The Councilors for Inclusive Policies and Education and Youth, Cristina Morera y Melani Ivars, have presented this morning the project for the creation of the Council for Children and Adolescents that will be launched by the Dénia City Council in the coming months. This initiative, contemplated in the government program of the current local executive, will be managed from the Department of Equality and Inclusive Policies, and will have the participation of the rest of the councils of the consistory, especially the Departments of Education and Youth.
As Councilwoman Cristina Morera explained, "One of the main points of the government program is the creation of this Council as a preliminary step to the creation of a Municipal Plan for Children and Adolescents, putting the little ones at the center of our policies, since they, as many times we have said, they are not only the future, but also our present ".
The Local Council for Children and Adolescents is an organ of municipal and educational representation where they try to bring and involve the children of public life in our city. Its components will be democratically chosen by the school children themselves, and they will meet periodically to discuss and design ideas and proposals with the aim of improving their city. "The basic idea of this Council is the recognition of the importance of girls and boys as citizens and to enable and guarantee their participation in the life and change decisions of the municipality, giving them a leading role in their transformation", says the mayor.
The general objectives of the Council are to learn to listen and understand children in all their diversity and mainly allow children to participate actively in the changes of the city; encourage the acquisition and practice of civic and ethical values, their own and necessary competencies within a democratic society; train active, participatory and involved citizens in public life; provide young people with resources to develop attitudes of respect, cooperation, justice, tolerance and listening skills, empathy, expression of feelings; enable and guarantee the participation of children in the life and decisions of the municipality, and be able to take proposals, work them, agree on them and present them in the government team and to the general public; learn to speak, to listen, to discuss ideas and solutions, to promote and develop values such as tolerance and solidarity, and to offer municipal policy makers and technicians the opportunity to confront their views with children's thinking.
Cristina Morera stressed that “The Council not only learns the little ones but also the older ones, since they will be able to observe how the needs of the children coincide with those of most of the citizens, especially with the weakest. Older people should lower their eyes to the height of the little ones and see how a city suitable for them is a city suitable for everyone ". In addition, from the City Council they consider that it is an exercise of transparency for the little ones and that it is necessary to bring political activity to all citizens, including children.
With respect to the Department of Education, it should be noted that the Council will consist of counselors belonging to the courses of 5º and 6º of primary, and 1º of the ESO of each center, which will be chosen by the students themselves. They will meet monthly to work on communication and relationship skills, as well as the municipal issues that affect them. The mandate is 3 years, changing annually one third of the directors as they progress to 2º of ESO, and at the end of each course a meeting will be held in the Plenary Hall with the government team, where the counselors will announce and they will discuss directly, with the corresponding councilors, all their proposals to be made on the municipal policies that they have worked on.
This new body is basic for the creation of the Local Plan for Children and Adolescents, and will allow the City Council to access different grants from the Directorate General for Children and Adolescents, and be able to be part of the Autonomous Council for Children and Adolescents of the Valencian Community, To collaborate with the General Directorate in the elaboration of the legislation and strategies referred to the smallest ones, and included, it will be possible to obtain the Seal of the Child Friendly City granted by UNICEF.
In September, the Municipal School Council will be convened to participate in the project to all schools in Dénia, La Xara and Jesús Pobre.
