The initiative “EL PATIO” is a socio-educational process, open, flexible, comprehensive and participatory, with a preventive and awareness raising character, drawing from youngsters and taking the street and the educational centres as main areas of work to generate dynamics of community transformation on the basis of encounter, relationship and participation.
The street work is done at different times in the morning and in the evening and depending on the season, three to five days a week by youth workers or educators.
Meeting spaces alternate the street and educational centers that are used more during the Fall, Spring and Winter, taking advantage of Summer to make them in squares or other public places outdoors. These meetings are self-managed by young people through weekly or biweekly assemblies and groups according to a common motivation and attended by educators, youth workers or monitors.
From both spaces, the street and the meeting spaces, special and / or extraordinary activities arise throughout the year, coinciding with special days inside the communities themselves or with outdoor trips.
Through these activities, that are worked in a fun way and based on freedom, plurality, flexibility, open-mindedness and youth participation, are generated educational situations where youngsters have the opportunity to experience participation, which they can channel through other more formal spaces like civil associations, participation in collegiate bodies of schools, management of common local premises, participation in community meetings …
All this work is combined with a more concrete intervention in schools by organizing extracurricular activities after the school hours open to everyone (non-formal education) aimed at improving coexistence and allowing many young people who are not anymore in the educational system to get closer to the center and participate to the meeting spaces generated. As a result, the knowledge of the realities of both children and their families and environments allows for specific interventions to be established with great effectiveness, enhancing the collaboration of different stakeholders and main actors.
More information is available in Spanish.