Three inspiring stories show how the Fund’s support strengthens culture, art and care for the territory in Campo Grande.
Quebrada em Movimento, through the Fundo da Quebrada, has been supporting initiatives that show, in practice, how community agency transforms realities in the Campo Grande district of Campinas. These are cultural, social and environmental actions born of the strength of local leaders and multiplied into impact.
🌸 Voices that blossom into poetry
Coletivo Somos Dandaras (2023)
In 2023 the Fund supported the Coletivo Somos Dandaras, made up of women from the outskirts, most of them Black, who found in poetry a way to express themselves and resist. The group emerged from the free writing workshops and poetry circles led by the poet Kátia Marchese at the Casa de Cultura do Parque Itajaí. From there, women of different ages began to share their lives as mothers, daughters, workers and residents of Campo Grande, finding in poetry a space of recognition, solidarity and collective strength. With the support they received, they held literary gatherings, took part in Quebrada em Movimento’s training courses, met new Black poets and moved towards a major achievement: the editing and publication of the book Dandara Somos Poesia, with a print run of 250 copies. Today the legacy lives on, and one of the authors, Vera Lúcia, has broadened her artistic path, working in theatre as well.
Launch of the book: “Dandaras Somos Poesia”
🎭 Theatre as resistance and welcome
Coletivo Vulcana (2024)
It was precisely in theatre that Vera connected with the second case. In 2024, the Coletivo Vulcana ran the cultural workshops “As Linguagens do Teatro”, also with support from the Fundo da Quebrada. The project worked in a hands-on way with different aspects of theatrical art — dramaturgy, staging, set design, costume, lighting and sound — as a path to emancipation, professionalisation and welcome. The collective, made up of mothers, chose the territory of Parque Itajaí to run the activities, in response to the high rate of violence against women recorded in the area. Each workshop was a space of learning and also of resistance, where the participants could turn pain into creative power and strengthen their struggle for rights, mental health and autonomy.
Theatre workshop with the Coletivo Vulcanas
🌱 From the spring to the future: collective care for the territory
Coletivo Eco Resistência (2025)
In 2025, the Fund supported the Coletivo Eco Resistência, which mobilised the community in a large environmental restoration effort at Parque Itajaí IV. The action concentrated on recovering a spring that supplies the Horta do Itajaí, a landmark of urban agriculture in São Paulo responsible for producing around 400 kilos of food a month for local families and grassroots initiatives such as Bom Prato. On 17 May, residents, urban farmers, teachers, students and environmental collectives came together to clear rubble, fence off the area around the spring, plant native trees and install educational signs produced by urban artists. The mobilisation also featured percussion performances that brought rhythm and joy to the action, bringing children, young people and adults together for a morning of collective care. The result was a visible transformation of the landscape and of the local microclimate but, above all, a renewal of the community’s self-esteem around a common good.
Spring clean-up action with a sale of produce grown at the Horta do Itajaí
Three different stories — poetry, theatre and environmental protection — that meet at the same root: the strengthening of the territory and of the people who build it every day. Quebrada em Movimento, through the Fundo da Quebrada, keeps showing that when there is investment in community leaders, impact multiplies into culture, into art, into life and into the future.
📚 The educational and accessible character of the Fundo da Quebrada
The Fundo da Quebrada is a funding mechanism that provides financial support to initiatives in the Campo Grande territory of Campinas. What sets it apart is that it goes beyond transferring resources: each selected project is accompanied by a social impact adviser from Quebrada em Movimento, who guides and strengthens the development of the work.
Another important feature is how straightforward the funding approval process is, designed to be simple and accessible and to respect the reality of community leaders. Unlike bureaucratic calls for proposals, the Fund seeks to lower barriers, making sure more people can put forward and carry out their ideas.
This model also makes the Fund an educational and training space, offering leaders tools for management, planning and impact evaluation. Each supported initiative thus gains greater sustainability, autonomy and capacity to multiply results, confirming the Fund as a strategic instrument of social transformation.