lives,
Changing
transforming communities
through direct support to
locally led initiatives
What drives us
Community Service Alliance (CSA) was born out of the belief in the power and strength of local leaders who have a vision for the transformation of their community. As a registered non-profit organization, based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, CSA works alongside local communities to empower them with the resources and know-how to realize positive change.
When they founded CSA in 2004, Rigil Ballester and Elizabeth Conkin had already worked extensively in cross-cultural education, international volunteer training, and community development in the Dominican Republic. As such, they understood the incredibly effective work of local grassroots organizations, such as parent-teacher associations, women’s groups, local schools, youth associations, after-school programs and other community groups in
some of the poorest areas of the Dominican Republic. However, they also saw that these groups are normally excluded from large-donor funding because of their lack of administrative infrastructure. Therefore CSA was founded with the goal of building capacity through technical training, basic material support, and channeling international resources, thereby empowering these community groups to more effectively realize their goals.
CSA uses the volunteer experience as a campus for service-learning and cross-cultural exchange, in which students and volunteers learn by working alongside local experts and directly with communities themselves. The relationship which grows naturally out of these partnerships between the international volunteers and the Dominican people, change lives through a greater understanding and mark the way one will perceive the world forever.
Volunteers helping to build women's center
Fully operational women's cooperative with businesses
