The training of teachers has been done at the Faculty of Teacher Training of the Universitat de València, in two turns with a 100 attendees each. The workshop, as well as the training of centres as a whole, has been organised by professor María Alcantud, Vice-Dean of the Faculty and the one in charge of training in the educational centres of the project; in collaboration with Manuela Pardo, professor at the Faculty of Economics and member of the MESVAL Chair and Xavier Mínguez and Héctor Hernández, teachers at the Faculty of Teacher Training.

María Alcantud has explained that this first workshop -divided into two turns- gathered 200 teachers of local educational centres and other training centres from the metropolitan area of Valencia, with another session planned for 10 July. But the impact of this training in the Universitat de València will be much greater. According to Alcantud, “it is a cascade training, meaning that each appointed teacher will train the teachers of its own centre and, within the tutorial action framework of the Plan, the same will be done with the students. We are expecting to end up training close to 100000 students in emergencies just with this trial project alone”. In this sense, professor José Manuel Pastor, Director of the MESVAL Chair, highlighted that “this is the first step, but the training is thought to reach all the population, from scholars to neighbourhood associations, elderly centres, youngsters, people with disabilities, etc. In order to do so, we have prepared multiple actions and materials. The idea is that all the citizens get trained and become able of reacting in front of any emergency”.

The team from the Universitat de València has prepared the teaching materials adapted by experts and shared and explained them to preschool, primary, secondary and vocational training teachers during the sessions. The training has been jointly done with the firefighters of Valencia. The training is certified for each attendee and the participation will be encouraged through certifications that will make them part of the “Centros Seguros” Network. The ‘València + Segura’ Plan includes over 220 on-site actions and has been designed with an inclusive and community approach.

In this sense, professor Manuela Pardo, MESVAL activities coordinator, highlighted that the experience of the Chair in issues related to training and the “ability of organising events of this scale, as it isn’t easy to address such an ambitious plan in an integral way, and the Chair has proven in prior situations that it has been capable of training and, above all, organising”. Additionally, Pardo added that “above all, this is a plan with future perspectives, or goal is to develop an auto protection culture in the citizenship, and this training is just the first step”.

Pedro Canales, official at the Firefighters of the Valencia City Council, referred to the need of training the citizenship, and consequently at the educational centres, in prevention and auto protection. “The teachers told us that many centres don’t have specific auto protection plans and, therefore, most of the time they must improvise”, he added that “what we are encouraging is that the population gets prepared during what we call the peace periods, when there are no risks, so that when the risks come, they can be ready to face any situation”.   

With this initiative, Valencia puts itself at the forefront of urban resilience and citizenship auto protection politics, strengthening the social tissue in front of emergencies.

To this workshop also came town councillors of the Valencia City Council Rocío Gil, Paula Llobet and Juan Carlos Caballero. The plan was presented on 23 June by the Principal of the Universitat de València Maria Vicenta Mestre and by the Mayor of Valencia María José Catalá.