The Youth House of La Orotavawhich will be ten years old on July 10, received more than 2,300 users in 2021, a significant number in a year still marked by the effects and restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic. That figure will grow in 2022 and it is expected to be close to data from years prior to the appearance of the Covid-19when this venue came to welcome more than 3,500 young people in its annual activities.
Since this service opened its doors in the summer of 2012, they have not stopped offering activities, resources and tools for all the young people of La Orotava who come there to study, train, play sports or approach different artistic modalities, such as literature or photography. For the villero mayor, Francisco Linares (CC)«the Youth House is a nerve center for young people, an open space for people between 12 and 35 years old, which serves as a meeting place, coexistence, exchange of experiences, communication and dialogue».
Also, the Youth House of La Orotava provides material and technical support to youth initiatives individually or collectively. Young people from all the villages in the town can access the wide range of entertainment, culture and training, as well as a program that is organized annually for the group, “counting on their opinions and contributions.”
690 square meters
The mayor delegate of the Youth area, Dario Afonso (CC), details that in the more than 690 square meters that this house has “different services are offered such as a youth information point, several study rooms and training rooms, an exhibition space, a media library or a multipurpose room for courses and workshops”. Activities and actions are organized in the center recreational, sports, technological or educational«specially attending to the demand and concerns of the users themselves».
The annual program is adapted to the proposals and suggestions of the young villeros
However, one of its main objectives is to offer “training of interest that can benefit young people by improving their knowledge and facilitating their preparation to be able to enter the world of work in the future».
About some months ago, the house of youth, located on Calle León, near Casa Egón, has a fully equipped rehearsal room, with a mixing desk, amplifiers, drums, keyboard and microphones, which can be used by reservation. In addition, it now has Radio The Young Voice “Made by and for them,” Afonso points out.
“We try to train young people in the operation of the radio with the aim of making programs and giving news of interest to the group itself, but being the ones who contact the sources and do the entire information process with total freedom” , says the councilman. Linares adds that it is «a youth station, not a municipal radio, so it is a channel for boys and girls to have a voice and express themselves regarding the issues that most concern and interest them». The programs are broadcast through the internet and different social networks. This initiative is supported by radio kioskof the Secondary Education Institute (IES) La Orotava-Manuel González Pérez.
Linares appreciates the high participation of this group and the fact that, “despite all the resources available to them today, they continue to take advantage of and use the house of youth and all the offer that is made exclusively for them». And it is that from the local government it is insisted that the programming is designed “according to the suggestions of young users”, with which an annual program is generated that adds new proposals to the activities already consolidated and that continue to be an important claim for this group, such as the digital photography course, the Espabilé project; Brainiacs and Multiple Intelligences; the different activities in nature; creative writing courses, or The Young Art Festivalamong other.
