The municipal programme València + Segura has reached its significant milestone: more than 30.000 students have received training for prevention and action to emergencies, thanks to the involvement of 400 teachers.
Last 23 April in the IX Volunteering, Solidarity and Sustainability Forum, hosted at the Faculty of Economics of the Universitat de València, a conference explicitly designed to acknowledge the work of the training staff, volunteers, and the several collectives that made possible the development of this initiative was brought to light.
The act counted with the participation of the Emergencies’ city councillor of València, Juan Carlos Caballero, who congratulated the university community for its level of involvement, and highlighted that an essential part of the programme’s success belongs to the solidarity and commitment shown by the university. Caballero indicated that the experience with the DANA proved the urgent need to count with a well-informed, prepared, and committed citizenship, and stated that this need was what started València + Segura, the emergencies training plan aimed to citizens and developed with the collaboration of the Universitat de València through the Chair for a Sustainable Economic Model of Valencia and its Surroundings (MESVAL). .
The city councillor also wanted to transmit a message of long-term visibility, assuring that the programme should not be understood as an arrival point, but as the start of a wider strategy instead, aimed to incorporate prevention and resilience as permanent axis of the city’s urban planning. In addition, he appreciated the commitment of the MESVAL Chair’s director, professor José Manuel Pastor, and of the general coordinator of activities, professor Manuela Pardo, for her main role in the programme development.
The data of the programme shows the magnitude of the effort made from its launch on 1 September at the district of La Torre. Approximately a hundred of training workshops have been given to neighbourhood associations, consumption associations, “fallera” committees, day centres and activity centres for seniors, to which are added 80 information tents located at all the districts and neighbourhoods of the city. The programme counted with the participation of approximately 40 volunteer students, 10 university professors and almost a hundred Local Police agents and firefighters. Professors from the Faculty of Economics have developed information sessions in different civic spaces, while the ones from the Faculty of Teacher Training adapted materials to every educational levels and trained teachers from schools and high schools. Meanwhile, the firefighters body has given technical advice and participated in specialised trainings. The Local Police assumed its educational work at the scholar centres.
In the forum, the firefighter officer, Pedro Canales, and the Local Police inspector, Agustín Campos, took part as well. They made a balance of the programme’s positive impact in citizens. The students’ delegate of the Faculty of Economics, Rocío Navarro, shared her experience as a volunteer in the information tents, and highlighted the students’ involvement in the awareness-raising of citizens.
The session ended with the delivery of diplomas to all participant groups, in an act led by the councillor of Turism, Innovation and Investment Attraction, Paula Llobet, who reasserted the disposition of the continuity of the programme by València’s city council and its strong commitment to the construction of an authentic prevention culture in the city.
