ESC: Social Action and Democratic Participation in Rural Areas

Our local youth NGO was founded in COVID times to improve the lives of the young people in rural areas where we implement our activities. We are local people which aims to dynamize and regenerate our villages focussing on a better governance that take in account the voices of as many people as possible -specially rural youths-, as well as the climate impact that they have. We have a headquarters-laboratory in the village of Ucieda, Cantabria. Likewise, we develop residency programs and informal workshops on traditional crafts. Our activities are based on non-formal education. We are working every time, focusing on which method are we using; what's the topic; how many participants, their age; how much time we have for the activities; how to make the preparation; which materials are needed; and what are we going to ask at the debrief. All of them can be included in the following topics: -Participatory Governance: we are convinced that rural regeneration comes with the involvement of villagers in the decisions that affect them. Following the practices proposed by the European Commission (EU, 2014), we work to pursue and achieve the necessary empowerment of local communities. That is, to rethink decision-making frameworks towards a community-led local development model. The vision of La Bardal, is to implement green and youth policies all around the regional area, helping a connection between the young people and the institutions. -Rural Social Lab: located in the Cabuérniga Valley, this laboratory is the headquarters of our association, where we improve day by day our social entrepreneur project. A house-workshop that hosts a residential-project mixed with non-formal workshops on existing trades and traditions in the area. In the face of the climate emergency, we work on the resilience of the community through the uses and customs of these villages. Finally, our target group is the rural youths. We are having a great frame that allow everyone to feel welcome and include in the village. As the youths are the ones that they have more troubles in order to generate a life at our local territory, and also, because we are part of this group, all our activities are created to be implemented by youths to the youths: the ones that they live already at the village; and also the ones that they are willing to live in a rural area.