ESC: "Educating City", long-term volunteering in Murcia

The Santomera City Council is a public entity at the service of its citizenry. Santomera, a municipality located in the Region of Murcia, southeast of Spain, has a population of almost 17,000 inhabitants, it is close to the Murcian capital and borders the province of Alicante . With our Proyecto Santomera - Ciudad Educadora we work transversally with different councils, looking for educational spaces that could develop the municipality and enrich our community with the involvement of our citizens. One of the lines of the project involves the collaboration and development of public initiatives from the Department of Education, Childhood and Good Government; and from the Department of Youth and Culture. It is with these two Councils that all the tasks and actions to be carried out by the participating or interested volunteer would be developed. Our Objectives would be: - Encourage reading, especially among the youngest, through creative initiatives. - Convert the Municipal Library into a cultural space of reference. - Encourage children and adolescents’ participation in the municipality, generating spaces for the involvement of the community. - Promote historical heritage, from a perspective of value and relevance. - Develop cultural initiatives of public interest, giving value to the talent of local artists. Therefore, given the transversality of our project, the population to which the proposal is addressed is quite broad and it is difficult to define a single group or population directly targeted. On one hand support work could be carried out with the younger population in various groups of participation or in the development of activities to promote reading; and on the other hand, there are initiatives aimed at the entire population as a whole or directly with the elderly. The activities developed in our Municipal Library cover a wide variety of needs, such as: - storytelling performances, - initiatives to promote reading, - recreational activities for children, - meetings of the group of representatives of the Child and Adolescent Participation Body (Órgano de participación infantil y adolescente), - organization of cultural events or initiatives developed to enhance our heritage, such as the “huerta” or historic buildings.