About Us

WHO WE ARE
Centre for Social Action (CSA) is a registered trust (Reg. No. E-17189), established in the year 1997 and is the Office for Social Work and Development of the Archdiocese of Bombay. CSA is committed to bring about holistic empowerment to vulnerable individuals and groups and aims to integrate them into mainstream society.

Our mission is to INITIATE, EMPOWER and SUSTAIN non-violent, collaborative and integral development processes through Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and partners working with vulnerable individuals and groups in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad Districts.

In the current year CSA has impacted around 4500 children through supplementaryclasses, 800 children through Bal Sansads, and through various intiatives of the CBOs  directly influenced the lives of over 5500 persons.

WHAT WE DO (BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR WORK)

As per the Archdiocesan Social Perspective Plan (ASPP) the four broad Program Areas of CSA’s Intervention are :
1.   To restore the dignity of Vulnerable Children and bring about an equal and value based education by providing support structures to prevent them from dropping out of school (Conducting Supplementary Classes) thus ensuring their Right to Education and building in them civic consciousness through Children’s Parliament (Bal Sansads).

2.   Ensuring that every woman is  Socio-Economically  Empowered and her basic rights guaranteed by making them aware of their rights, linking them to their entitlements, building their capacities to respond to exploitative situations and working towards providing Sustainable  Livelihood opportunities  by conducting Income Generation Programs (IGPs) for women from the  lower socio-economic strata of society and promoting their financial literacy (use of budget diary, importance of savings, life and medical insurance, etc.)
  3.   Promoting Good Governance by organizing communities for liaison with authorities for Good Governance, mobilizing tribal groups to demand for their rightful entitlements like access to the existing government scheme of Public Distribution System (PDS) and collaborating with local network organizations to ensure accountability in governance through a process of non-violent participative democracy and promote Environment friendly practices  through  sustainable use of natural resources.

4.   Fostering of Communal Harmony among the diverse religious, ethnic and linguistic groups and facilitating an Emergency Response to natural or man-made disasters like riots, floods, droughts, etc. ensuring access to resources for the most vulnerable affected by these situations.

OUR APPROACH

CSA works through a network of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and partner NGOs in order to accomplish its mission.  We strongly believe that Communities at the grassroots should take up ownership of their development.

To this effect, the CSA and CBO staff have engaged in a process of rapport building, selecting key leaders from the community and thereafter empowering them to take up responsibility of leading the process.

We adopt an “Empowerment  & Community-Led Development” Approach  with an aim to Empower people and communities  by creating opportunities  through

• Care, Development and Education of vulnerable children
• Building their capacities to deal with the challenges of life
• Providing them access and opportunities for charting their own  development trajectory
• Making people aware of their rights

The above is done through various social & economic development programs :

• Conducting Supplementary Classes
• Formation of Bal Sansads (Children’s Parliament)
• Providing nutritional supplements to HIV infected children
• Formation of Self Help Groups (SHG’s)
• Initiation of Income Generation Programs &  supporting them to market their produce
• Women Leadership programs
• Capacity Building and Trainings for women, men, youth and children
• Awareness sessions on RTI, PDS, various Government Schemes, etc.
• Enabling the service user to access various government schemes and otherentitlements (Ration card, senior citizen card, Aadhar, etc).

 

WHO DO WE WORK WITH

• In the MUMBAI DISTRICT,we currently work with 10 Partner CBOs. Through these CBOs we are able to work directly with several vulnerable communities in the slums which include children, domestic workers, daily wage labourers, rag pickers, etc. There is also 1 direct intervention of CSA in Vile Parle.
• In DHARAVI ISLAND located at Bhayandar West (covering the areas of Uttan, Manori, Gorai, Chowk, Pali andDongri) we work with 6 Partner CBOs who in turn work with the marginalizedfishing and farming communities.
• In 11 Talukas of the RAIGAD DISTRICT and other parts of THANE DISTRICT (mainly Kalyan) we work with the Kathkari tribals and other marginalized communities.  In Raigad we work with 14 Partner CBOs and in Kalyan with1 Partner CBO.

WHERE DO WE WORK