From December 2022 to this year, we have carried out the “ParticipAcció per la Pau 2” project that was aimed to implement a process of awareness and training of recognition and empowerment with the young community of the Besòs-Maresme and Sant Martí neighborhood as agents of social transformation.
For the first six months, we were working on the planning part with the entities that supported us at the beginning and resuming contacts from both the neighborhood and the districts. At the same time, we were reactivating face-to-face with young people, although the COVID measures established at the time, was a gradual process that allowed us to build a diagnosis of the moment. From this process, four themes emerged (gender, racism, participation, and environment) that guided us to the training actions to be taken. We started training actions (on gender and participation, and secondly racism and participation) by putting on the table the process of building a youth exchange, opening the door to young people from Besòs-Maresme in the world, but remaining in stand-by.
However, we continued to promote thematic actions such as: security spaces-public space, diverse masculinities, gender and social networks, game Manipulator (fake news), participatory budgets, disinformation and fact-checking, urban art as a means of claim, pleasure, sex-affective relations, gender-sexual and ethnic minorities, platform decided Barcelona, among others.
In order to do this, we had the collaboration of friendly entities: FAVB, Enruta’t, CRAJ, CEPAIM, El Taller SCCL, Decidim Barcelona, Verifica’t, Càmeres i Acció, Associació de jove poble sec, Can Ricart, Joves de la Verneda, Menjador Gregal, Màgia de la Cocina.
At once with youth groups who were participating in various social programs in the as: COA, APC, Impuls Jove, Jo+ve, Projecte CLIP, Prometeus, Joventut esportiva, Dinamització juvenil, and others. On the other hand, we have strengthened our relations with professionals in the neighbourhood by carrying out joint actions such as: Voley Tournament, Young Summer, Youth Leadership Training, Miscellaneous Masculinities and Plane, security spaces, young B-M encounter.
Finally, and as the final point of the project, we were able to carry out the 1st Young Besòs-Maresme Meeting, together with theBesos-Maresme’s youth worker. It involved 40 young people, 8 technical people and 2 techniques from the Pla de Barris. New ideas for actions emerged from this, to be carried out closely by the same people or groups of young attendees.
We have reached about 500 young people and we have promoted some 40 actions over this period.
This project has been possible for the funding received from the Barcelona City Council. BTW: The photos that appear are those of the final event of the project.
