Promoted and organised by the Edebé Foundation, the Spanish "Aprendizaje-Servicio" and the "Educo" NGO with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sport, the ApS Awards support and promote the educational methodology of learning-service: an innovative way of learning, providing a service to the community.
At this year's ApS Awards, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Schools in Spain submitted twelve nominations, one of which won the prize in the Promotion of Reading section, sponsored by Edebé. "This was the María Auxiliadora school in Béjar with the ‘Libri itinerantes‘ project, in which primary school students, in collaboration with those of the secondary school, build wooden houses as a physical and accessible space for the exchange of books, both in the school and in different public spaces of the municipality, encouraging people to take a book, read it and then return it or exchange it with another", explained those responsible for the initiative.
From the educational centres of the Salesians of Don Bosco, the proposals sent were twenty-two, from both Provinces. "One of these was a finalist, and is that of the Salesian Paseo de Extremadura school in Madrid, with the ‘Radiopen’ project, in which students of the intermediate training cycle in Assistance to People in Situations of Dependence created and broadcast podcasts in which they gave a voice to people with disabilities, people with rare diseases and the elderly, as well as their families and professionals, in order to raise awareness among the general public," said the Salesians of the centre.
Another Salesian project that stood out was "Sport on their skin", at the Salesian school "San Vicente Ferrer" in Alcoy, where first-year high school students, as part of the Physical Education course, prepared a series of activities and games adapted for a group of people with intellectual disabilities.
The APS Awards enjoy extraordinary health, with an 83% growth in the number of projects registered in the last five years, reaching the ninth edition milestone with 475 projects submitted, 116 more than the previous edition. These figures confirm the data recently offered by the international report ICCS (Civic Education and Citizenship), according to which Spanish students stand out for their commitment to equality and the environment, and from which it has also emerged that from 2009 to date the average participation in local voluntary groups has increased by 10%.
The projects address a range of social needs, from protecting the environment to promoting culture and equality, to spreading and defending solidarity and inclusion. Among the most significant examples is the project of the Rosario Acuña secondary school in Gijón, which has transformed several public spaces in its neighbourhood into sustainable spaces: involving local citizens, urban gardens, bird feeders or an area for sensory stimulation were created. Others, such as the Adersa 1 rural public school in Fuenteheridos, near Huelva, promote solidarity, for example, by organising a bicycle route to raise funds for the purchase of bicycles for India.
Initiatives such as the La Isleta secondary school in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria focus on inclusion, promoting a workshop for repairing bicycles donated by the community with young migrants from a reception centre, thus putting them at the service of citizenship and promoting their social inclusion.
Finally, the varied distribution of the 20 winning projects testifies to the breadth of participation and the wealth of educational initiatives at the national level.
