This text reports on an experience of a university extension project, conducted with a group of collectors of recyclable materials to generate labor and income. The project had the participation of the collectors from its creation until the evaluation process and constitutes a project whose intention was to associate management abilities to an action to generate work and income, based on the construction of socio-economic alternatives, with a focus on self-management. In addition to reporting on the methodological procedures and presenting the results of the intervention, the living and working conditions to which the collectors are submit are discussed, as well as the construction of discussion spaces to help the formation of these political subjects.
participation; political education; labor and income