This document summarizes a student project visiting the Francisco I. Madero Community Center. The students interviewed the center's administrator, Rocio Ariel Segura, to understand the purpose and functions of the community center. It provides services like medical consultations, workshops, and activities for neighborhood residents. While functioning for 6 months, the administrator noted there is still room for improvement. The students will conduct a poll with neighbors to identify priority issues to find solutions for through their project.

1. Campus Saltillo
Civic Engagement and Democracy
Bimester Project
MGP MEP Machely Flores
08-09-2014
Erick Valdés Juárez 1380109
Daniel Alonso Fernández Sandoval 1380747
Juan Carlos Flores Oyervides 999051

2. I. Introduction
The course Democracy and Citizen Engagement takes on the comprehension of how society members get involved in those commonly ignored behavior patterns that make it the way it is. Once the citizen understands the basics, he/she can get involved in further activities related with the democratic spectrum, such as: decision making, participation and any kind of passive or active involvement.
For this project our team was assigned to visit a Community Center in the Francisco I. Madero neighborhood. The project itself was a surprise, we had never even heard about the existence of places along the lines of this one, we did have an idea that there were centers of support for the community, but we´d always conceived them just as temporary and with few impact. Nevertheless, this project gave us the opportunity to change our minds, therefore, also to apply and improve our knowledge through the activity.
Why is this project important? Because of the fact that we live in a society were cooperation is crucial. Cooperation is the key to overcome the struggles this city have. It is known that centers of support are located in places which need attention and have deficits of some kind, we start this job starting from this supposition. The objective is to find and propose a measure that could be used to improve the way things are done in the Community Centers. Whether advice or a specific measure, it all is going to be presented in the present writing.
For the realization of this project, there is a set of points to achieve in order to make it functional and realistic. The methods to work on this activity were born from planning and preventing the possible scenarios that could hit reality. Basically part of this setting up list had to do with the act of locating the place and making an effort to gather as a team to visit it together. For this, a previous investigation was made. It is interesting to know, and in consequence to express in this paper that there is no such thing as information available on the web to reach these places. The only dependence available for support is the City Council, medium used to get the contact information.

3. Francisco I. Madero Community Center
Commonly called the “Francisco I. Madero penal” neighborhood due to its closeness with the preadaptation center of the city has this Community Center within its streets:
When we arrived the center was closed. In the image below, a picture of an outside board showing the place´s activities is shown:

4. Later, when the community center was opened, we headed ourselves with who looked to be the place´s administrator, and so she was. The Community Center`s administrator is a woman called Rocio Ariel Segura. We introduced ourselves as students from ITESM and explained Rocio the purpose of our visit, to which she friendly agreed as to take our interview and respond any question and matter of our investigation.
Rocio is shown in the image.
There are four principal questions which need to be responded as this project flows (we got the answers from Rocio, the head of the center). It is also important to present the background of the Community Center, further information and useful data for our project. It all is presented next:
What is a community center?
A place where service and attention is given to the community in matter of necessities such as public, health, and social ones.
What is its purpose?
To provide a space for people from all ages to unite them, and expand this union to more neighborhoods, in order to help an amount from 8 to 10 colonies. They intend that everyone in the community attends the space to fully use the benefits it provides.

5. How does it work?
People from around the neighborhood and far beyond can assist to take workshops and realize activities such as sports, dancing, handcrafting,
Why is it there?
Madero´s center has been there for a long time. Nevertheless, since the new administration it has fully worked to satisfy the needs of the people from around. Before it was used just to attend social events.
The “Communitarian Center Madero” has been operating since April sixth, controlled by the new Municipal administration. Asking Rocio about whether it was in an optimal level or not, she responded it takes on the philosophy of continual improvement to develop. Continuing our research, we needed to make somehow clear and feel tangible all the ideas and points of the center, that´s why Rocio was asked to define her project as in a short/medium/large term; in answer we got that it is intended to be as a source of “little council” for the people, specifically as the medium to exercise their political and social matters.
How does it helps the community?
When it came the moment to ask Rocio what activities does the community, she didn´t hesitated about it. It appears that “Communitarian Center Madero” provides the neighbors with medical service that include the assistant from doctors to make medical consultation, a completely free service; it also includes the medication when possible. According to the administrator, it helps to the ones that can´t make it to the medical centers due to different factors (economically, closeness to centers, commodity). Some of the medical services they try to cover are: pediatricians, general practitioner, optometrist, among others; and depending of the neighbors most needs. In Saltillo there are some others “Communitarian Centers” that already have their own pharmacies to allow the neighbors to have a better medical assistance. The plan for all the “Communitarian Centers”, including the “Communitarian Center Madero”, is to have their own capacities to supply the medicines they need.

6. Is it fully functional?
Even though it has been active for 6 months, the “Communitarian Center Madero” is working in full capacity of employees, but even the administrator says it could be improved, as it a project that continues to develop during its running. This opens the possibly for us to start to investigate what are the affliction of the neighbors, to know where and how implement a theoretical solutions.
II. The Problem Statement
As the first step of the work, we have an agreement with the administrator Rocio Segura for an appointment during the next week so we can have an interaction with some of the neighbors, and we can state the project to them in a better and efficient way.
The next step will be the approached to the neighbors. We are going to submit a poll to them so they can try to explain in a better way what they think are the afflictions that need solutions, and they will be choosing from all the ideas they’ll propose the one they select as the priority to them.