The headquarters of Fundesplai in El Prat de Llobregat hosted this Saturday, September 16, 2023, the #Movidic23, the meeting at the beginning of the course that has brought together more than 300 monitors of the esplais that are part of the Federació Catalana de l’Esplai i Fundesplai. The conference presented “”Dear, the educational proposal to celebrate life”” focused on the emotional well-being of children, young people and families and will take place during the 2023-25 academic years and will reach more than 160,000 participants in the esplais and schools where Fundesplai is present. The initial part included a lecture by Isa Duque, psychologist, trainer, creator of the cyberactivist project “La Psico Woman” (@lapsicowoman) and author of the book “Acercarse a la Generación Z”.
Duque stressed the importance of prevention in mental health and added: “mental health must be accompanied by social justice”, that is, decent socioeconomic conditions (housing, stable work…). Regarding Generation Z, from her long experience as a trainer, she indicates: “young people want us to treat them with less adultism, to listen to them, to validate them emotionally and to be aware of their own vulnerability and that of others”. “You have to connect with them from tenderness and affection and that many, many of them cannot have because the system goes so fast,” he added.
The day has had the interventions of Ruth Ribas, Director General of Youth of the Generalitat de Catalunya, who highlighted the fundamental role of monitors for their contribution to training and transmission of values in children and young people: “you are role models and references for your promotion of solidarity and commitment” and concluded: “Esplai is a fundamental tool to accompany young people in emotional well-being”. Débora García, Councillor for Youth of the City Council of El Prat, has valued esplai to build an educating city. Also in the initial part, Maria Ferrer , president of the Federació Catalana de l’Esplai, agreed that monitors are models of emotional well-being and that the new educational proposal “Estima” has the challenge of creating spaces for emotional care in esplais.
Assessment of the summer campaign
The summer campaign of Fundesplai carried the slogan “We make a better world possible !” and sought that all children and young people become activists of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through esplai activities such as games, outings, workshops, citizen science, sports, gymkhanas… In terms of figures, 93,636 registrations stand out, representing an increase of 14.5% compared to 2022 (81,784 registrations), and the 1,835 rounds of activities, practically the same as in 2022 (1,809), organized by the entity and the esplais that are part of it. The most popular activities have been summer camps and camps, but little by little summer cots for young children are gaining more and more importance.
In addition, in recent years Fundesplai has placed special emphasis on making it possible for all children, especially those in vulnerable situations, to participate. Thus, through the campaign “Let’s make possible a summer for everyone!”, the entity has raised funds thanks to the contributions of administrations, entities, companies and individuals, which has materialized in 8,045 scholarships, practically the same as in 2022 (7,995), but 35% more than in 2021 (5,923). These grants have been intended for children, young people and families with financial difficulties.
Approaching emotional well-being from different perspectives
The second part has been dedicated to the training of educational teams. Monitors have been divided into groups and have been trained in one of the 12 proposed workshops. Among these, the following have stood out: “Emotionally competent esplais “, by Laia Mestres, emotional education professional, who dealt with key socio-emotional competences in leisure; “Roboethics”, by Vicenç Casas, engineer and robotics expert, who delved into how ICTs can contribute to emotional education; “Fotovoice”, by Maite Cortés from the Firebird Association, a technician who used photography and art as a means of expression; “I’m like you: opening looks”, by Xavi Torres from Fundesplai, on the good treatment of people with functional diversity; “Tras la luz del alba”, by the Lumo Association, an educational and immersive show to approach the needs and vulnerabilities of young people; “Sensory path, nature and emotions”, by Maria Roman from Fundesplai, who took advantage of the natural environment of Centre Esplai to learn the benefits of nature on emotional well-being.
“Estima”, a new educational proposal for emotional well-being
The new educational proposal of Fundesplai for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years wants to contribute from prevention education to improve the mental health situation of children and young people. Thus, the 2021 Public Health Survey of Catalonia indicates that 11.4% of girls and 7.2% of boys between 4 and 14 years of age manifested the probability of suffering mental health problems. The educational proposal of Fundesplai is based on the basis that socio-educational action must create and promote environments where children, young people and families can take care of their emotional well-being and develop the ability to take care of others and also towards the planet. In this sense, the midday educational teams of schools, youth centers, camps, etc. will play a fundamental role.
“Estima” will reach more than 160,000 participants among children and young people from schools and esplais where Fundesplai is present through its programs and activities.
For this reason, the initiative includes a lot of resources to facilitate its deployment: a pedagogical notebook, animation axes adapted by age, collective challenges to dynamize joint actions throughout the territory, the proposal of different activities to be able to do in esplais, schools or summer camps and a bank of pedagogical resources. All these elements are grouped on the web https://fundesplai.org/estima open and free of charge.
The Innovation and Content team of Fundesplai with the collaboration of dozens of people from the Pedagogical Commission of the entity with the support of experts, have prepared the educational proposal “Estima” throughout the first semester of 2023.