The basic tool of the School representation and for the participation are the associations of participating people, Àgora and Heura (this one is for women). The associations of participating people are part of an integral Educational Project of the School and are their spokesmen.
From the asociations we are working to get:
- Encourage the development of all the people.
- Encouraging critical awareness of everyone.
- Increasing participation in activities to promote influence in their own environment (neighborhood, community, work ,...) so that through community participation one influences gradually in the process of social transformation.
- Develop mechanisms for self-assessment, self-esteem and personal self-defense against the aspects of domination.
- Creating participation of individuals involved in managing and organizing its formative process from an active and innovative pedagogy.
- Bringing the interpersonal relationship with learning.
- Develop the Acquisition of skills, attitudes, techniques and habits to a continuous process of training and self-learning.
- Encourage the development of communication skills.
- Leverage the knowledge acquired by adults for their participation and collaboration in training others.
- Enhance cultural, social and ideological awareness of the oppressed sector to influence against inequality of all kinds: social, cultural, sexual, etc.
ÁGORA
Àgora was found in the context of the Adult School from La Verneda-Sant Martí, with the intention of serving as an instrument of participation and cultural diffusion, farther than regulated Education. The association of participant people Àgora has a sphere of action covering the entire district of La Verneda.
It was established with the aim of enabling adults to acquire the capacity and management initiative, therefore, it has the function, firstly, to strengthen all formal training activities offered by the School where many people work, and secondly, to offer a wide range of cultural and educational activities to the whole district.
Now the Association has 466 members. The requirements that are asked to become a member or partner is none other than wanting to be.
As an association, Agora wants to be open to everybody,without any discrimination in order to promote equality. In this respect, gratitude is one of the basic and fundamental principles, offering the opportunity for free participation in courses and workshops both as outputs, cultural activities, etc.
HEURA
Heura is an association of women born in 1986 in the district of Verneda Sant Martí in Barcelona. Heura is a global framework of training and participation open to new initiatives and needs of the neighborhood. The main objective is to provide quality education: open, democratic, participatory and critical to allow women to manage their own social and cultural life and promoting equality and dignity of everyone. The main characters of Heura are the "other women", which have not previously had the opportunity to access to educational and cultural spaces, and that have no academic qualifications or college, being unequal with academic women, who have silenced, historically, the voices of "other women”.
Heura’s womens break these barriers and fight through equal dialogue to defend their rights as women. The priority is to give the tools needed to the women themselves so they can adcquire the ability and initiative of self-management of resources and capabilities. The tools are based on an educational model to break with traditional social structures and the division of gender roles. This model is based on participation, the richness that the difference provides to the group of people who are part of the Association, and in a relationship between equals, in wich women can express their voice.
Today Heura has 1349 members.
Women decide what training they want to receive, covering all areas of society where the person is developed and participating actively and critically in their social and cultural place.