Street Workers Network

The network currently comprises over 50 national platforms of social street workers located in countries across four continents

Map of members

Americas & the Caribbean

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Martinique, Mexico, Peru, Canada (Quebec).

Europe

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK.

Asia

Israel, Philippines, Vietnam, Nepal.

Dynamo International Street Workers Network Members Mapping

Africa

Algeria, Benin, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Congo, Egypt, Gambia, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, CAR, DRC, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia.

Candidats

Côte d’Ivoire, US, Ghana, Hong Kong, East Timor, Venezuela.

How the network operates

The network currently comprises over 50 national platforms of street social workers located in countries across four continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. And hundreds of associations are also involved.

Each national platform represents a country and acts as an umbrella organisation for several local associations (and sometimes hundreds of associations), as well as for individual street social workers. These platforms meet regularly to develop strategies and run activities to enable street workers to contend with their reality. A coordinator and a deputy from each platform are tasked with coordinating with Dynamo International.

The national coordinators as a whole form the International Network Pilot Group. The Pilot Group meets every two years to decide on the remits, objectives and activities to be implemented.

Regional coordinators are designated by the national platforms with a view to decentralising the network.

Network aims and objectives

  • Enable grassroots stakeholders to speak out.
  • Improve the effectiveness and quality of practices through training, exchanges and the creation of educational resources.
  • Create an international movement in order to develop structural and lasting responses to the issues experienced by street communities around the world.
  • Lobby the political authorities and other organisations involved in combating exclusion and inequality, which are worsened by a certain brand of globalisation.
  • Promote the unique nature of street social work.

Some prerequisites need to be met in order to undertake effective street work. In practice, most of the organisations working in this area are fragile. Dynamo International – Street Workers Network (DISWN) aims to showcase and professionalize street work. “Global” proposals need to be made to tackle social problems. Each of us has values and talents that can be used to build a “new and better world”. We need to develop concrete proposals at the international level and shared theoretical frameworks, while respecting national circumstances, if we are to effectively address poverty and social exclusion.

List of members of Dynamo International – Street Workers Network