ESC: ESC Creative Rural Lab – Purchena

Purchena's City Council's Youth Information Office and Public Library offers youngsters (from 13 to 30 years old) from Purchena and also from other villages a direct and reliable access to interesting information for them (education, culture, sports, training, activities, international projects, mobility, employment…). We also offer another kind of services like free Internet access and we organize, in collaboration with youth associations, volunteers and youth ambassadors, cultural, sportive, social, environmentally-friendly and international activities (volunteering, exchanges, youth initiatives…). Purchena’s Youth Information Office is open from Monday to Friday in the morning and in the afternoon. Special services are also offered on weekends and holidays. The young population of Purchena is around 350 youngsters from 13 and 30 years old. This office also provides a service to youngsters from smaller villages that don’t have a Youth Information Office (Urrácal, Sierro, Suflí y Somontín), also because Purchena has a regional high school where these youngsters go to. The office works with youngsters from four different groups regarding to their profile: the first group is made up by 13 to 16 years old youngsters in high school; the second group is made up by 17 to 25 years old youngsters who are doing higher studies or university; the third group is made up by 17 to 30 years old youngsters who work and the fourth group is made up by youngsters who don’t study nor have a job. We also collaborate with the local school and high school, the Adult School, youth associations and the three minor centres in Purchena which host immigrants from África (Senegal, Morocco, Ghana, Ivory Coast...). The youth centre has a special programme called "Welcoming Libray" dedicated to help these young migrants to know more about Europe and to teach them languages and other skills. This program has received some awards; one of them a "Mention of Honor" of Eurodesk Network in 2018 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zLSzIlQius). The youth centre is member of Eurodesk network since 1999.