Ciudad Joven is a non-profit association that has been working since 1998 with children, young people and their families who are in a situation of social exclusion in Vallecas. The Association’s projects seek to prevent situations of risk, neglect and/or social conflict, through comprehensive education projects that include the teaching of personal and social skills that contribute to promoting their training at all educational levels and their preparation for the world of work.
Fundación Iberdrola España, through its Social Programme, forges around thirty alliances with social entities every year for projects aimed at combating child poverty and the social educational inclusion of vulnerable children and adolescents, such as Ciudad Joven, supported by the foundation since 2015.
The common objective of the alliance is to offer young people resources that favour their personal and social development, from a pedagogical intervention through leisure and free time activities. To achieve this, work is carried out to improve the school performance of the participants in a playful and creative way from a protagonist model with a focus on rights and in coordination with other social agents that intervene in the lives of these minors and adolescents.
Education, as the main driver of human development, occupies a fundamental place in the United Nations 2030 Agenda, which promotes children’s rights and represents an opportunity to protect all young people under the slogan: “leave no one behind”. For the Ciudad Joven- Fundación Iberdrola España alliance, guaranteeing the well-being of children is a commitment to which is added the responsibility to protect the most vulnerable minors from a local and global perspective.
Thus, the Transformative Education for Global Citizenship promoted by the social entity as the core of intervention in its projects is the main strategy to empower people in the exercise of their rights and duties and to promote their participation in the transformation of society. Promoting diversity as a source of human enrichment, responsible consumption, equality and environmental awareness.
During the health crisis caused by COVID 19, the project developed by Ciudad Joven has been adapted in order to reduce the social and economic impact caused among participants and their families, providing the necessary resources and tools to do so. The Iberdrola Spain Foundation, in order to contribute to achieving this objective, has donated a series of laptops that will help to reduce the digital and educational gap of the most vulnerable families.
Iberdrola, with society
Iberdrola, through the Social Programme of its Foundation in Spain, has already allocated more than 10 million euros to social initiatives in Spain, helping a total of 375,000 people. Since the launch of this plan in 2010, the company has promoted more than 400 projects in collaboration with more than one hundred social entities, contributing to the fight against child poverty, school support, and the social integration of children, young people, and women in vulnerable situations. The Social Programme has enabled the creation of 1,300 jobs and the participation of 2,250 volunteers.
Fundación Iberdrola España also focuses its activities on its scholarship programme in the areas of energy, biodiversity and the environment and research, as well as in the cultural sphere, focusing on the restoration and maintenance of the cultural and artistic wealth of the Iberian Peninsula’s heritage.