The Role of the University in the Government Program for the Integral Transformation of Neighborhoods: the Cuban Case

The Universidad de Oriente, since its genesis, has shown its popular and extensionist vocation, in solid connection with Santiago society; Hence, in postmodernity, it has achieved changes in the articulation processes of state and private actors in order to meet the objectives of the Territorial Development Strategies, based on this and in response to the Government's call for accompaniment to the program of Comprehensive transformation of neighborhoods in vulnerable situations, in the midst of a complex crisis scenario, the university became a strategic ally for said program. This accompaniment is deployed through the development of the Integrated Community Work (TCI) from the Universidad de Oriente considering the different municipalities as laboratories of the natural and social fabric where spaces with diverse forms and functions are shown, with unequal housing densities, spaces of intense sociability, cultural repertoires that are built as expressions of sociocultural consumption. The objective of this paper is to: Explain the accompaniment process deployed by the Universidad de Oriente in the care program for the most vulnerable neighborhoods in the Santiago de Cuba province. The research is based on a mixed methodology from which theoretical level methods were used such as: inductive-deductive; analysis-synthesis, as well as the hermeneutic-dialectical and as a methodological procedure, the triangulation of sources and method. The main result is recognized: the willingness and commitment of directors, academics, actors and socioeducational managers to improve territorial development actions by strengthening attributions and planning and management capacities, the participation of social actors and coordination with other instances of the government, in order to enhance local resources and take advantage of opportunities to improve the living conditions of the population in a situation of vulnerability; the reengineering process of university extension based on the accompaniment to the neighborhood transformation program.