Benidorm requests a grant of 161,000 euros to develop 'Activem els col • les' program

The Local Government Board (JGL) of Benidorm has approved today a proposal from the Department of Education to request a grant of 161,777.69 euros from the Department for the development of the second edition of 'Activem els col • les' program, a project that is articulated in different activities proposed by the Councils of Education, Culture, Sports, Social Welfare and Youth.
The Councilor for Education, Maite Moreno, recalled that 'Activem els col • les' encompasses activities and programs designed by each of the five municipal areas and seeks to "minimize as much as possible the negative effects of the health situation caused by the pandemic and compensate the possible situations of social, personal or economic inequality derived from it ”.
Thus, the requested grant will go to seven programs designed by the Councils of Education, Sports, Culture, Youth and Social Welfare.
Regarding Sports, this council has proposed the realization of two activities. The first will encompass extracurricular sports activities for students from first to sixth grade, including introductory games to regulated sports, adapted games, mini football, basketball, volleyball, goalball, handball, long-distance pilots, raspall, etc. The second program is the ‘Espai Obert’, which aims to turn schools into a space for coexistence and community development in neighborhoods with the greatest deficiencies in social infrastructure through the use of school facilities, providing a safe place for recreational-sports leisure. This program is aimed at the population between 6 and 18 years old. The budget for both activities is 60,435.35 euros and the program will last until May 31, 2022.
In the cultural field, it has been proposed to carry out the cycle "Joves Espectadors" from February 1 of next year until May 31, with a budget of 20,000 euros. It is focused on bringing the performing arts to Primary and Secondary schoolchildren with concerted passes and free admission.
The Youth Council includes two activities. On the one hand the 'Espai Jove' and on the other the 'Summer Program', both with a joint budget of 48,000 euros. It began on July 1 and will end on June 23, 2022. The Summer Program offered educational leisure activities for young people between 10 and 16 years old, while the 'Espai Jove' includes activities in the afternoons for schoolchildren between 10 and 18 years with workshops and cultural activities.
Regarding Social Welfare, the council has designed the 'Project for the promotion of school success' which, with a budget of 7,500 euros, will begin on January 10 and end on June 23, 2022 and will target a school population between 10 and 14 years. This project aims to improve the quality of life of children and young people belonging to families in situations of vulnerability or risk of social exclusion. To this end, the aim is to reinforce the academic competencies of young people, provide them with access to the necessary resources to achieve school success and provide them with theoretical knowledge and habits that improve their health, as well as help them improve intra-family relationships.
Finally, the Department of Education has included in ‘Activem els col • les’ the Summer Educational Support Program, which ended at the end of August and whose budget was 25,842.34 euros. "It consisted of making summer classes available to families to correct educational deficiencies in students from first to sixth of Primary who had not obtained good results in the school year and do not present serious behavior problems," explained Maite Moreno.
The Department has not been able to include, however, the educational reinforcement program since the Generalitat Valenciana decided to exclude this program from subsidies for extracurricular activities, “despite the request to the contrary made by the City Council and which was also approved in full ".
Despite not having funding from the Ministry, the mayor then assured that the City Council would continue to give continuity to the program in this school year "although the Ministry has inexplicably failed to recognize the importance of this initiative."
“We are going to include the educational reinforcement program charged to municipal resources,” said Pérez, “despite the fact that it is a direct competence of the Generalitat, which has now applied a cut and leaves the municipalities without funding for this, because for them it is not an investment but an expense ”.
It should be remembered that this program, focused on students in the second and third cycle of Primary and Secondary schools in public centers, allowed 230 minors in the city to obtain municipal aid for educational reinforcement classes in the first semester of this year.
Thus, each student received 300 euros, at a rate of 50 euros per month, for their reinforcement classes. The City Council allocated 68,100 euros to this call; an initiative that was valued “very positively by families and educational centers.
Municipal aid was directed especially to families in Benidorm with fewer resources and to those whose children required educational support, derived, for example, from not being able to follow during the lockdown the normal development of the telematic classes offered by the centers because of not having technological means.