrospective view on the project values, achievements, and impact on young people’s lives.