Coexistence Local Plan of El Molar: An Experience of Citizenship Participation in the Social Services Community of the Vega del Guadalix

• Main Authors: Fernando Sabín Galán, Nuria Sánchez Díaz, Equipo de Servicios Sociales de la Mancomunidad Vega de Guadalix
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2009-08-01
• Series: Psychosocial Intervention
• Subjects: participación; convivencia; diversidad; normalización
• Online Access: http://www.copmadrid.org/webcopm/publicaciones/social/in2009v18n1a6.pdf

The Local Plan for the improvement of the coexistence between the inhabitants of the El Molar municipality (Madrid) is a citizenship participation experience that has been developed since 2005. This plan has a double objective. On the one hand, to improve the coexistence in the municipality understanding that the origin of the people is a difference more to take in consideration, and therefore the efforts must go “to desactivate” that invisible border that appears between “they” (foreigners) and “us” (natives). On the other hand, it aims to standardize resources access to all the municipality’s population, adapting the municipal services to the diversity of its inhabitants (considering the origin of the people, but also other important differences like gender, age, social class,…). For the development of this process, participatory methodologies are being used in order to accomplish a diagnosis of the municipality’s situation (analytic phase of necessities and common demands), the search for collective solutions (proposals phase for the collection and debate of ideas) and, the start-up (present phase for the measures implementation).