The Cabildo, through the Department of Citizen Participation led by Víctor Alonso, and the island’s six town councils, together with the Universidad de La Laguna, share progress on the Municipal Community Nodes in Pájara
Citizen participation takes shape in the places where people’s everyday lives unfold: in neighbourhoods, in towns, in associations, in public spaces, and also in the daily relationship between citizens and institutions.
With that in mind, the Fuerteventura Protagonista project continues to make progress in building an island-wide network of community participation, supporting municipalities in launching processes that can help improve their local circumstances.
On Wednesday, Pájara Town Council hosted a new forum for institutional dialogue involving the island’s town councils and the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, through its Department of Citizen Participation, together with political and technical representatives from the six town councils involved in the Fuerteventura Protagonista project and the technical team managed by the Fundación General de la Universidad de La Laguna (FGULL).
The meeting was attended by the Cabildo de Fuerteventura’s Councillor for Citizen Participation, Víctor Alonso Falcón, along with administrative staff from the department. Representatives from the town councils of Antigua, Betancuria, La Oliva, Pájara, Puerto del Rosario and Tuineje were also present, including councillors Victoria Cerdeña González, Joana Pérez, Nuria Moares Crespón and Jenifer Pérez Cabrera, as well as councillors José Cerdeña and Pedro Rodríguez De León, together with municipal technical staff involved in developing the Nodes.
The session provided an opportunity to share progress on the Municipal Community Nodes in each municipality. Far from following a single model, these processes are taking shape according to the characteristics, resources, interests and relationships that exist in each area, supported by the technical team of the Fuerteventura Protagonista project.
For the Cabildo de Fuerteventura’s Councillor for Citizen Participation, Víctor Alonso, this kind of forum helps consolidate a way of working based on collaboration between institutions and closeness to citizens: “Citizen participation cannot be understood as the responsibility of a single administration alone. We need the Cabildo and the town councils to work in a coordinated way and to be able to engage with the reality of each municipality. The Community Nodes allow us to move precisely in that direction, building on what already exists and creating new opportunities for citizens to take part and get involved in improving their area.”
The meeting also provided an opportunity to review the main lines of work being carried out under Fuerteventura Protagonista, including the launch of the Social Participation Council and the citizen registration file, both set out in the Island Citizen Participation Regulations, as well as other recently created tools such as an Island Guide to Community Resources and a Virtual Map of Agents.
The meeting also covered new training initiatives aimed at the majorera community, advice for organisations and public bodies on citizen participation, the relaunch of the Volunteer Network, and the development of the Community Nodes.
Six areas, six community processes, six Nodes
The shared work between the municipalities showed how a single commitment to strengthening participation can take different forms when built up from each area, taking into account its particular features, needs, resources and human capital.
In Antigua, the Node is built around traditional Christmas cuisine, recovering recipes and knowledge linked to the municipality’s memory and fostering an exchange between generations that helps preserve and share this everyday heritage.
In Betancuria, the project focuses on recovering sayings, knowledge and customs linked to the municipality’s traditional culture, carried out in a participatory and intergenerational way that deepens its community focus.
In La Oliva, the process builds on work already carried out in the municipality as part of Fuerteventura Protagonista, involving a community assessment based on community walks around the town of Corralejo.
Pájara places its network of associations at the centre of its proposal, drawing on this asset to hold a first fair for local associations, helping organisations get to know one another, highlighting existing resources and creating new opportunities for collaboration.
In Puerto del Rosario, everyday landscapes, paths and shortcuts form the starting point for a proposal that aims to connect territory, memory and citizenship. The process also envisages collaboration with other municipal departments, to expand opportunities for learning about and promoting these resources.
And in Tuineje, the council has launched the process “Tuineje, tradiciones y tecnología” (Tuineje, traditions and technology), an intergenerational project linking tradition with new technologies. It envisages collaboration with other municipal departments and aims to foster knowledge, dialogue and participation among the different stakeholders involved in the municipality.
For Vicente Zapata, academic director of Fuerteventura Protagonista, the diversity of these proposals is precisely one of the process’s strengths: “When we talk about community participation, we stress the need to create the conditions for each area to recognise its own resources, capabilities and needs. The Nodes are beginning to show that diversity: each municipality is finding a different way in, but all of them share the same aim of building stronger relationships between citizens, the social fabric and the administration.”
From shared work to an island-wide network
The meeting also opened up a space for joint reflection, allowing participants to share difficulties, resolve doubts and identify new needs the project could address, with the opportunity to meet and discuss issues of common interest across all the island’s municipalities being very warmly welcomed.
The Cabildo’s presence in this forum is particularly significant. The Department of Citizen Participation is supporting this process from an island-wide perspective, facilitating coordination between municipalities and helping to generate resources, training opportunities and tools that can serve the different local realities.
The meeting also helped reinforce a shared way of working: the Cabildo as a space for island-wide coordination and support, the town councils as institutions close to their local areas, and the communities as the true protagonists of the processes taking place in each municipality. Support from the ULL brings method and strategic direction to the process.
The session held in Pájara thus marks a new step in a journey that began with the social listening exercise carried out by Fuerteventura Protagonista, and which is now entering a stage of activating and supporting specific community processes, to be enriched over the coming months by a series of training activities for different groups.
Ultimately, this is about continuing to build, from the ground up, an island-wide network capable of recognising and connecting what already exists in Fuerteventura. Because taking part is not just about joining in an activity or responding to a consultation. It is also about coming together, recognising one another, sharing skills and jointly taking responsibility for the territory in which we live.
The first information sessions on taking part in the Nodes in each municipality will be held over the coming weeks, with dates to be announced shortly.
For more information, you can contact the project’s technical staff by email at fuerteventuraprotagonista@fg.ull.es or register in the project’s community database via the following link.
