vilsongroh

The Vilson Groh Institute

This page collects materials in English about the Vilson Groh Institute, which is transforming marginalized communities in Florianópolis (Brazil) with education and opportunity.

The Vilson Groh Institute is a Brazilian nonprofit that coordinates the work of a network of six organizations that for over 20 years have been working to uplift marginalized communities, and currently reaches over 5000 people and 2000 families. Their focus is on youth education, social support, social integration, professional preparation and community development in the urban periphery. For over 40 years Vilson Groh has been living in these communities and creating a more peaceful and just future in Brazil.

Vilson Groh moved in 1978 to a marginalized community in Florianópolis, then a favela, and never left. Now 66 years old and going strong, Vilson Groh’s vision and passion have blossomed into a network coordinating almost 400 volunteers working across six nonprofits. The institute’s focus is on providing opportunity to at-risk youth, by supporting families, providing full time and part time educational programs, helping train and equip individuals for their first job, and providing scholarships for technical and university level education. The official website in Portuguese is redeivg.org.br.

Impact over the last 10 years

Some results showing the impact of the Vilson Groh Institute results over the last 10 years:

Over US$26 million invested in actions of prevention, insertion, coexistence, strengthening of bonds and education;
Over US$400.000 transferred to organizations in the REDE IVG network;
Over 7 million meals offered
Over 1000 served by the Institute’s university preparation course and over 300 people started university after the preparation courses
4.866 people supported per year on average
2.105 young people enrolled under training and work programs
225 technical and higher education scholarships
2.219 families supported per year on average
288 volunteers per year on average

English media

An article about the institute was published in October 2021 in the Harvard Review of Latin America
A 4 min 2018 video with english subtitles about Vilson Groh, the man whose work resulted in the creation of the Vilson Groh Institute
A 5 min 2021 video with English subtitles from a campaign to raise donations for individual scholarships to students in the Pode Crer program

Donations

If you wish to make a tax deductible donation in the US to support the Vilson Groh Institute, this can be done through the Pode Crer Fund of the BrazilFoundation, a 501(c)3 that supports Brazilian organizations promoting justice, equality and opportunity. To donate, visit https://www.brazilfoundation.org/podecrerfund/

The Vilson Groh Network

Through Vilson Groh’s leadership and that of many others, small projects have flourished and became reference organizations in communities. The the most prominent ones are:

Pandemic relief

Throughout 2020 as the pandemic unfolded in Brazil the Vilson Groh Insitute stepped up it’s support programs to impoverished families. Because of his ceaseless activity, Vilson Groh himself caught COVID-19 in October 2020, and thankfully fully recoververed. Currently 1746 families are supported R$200 (USD 40) per month and through mulitple food banks. As the pandemic continues to seriously disrupt daily life, hundreds more families have signed up for this essential support. Currently the institute seeks funds to support up to 500 additional families for a year.

The Pode Crer Program

In March 2021 the Vilson Groh Institute launched a major educational initiative in greater Florianópolis called Pode Crer, where 320 youth are getting one year of technology focused education, and by the end of which they are matched in internships with technology companies - breaking the cycle of poverty, inserting themselves in the job market, and changing their communities. The first year of implementation of the Pode Crer program offers two tracks of classes, for ages 11-13 and for 14+ years of age.

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Current activities being developed as part of the Pode Crer program encompass: enrollment of youth aged 11-24; training courses developing hard and soft skills and focusing on technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, English as a second language, arts, communication and citizenship contents; strengthening their social, psychological and academic developments with scholarships, meals, support to their families and preparatory courses for universities and trade schools; bringing them closer to the innovation and technology ecosystem, and helping them enter universities and the job market.

The institute’s grand project for the next few years is to shatter social segregation by building innovation centers across five marginalized communities in the Florianópolis region - to serve as a development model for the rest of Brazil. The projects and studies for the first center are done, and the estimated construction cost is 6 million brazilian reais, about 1.1 million US dollars. The project includes a library, maker lab, co-working space, classrooms and socialization spaces. It will be built smack atop a hill in Mont Serrat - the community where Vilson Groh lives at - and completely reinvent the community’s image.

The history of Vilson Groh

Vilson Groh was born and raised in Brusque, a city founded by German immigrants in 1860 in the state of Santa Catarina. Having recently graduated in theology, he came to Florianópolis in 1978 to study Theology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina - UFSC.

In 1979, he arrived at Morro do Mocotó, where he was welcomed by Claudete, a black woman, and practitioner of Umbanda - an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African traditions with Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and Indigenous beliefs. This friendship consolidated a strong perception of what life in the “periphery” really means - in the hills and favelas, without access to opportunity.

In 1983, he moved to Mont Serrat hill, where he has lived since then. His live has been one of total devotion for social justice. “I am a happy person. If I died, I would not be aware of saying what I did or what I did not do. Life has always been a surrender. This surrender internally gives you inner peace, which is not the peace of cemeteries, it is the peace of struggle.”