The Madrid City Council has today awarded the Madrid es Joven 2025 Seal, which, in its fourth edition, recognizes the high schools (IES) in the city that have collaborated this academic year with the Youth Information Offices Network of the City Council in the dissemination and promotion of youth participation in municipal programs aimed at this population. The delegate for Social Policies, Family, and Equality, José Fernández, presented the awards on Friday to 29 educational centers and 32 youth correspondents at an event held at the Youth Center El Sitio de mi Recreo.
«This seal is not just an institutional distinction, it is a declaration of trust in the educational community and in youth,» pointed out Fernández, who highlighted that this alliance with high schools allows municipal services for youth to «reach where they should be: in the hallways, in the playgrounds, in the daily lives of young people. We know that many are unaware of our services and we want to reach everyone, so this direct connection with educational centers is essential.»
This collaboration between the City Council and the IES in the city began over 15 years ago, and thanks to the coordination between the administration and the centers, information officers from youth information offices and monitors from youth centers and programs like ‘Quedate.com’ and ‘Europa Joven’ regularly visit high schools to offer the range of services dedicated to youth by the City Council.
Additionally, high schools’ visits to the nine municipal youth centers are promoted. In this way, young people can firsthand experience these spaces where workshops, courses, sports tournaments, health prevention activities, festivals, cultural outings, and nature outings take place, among other proposals. Furthermore, preventive work related to free time and unwanted loneliness is carried out in these centers, addressing issues through healthy leisure activities or the psychology and coaching services offered there. In parallel, social and preventive programs such as ‘Block Machismo’, ‘Dismantling Racism’, ‘Youth for the Climate’, and ‘Live in Full Color Network’ are held in these centers.
On the other hand, through the ‘Youth Correspondents’ program, active and dynamic young people are trained to act as information antennas with their peers. They, therefore, act as intermediaries between the City Council and students, ensuring that information about activities, workshops, tournaments, educational services, employment, European mobility, or scholarships effectively reaches their peers. At the same time, they engage in collecting the opinions and suggestions of students to improve the offer based on them. /
