EPIC-N Launches Expansion into Latin America and the Caribbean
Learning from past efforts, EPIC-N introduces the EPIC Model to over 300 university and local government leaders throughout Latin America and the Caribbean
Since 2017, EPIC-N documented three EPIC Model programs operating in Latin America (The Sage Project, SAGE Cimarrón, and COMpasso). Other than supporting these three organizations little institutional support was directed toward this region. Earlier this year, EPIC-N began efforts to launch a more formalized effort to support Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
In February 2022, a collaborative effort to extend the application of the EPIC Model of university-community engagement into LAC began via a partnership between EPIC-N, IAI, ICLEI, and UNEP/GAN.
Applying lessons from past expansion efforts in Africa and Asia, EPIC-N started the effort with a call for consultants facilitated by IAI and funded by UNEP GAN. Leaders of the partnering organizations selected four consultants to act as “EPIC-LAC Coordinators” to focus on the respective geographies listed below (see full list of countries included at the end of this article).
- Bryce Bray – Brazil
- María Inés Carabajal – Southern Cone
- Andrea Birgit Chavez – Andean and Brazil
- Kristofer Patron-Soberano – Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
From March to June 2022, the four coordinators worked collaboratively with to learn about the regions of focus. They met with hundreds of university and government leaders at various levels. They provided brief informational presentations about the EPIC Model and received feedback. They identified funding sources and organizations to consider as future partners in any future implementation efforts.
In a presentation during the 2022 EPIC-Network Conference, Kristofer Patron, one of the EPIC-LAC Coordinators and Program Administrator of The Sage Project, described the coordinator’s effort as being “focused on gathering the information and the different aspects of every country and university within the various regions. We worked to understand the different individuals, structures, and their priorities so we can tailor our approach and support to their needs.”
Fifteen countries included in initial outreach
At the completion of the prospective stage, the four coordinators met with over 300 individuals. They began to identify potential leaders of future advisory boards for each region. They found that 10 institutions have short- to mid-term are planning to launch an EPIC Model program and would like more support from EPIC-N.
Patron described finding “similarities as well as huge diversity of people and context throughout EPIC-LAC, which is a huge opportunity for us to try and include all of those differences into the model as we begin to implement with local leaders.”
In his conference presentation Kristofer summarized the sentiment shared by the EPIC-LAC Coordinators and the partnering organizations.
“We think there is enough momentum and interest to start an EPIC-LAC organizational effort. Hopefully next year’s conference we will announce the official launch of EPIC-LAC and some new programs from the region.”
Coordinators begin implementation phase starting in July 2022
EPIC-N and IAI, with the support of UNEP GAN and ICLEI, initiated another phase of the EPIC-LAC expansion as of July 1, 2022. This phase will transition to an implementation effort with the same team. More specifically the EPIC-LAC Coordinators will host trainings like the ones that launched EPIC-Africa and EPIC-Asia, support grant submissions to increase EPIC-LAC capacity, and most important of all, support local leaders implementing the EPIC Model.
Questions about the future plan and/or how to get involved?
If you are from one of the countries listed below please email your respective EPIC-LAC Coordinator using the email found in their linked profiles.
If you have questions about the effort in general, please email it to EPIC-N Program Manager, Marshall Curry at mcurry@epicn.org.
List of countries organized by EPIC-LAC Coordinator
- Bryce Bray – Brazil
- Brazil
- María Inés Carabajal – Southern Cone
- Argentina
- Chile
- Paraguay
- Uruguay
- Andrea Birgit Chavez – Andean and Brazil
- Brazil
- Bolivia
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- Peru
- Venezuela
- Kristofer Patron-Soberano – Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
- Belize
- Costa Rica
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Antigua And Barbuda
- The Bahamas
- Barbados
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Grenada
- Haiti
- Jamaica
- St. Kitts and Nevis
- St. Lucia
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago
