Project of training adult promoters for city coexistence

The project consists of three courses of 15 hours of training and at the end of the course participants are asked to be part of a "Network of City Promoters for City Coexistence " to work together.

Objectives:
• To promote intercultural relations to manage diversity in the neighbourhoods of the city, through local associations and proactive citizens individually.
• Preventing discrimination, isolation, prejudices and stereotypes.
• To promote values and attitudes of solidarity, cooperation, inclusion, openness, equality and mutual respect.

We had the opportunity to meet some of the people who are creating the network of promoters (at that time 40 persons had been trained). People choose some specific topics to work on like:
• Carry on a study on the evolution of local commerce and trade in Parla.
• Analysis of Parla’s urban planning and neighbourhoods’ development.
• Studies of Parla’s sociocultural evolution.

Among the promoters we spoke with representatives of immigrant organizations from Romania, Ecuador and Angola who want to value the contributions of immigrants to the city and promote associations. We also spoke with representatives of neighbours associations, unemployed, former alcoholic etc. Special mention a guy from Angola who arrived to Spain at age 14 and was unaccompanied minor he was 18 and left the assistance centre and started studying international relations in college. Currently he is working on a project with the Youth House to promote the integration of young people through capoeira, also driving the association of Congolese in Parla and participating in a project with the University to identify opportunities for internationalization of the city.

It was also interesting an example of a Colombian man unemployed with professional experience as an audio-visual communicator, who decided to create an Internet TV channel to spread positive news on the city. In summary, this was a great encounter with people from diverse backgrounds who share a commitment to work voluntarily to improve the city. It is also a great example of how a municipality can facilitate networking processes identifying active and committed people that from a participatory methodology can provide much to community development and interculturalism.