SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 8. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has presented this Wednesday the Keys and challenges in the care of migrant children and adolescents without family references, organized by the Institute of Social and Socio-Health Care (IASS) through its Childhood and Family Unit.
Through these conferences, the Island Corporation intends to analyze the services offered to this group, highlight the innovations introduced in recent years and propose possible challenges for the future.
The opening ceremony was attended by the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín; the third vice president and insular councilor for Social Action, Marián Franquet, and the rector of the University of La Laguna, Rosa María Aguilar.
Pedro Martín explained that the main objective of the Island Corporation is to strengthen the island network of residential care for unaccompanied minors and improve the quality of existing services, through the specialization of resources.
“These sessions follow the new model that the Cabildo de Tenerife is implementing to offer more personalized attention adapted to the needs of each group,” explained Martín, who highlighted the recent opening of the first specific center for migrant girls and adolescents. unaccompanied, among other actions promoted by the Cabildo in this regard.
Likewise, he thanked the technical staff of the network of IASS centers for the work they carry out, both at the insular level, and in support and cooperation with other organizations in Europe, to provide the best care for minors.
Along these lines, the third vice president and counselor for Social Action, Marián Franquet, highlighted the work that the IASS does with some 140 minors, to ensure that they can have an adequate life project and achieve their integration into our society, collaborating with the Community Autonomous who is the one who has the powers. At the same time, she valued the coordination between the technical teams of the Institute and the different entities dedicated to the care of girls and boys.
During the conference, the technicians of the Childhood and Family Unit Ana Elba Herrera and Ana María Belda presented a study in which they break down the different profiles of migrant minors who receive attention from the IASS resources. A work that has resulted in several data with which the Institute intends to evaluate the care received by unaccompanied migrant minors and adapt and improve it according to their specific needs. “Getting to know the girls and boys, their trajectories and their future projects, is what allows us to set up services and resources that really adapt to the situation of each group and their aspirations,” Franquet pointed out.
The rector of the University of La Laguna focused on the fragility of this age group, without family references: “They are alone in a new continent, coming from realities far removed from ours and, above all, very unknown”. For this reason, she highlighted the responsibility required by social policies that respond to this situation and she congratulated the Cabildo de Tenerife for launching this initiative and focusing on improving the care provided to this group.
Other points that will be highlighted during the two days that the conference continues, which ends tomorrow, Thursday, will be the work carried out by the Children and Family Unit from an international point of view, through collaboration with different institutions and associations from outside of Spain, with the aim of finding relatives of minors who have arrived in the Canary Islands to promote their reunification. In this case, different representatives of the Spanish Red Cross, Samusocial Paris, France Horizon or the team of the Social Assistance Service for Children in the Upper Seine will participate.
