Building inclusion through arts education: Valongo engages the community and shares progress

VALONGO SHARES URBACT ONSTAGE PROGRESS WITH THE COMMUNITY

On the 17th of June, Valongo organized the first public session of the ONSTAGE project. Besides the valuable contributions of Jorge Prendas, musician and pedagogical coordinator of Porto’s Casa da Música Educational Services, and Lígia Ferro, sociologist and member of UNESCO’s European Network of Observatories in the Fields of Arts and Cultural Education, URBACT ONSTAGE Public Session provided also the opportunity to present the project to Valongo’s local community for the first time.

This session gathered the Mayor of Valongo, José Manuel Ribeiro, the city councillor for Education and Youth, Orlando Rodrigues, and 20 local and regional practitioners, teachers and social and council workers. It allowed an intense debate about the importance of arts and its use in formal education contexts as a way to engage neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) populations.

FROM SECOND OPPORTUNITIES TO SOCIAL INCLUSION

Valongo’s URBACT ONSTAGE transfer plan includes an important stage of study visits to good practices institutions. Some of them are part of Valongo’s URBACT local group (ULG), while others are important sources of inspiration.

On the 21^st of May, seven of the ULG members did their first study visit to E2OM – Escola Segunda Oportunidade de Matosinhos (Matosinhos’ Second Opportunity School), located 20km west of Valongo in the Porto metropolitan area.

This school works with vulnerable youngsters, with low qualifications levels and in risk of social exclusion. E2OM gives the youngsters a new training opportunity and targets their potential, working with arts and craft and performing arts.

As L’Hospitalet’s Escola Municipal de Música Centre de les Arts (EMMCA), E2OM provides a relevant example of social inclusion through arts and education for Valongo, where 1 in 4 adults are unemployed, highlighting the difficult economic situation of the region. At the same time, although no data are available at local level in terms of school performance, the early school leaving rates in Portugal exceed 18%.

Therefore, the ‘good practice’ challenge in Valongo has to do with targeting young people at risk of unsuccessful performance or even of leaving school, or already in the situation of not being in education, employed or in training.

During the visit it was possible to contact with teachers, students and watch rehearsals for the show that marked the school year. “This first visit was very important for the ULG and for me personally since it allowed me to watch in loco how an alternative model of training and education works, but mostly the engagement of the teachers and the added motivational value for the students”, highlights Júlia Mendes, ULG member and Sociologist of the Municipality of Valongo.

This visit is linked with the purpose of Valongo’s ULG to work in an integrated and intergenerational manner with all the local community as a way to address the educational and employability difficulties in the town.

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Text and pictures by Marta Daniela Costa. For further information please contact her at mdcosta@cm-valongo.pt

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