About our partner
The University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs advances human dignity through research, policy, and practice, educational programs, and global engagement partnerships.
The Vines Foundation works with the Keough School’s Teaching Professor of International Development, Steve Reifenberg, to create opportunities for collaboration and synergy in the Foundation’s work.
Our partnership is centered on three themes:
Accompaniment
We center our programming around community-driven ideas and projects, not around prescribing solutions. Our partnership with Notre Dame enables us to incorporate a broad range of perspectives from our community to provide input into the direction of our work. Research teams conduct interviews with foundation and community members to identify priorities, needs, and aspirations. We believe members of our community have the best understanding of their
Photo of working with comedores
Co-creation
The best projects have dynamic and committed partners. Student research teams help us identify potential public and private sector partners who share our vision for community-led development, outlining possible pathways for collaboration. Generating alliances with supportive and socially responsible organizations is critical to ensuring our work is sustainable, transparent, and responsive to changing socioeconomic conditions.
Evidence-based models
Grounding our work in research ensures our initiatives are suited for particular context and backed by evidence and data. We draw inspiration from examples of successful development projects and data-driven results, and our partnership with Notre Dame allows us to explore avenues for adapting these models to the particular context of Tunuyán.
Beyond the classroom
As part of its commitment to putting research into practice, The Vines Foundation works with Notre Dame to host students from the research teams after the completion of their projects on-site in Tunuyán. Students have the opportunity to work directly with Foundation and community partners to implement elements of their projects and gain firsthand experience. To date, TVF has hosted 4 student researchers in Tunuyán. TVF is currently working with Notre Dame to establish an internship program housed in the Keough School of Global Affairs to further expand opportunities for students to work with the Foundation on pressing issues.
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