Engaging a Community-based Perspective: The Problems of and Prospects for a Grassroots Endeavor in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to bring to the forefront the inconsistency of so-called “grassroots” organizations that operate by using traditional structures. The case of Educate Everyone, a nonprofit organization in the Dominican Republic, is utilized to illustrate this incompatibility at the organizational level, and identify the ways in which this issue plays out in a project. Additionally, possibilities for the organization to employ a community-based framework are discussed. The accounts that are presented to explore the central theme stem from two months of fieldwork that were spent carrying out a participatory action research project with volunteers who support Educate Everyone’s annual academic camp.