Strengthen the island network that they form 29 Youth Houses in 24 of the 31 municipalities of Tenerife. It is the main foundation for the Councilthrough the Youth and Training area, put out to tender the contract for the Espabilé youth participation project for an amount of 250,380 euros. Promote this active participation in the activity centers destined on the Island to people from 12 to 30 years old – although the youth limit is officially established at 35 – is the other priority objective of the initiative. The purpose of contracting the service is the design, development, execution and evaluation of the program with the purpose of forming groups of young people who share initiatives and carry out common actions. The administration will be in charge of providing technical and material support to this interrelation between the children and also facilitating coordination with other young people from Youth Houses in the same region or territory who already knew each other previously or not.
Participatory budgets
Espabilé proposes bringing together young people from different municipalities with whom to develop a project of participation, training, revitalization and even generation of participatory budgets to be executed later. Espabilé’s objectives are, on the one hand, active involvement through the creation of groups of boys and girls who are involved in the co-management of municipal youth houses and in youth policy, in general. On the other hand, train young people in the preparation of the aforementioned participatory budgets. The actions planned within the framework of the Espabilé project in the short and medium term are the co-management of youth houses, training in participation, real experiences in decision-making, regional and island meetings, creating driving groups of young promoters and project proposals.
Education in values
The insular Minister of Youth and Training, Serafín Mesa, explains that the Espabilé project is part of the line of “education in values with young people.” Its objective is to relate members of different youth houses in the same region. He adds: “Let them know each other, share energies and initiatives and carry out a common action or project.” He recalls that “our mission in this case is technical support and providing the necessary material for coordination and interrelation initiatives.” Mesa points out that the intention in 2024 is to reinforce the concept of the participatory process and include more young people in the promoting groups, in addition to expanding practical actions and training, as well as the edition and distribution of didactic material aimed specifically at them. In addition, for the first time, co-management will be launched in six youth homes on the Island.
Hundreds of boys
The Cabildo sources consulted did not dare to give an exact figure of how many people, especially kids, can move around the activities of the insular network of youth houses. They suggest that there are approximately several hundred and that the number depends on each municipality, since some houses have more activities than others and there are participants who carry out several. It is worth highlighting the case of Vilaflor de Chasna, which has three youth houses, while Arico and Fasnia have two each. The Insular Network of Youth Houses is made up of those of Adeje, Arico-El Porís, Arico-Tegüedite, Arona-Cabo Blanco, Buenavista del Norte, Candelaria, Casa Lázaro Siliuto (Santa Cruz), El Rosario, El Tanque, Fasnia- Casco, Fasnia-La Zarza, Granadilla, Guía de Isora, Güímar, La Guancha, La Matanza, La Orotava, La Victoria, Los Silos, Puerto de la Cruz, San Juan de la Rambla, San Miguel-Llano del Camello, Santa Úrsula , Santiago del Teide, Tacoronte, Tegueste, Vilaflor, Vilaflor (hostel) and Vilaflor-La Escalona.
