The Community Youth At Risk (CYAR) program, known in Panama as Alcance Positivo, funded by USAID, addressed four main results:
1. Expanded Opportunities for Youth in Vulnerable Communities;
2. Expanded Opportunities for Vulnerable Youth in the Darien;
3. Improved sectoral capacity for coordinated and comprehensive responses to the needs of youth at risk; and
4. Institutional Capacity of the NGO Sector Strengthened.

Summary excerpt:

Result 1: Expanded Opportunities for Youth in Vulnerable Communities
The Alcance Positivo program worked with entities at the national, municipal and community levels to implement projects that served at risk youth. At the national level, Alcance contributed to the development of a life skills curriculum for the Ministry of Education. At the municipal level, Alcance established five Municipal Violence Prevention Committees (MVPCs) in the municipalities of Panama City, Colon, San Miguelito, Chorrera and Arraijan. MVPCs were conformed of municipal employees, small business owners, teachers, faith based oranizaitions and other stakeholders who worked together to develop and promote community based youth development activities.

Result 2: Expanded Opportunities for Vulnerable Youth in the Darien
In the Darien, Alcance Positivo partnered with various NGOs, faith based organizations and government entities to develop activities for at risk youth. In partnership with Fundacion Tierra Nueva (FTN), Alcance Positivo trained 114 youth to develop radio programming that reached over 4000 listeners. In addition, the program provided life skills training in partnership with FTN and the Instituto Forestal y Agropecuario de Darien (IFAD) for 109 youth leaders.
In partnership with various organizations including PanDeportes, the Provincial Baseball League (FEDEBEIS), Atletico de Darien, and FEPAFUT, Alcance Positivo started a sports for development program for youth in the Dairen. Over 730 youth participated in this program through 5 soccer leagues, tournaments and team building activities.
In addition, Alcance positive worked with local partners to develop a Darien Culture and Tourism Communications Campaign, to raise awareness about the Darien’s tourism potential. Alcance worked with partners like IFAD to train youth in the Darien in the tourism sector by becoming guides in ECOTOURS Darien.

Result 3: Improved sectoral capacity for coordinated and comprehensive responses to the needs of youth at risk
Central to the success of the Alcance Positivo program was the emphasis placed on working with and strengthening youth serving civil society organizations (CSOs). To achieve its goals, Alcance Positivo provided direct funding to a total of 107 organizations benefitting over 43,460 youth through violence prevention community projects, including training in life skills, entrepreneurship, vocational training, leadership development, sports, and other cultural activities to create a healthy alternative to engaging in criminal activity.
Recognizing that media can serve as a propagator of violence, simply by reporting on violent acts, Alcance Positivo worked to reverse the trend by engaging media outlets through trainings and targeted activities. In

Result 4: Institutional Capacity of the NGO Sector Strengthened
Alcance Positivo sought a window of opportunity to train the NGO sector in Panama through executive courses for NGO leaders and to understand how to increase volunteerism in the nonprofit community. In 2012, Alcance conducted two national studies on NGO management and volunteerism. Results revealed that 383,000 Panamanians volunteer an average of 2 hours per week. Twenty six NGO leaders successfully completed a 32 hour NGO Strengthening Workshop focusing on social media, marketing strategic planning, operations and standardization of process and received an executive level certification. In addition, Alcance Positivo developed a web-based platform for learning, sharing best practices, and connecting civil society in Panama through www.PonteEnAlgo.com.
Throughout the life of the project, Alcance Positivo engaged with public, and private sectors, youth volunteers, mayors, Ministers and heads of NGOs to achieve a common goal of supporting youth at risk through targeted trainings, recreational activities and engagement.