Youth Activity Centres are spare time educational organizations for:

training learning socialization and personal development of

youths

“Getting a schoolmate to keep going to school in a way is like saving their future…”

Juan, 16 years old

“Now that we are working on this…I realize what a responsibility I have accepted, and that scares me, but it also makes me more eager to participate”, Erica, 14 years old

The Centre: is intended for teenagers

is school-based and targets all youths in the community

is managed by youths, with adult support

Management Team

Conducted by students chosen by their peers

With a coordinator selected through an open competitive process

With teachers, parents and prefects invited by the students

“It´s great for us to be ab le to compe up with activities and proposals for the rest of our schoolmates”, Javier, 17 years

Training of youths for community and citizen promotion and participation (Health promotion agents)

Identity Self-esteem Frustration tolerance Critical analysis Decision-making Communication skills Alternative dispute resolution

“…What I learnt today is that if we go together, there is no violence…”, Verónica, 14 years old

Fundamentals and Strategies for the

Establishment of Educational Prevention

Projects at Youth Activity Centres

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

Curriculum Management and Teacher Training DepartmentImprovement of teaching in EGB 3

& PolimodalEducation

Youth Activity Centres

Training of youth guides for community and citizen promotion and participation

Turning the population at risk into prevention agents.

•Youth groups of 16/17-year-olds.

•Formed by 12-15 participants.

•Personal development programs.

•Identity of group implementing a project.

•Training to conduct activities.

• Commitment and social responsibility to others are encouraged.

• “Group” behaviour is encouraged

• Socialization and group identity elements are encouraged.

• Proposal to shift from:the “subjective” feeling of no project, no future, insignificance

to a significant, important and social recognition role.

Youths in groups as prevention agents

No teenager will get drunk alone or start drinking alone. There is always “someone else”

-a slightly older peer and a group.

Program organization

a- An adult professional coordinates each Program.

b- Motivates and organizes a group of between 12 to 15 youths in the higher classes.

c- Conducts a training course between 12 and 16 hours long.

d- The course imparts training for students to conduct workshops in pairs or groups of threes.

e- The professional supervises workshop implementation.

f- Conducts group activities on experience review.

Resilience: individual attributes

introspectionindependenceability to relateinitiativesense of humourcreativityconsistent self-esteem

(Suarez Ojeda, 1997)

Community Resilience:

collective self-esteem

cultural identity

social humour

honesty on the part of government

Relational resilience

Recognizing the problems and limitations to be faced

Communicating openly and clearly about them

Taking stock of available personal and collective resources

Organizing and reorganizing strategies and methodologies as often as needed, reviewing and evaluating achievements and losses.

Goals (own)

Ability to build projects

(Constructive) decision-making

Critical judgment (positive choices)

Responsibilities and social commitment (strong)

Self-concept and self-image (high)

Self-esteem (alta)

Social and cultural capital (high)

Goals (of others)

Difficulty in building projects

(Destructive) decision-making

Critical judgment (negative choices)

Responsibilities and social commitment (weak))

Self-concept and self-image (low)

Self-esteem (low)

Social and cultural capital (low)

“Do not accept the usual state of things as the natural state of

things.

Because in times of bloody disorder, of organized confusion,

of deliberate arbitrariness, of dehumanized humanity, nothing

should seem natural, nothing should seem impossible to

change.”

Bertold Brecht