8-30-24  |  Our Programs Partnerships

Unleashing the Potential of Rural Youth Leaders with Design Thinking: Fabretto Innova 2024

BY: Fabretto

Young people are the future of Central America, and with creativity and critical thinking, they can start tackling challenges in their communities today. Generating innovative solutions to challenges was the central theme of Fabretto Innova 2024, an incredible three-day intensive learning experience with 59 participants—students, teachers, and staff from four partner organizations—hailing from 9 departments of Honduras. 

The first edition of Fabretto Innova was held in Nicaragua in 2021 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to innovate for social good in a highly challenging context. This year, we brought Fabretto Innova to Honduras, in partnership with Asociacion BAYAN, Educate2Envision, ACOES, and Shoulder to Shoulder. 

Fabretto is grateful to the following donors for making this event possible with financial support: Mortenson Family Foundation, Pulte Family Foundation, Patricia Price Peterson Foundation, and the Rockway Foundation.

A Hands-On Experience with Design Thinking, a Tool for Innovation

Fabretto Innova began months ago with four virtual sessions introducing the cohort to the principles of Design Thinking. Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that focuses on understanding people’s needs and creatively solving problems. It involves five key stages: Empathy, Definition, Ideation, Prototyping, and Testing. This methodology encourages participants to think outside the box and develop creative solutions that truly respond to community needs and solve intractable problems. Each participant brought their ideas and observations to Fabretto Innova’s in-person workshop.

Fabretto welcomed participants to Siguatepeque on August 22nd and kicked off the workshop with words of encouragement from Kevin Marinacci, our CEO, and other Fabretto team members. Through dynamic activities, participants began to get to know their peers from different parts of Honduras and started to activate their creativity and inspiration.

The next day, we dove right into the Design Thinking process! Each team selected a Sustainable Development Goal on which to focus their innovative solution and defined a key problem in their communities. Some of the problems that participants chose to tackle included access to clean water, disinterest in secondary education in rural areas, deforestation, and high rates of alcoholism.

Using their own observations and evidence from interviews and consults collected prior to the event, each team moved through the first four stages of Design Thinking and created a rapid prototype of their solution, which they each pitched to the wider group on the final day of Fabretto Innova.

Looking Ahead

As Fabretto Innova came to a close, each participant reflected on how to take their learnings and turn them into action for the good of their communities. This event showcased how important it is to invest in capacity building and tools for young people in Honduras, whose journeys are just beginning. 

Invest in the future! To support young innovators and entrepreneurs, please click here to donate to our Youth Empowerment program.

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