The Department of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Families, directed by Candelaria Delgado, has already announced the winners of the Joven Canarias 2024 awards, the traditional awards that the Government has been presenting since 2000 with the aim of recognizing trajectories of services and relevant actions of a social, cultural, artistic, scientific, sports or youth entrepreneurship nature. The award ceremony will be on September 20 in Caleta de Sebo, La Graciosa.
The runner-up in the individual category is Ubai Alemán Benítez from Lanzarote for "the entrepreneurial career achieved as founder of a production company that has played a crucial role in promoting young local talents, providing them with the opportunity to develop and show their potential through projects and entrepreneurial initiatives. His commitment to promoting creativity and talent from an inclusive approach, highlighting at the same time the role of Canarian culture in each of his works".
The Pro Inclusiva - Social Action Association in Tenerife will receive the "Joven Canarias" 2024 Award in this edition, in the "8 Islands" category, for its work to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and promote their inclusion and normalization, fostering social and community awareness among young people. Specifically, it recognizes the activity they carry out through the + Pro Quo (+PQ) project, Classrooms for Inclusion, a socio-educational project of solidarity service learning that has been developed since 2017 in the Canary Islands, whose purpose is to make visible and raise awareness among students in the 3rd and 4th year of ESO, Baccalaureate and Vocational Training about the reality of disability through direct contact with people belonging to this group.
In the "Collective" category, the KAUA Youth and Cultural Association of Tenerife has been chosen for its intense career since 2016. Its origins go back to the voluntary activity carried out by a group of young people from the San Luis Gonzaga neighborhood in Taco who, after years of designing, organizing and participating in community initiatives in an informal way, decided to form an association in order to reinforce the work that had been carried out.
The runner-up in this category is the Association for the Liberation of Anorexia and Bulimia in Tenerife (Alabente) of Tenerife, in recognition of its trajectory started in 1995, to promote and provide information and advice to families of people with Eating Behavior Disorder (EBD).
In the "Individual" category, the award goes to the activist Inés Rocío Rodríguez Martínez, from Tenerife, in recognition of her social activism and work as a speech therapist specializing in brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the use she makes of 21st century technologies to give visibility to disability in networks and promote inclusion.
As recognition, the winners will receive in the "8 islands" category an award of 4,000 euros, a diploma and a commemorative sculpture; in the collective and individual, an award of 4,000 euros and a diploma and in the runners-up, the collective and individual award, 3,000 euros and diploma.
The Director of Youth, Daniel Morales, highlights that "this edition is the one with the most applications received by far" and assures that "these awards and the event we organize to deliver them allow us to highlight social references among our youth, promote values and positive models that contribute significantly to the development and well-being of our youth in a more just society and are an example for the whole society". "It is incredible the number of young people in the Canary Islands who have opted for solidarity work, do a fantastic job and also transmit a great passion for what they do, believe in it and give the best of themselves in every action".
The Government of the Canary Islands created in 2000 and annually the Award and the "Joven Canarias" Awards to recognize trajectories of services and relevant actions of a social, cultural, artistic, scientific or sports nature, or entrepreneurship in favor of the Canarian youth with the purpose of recognizing and promoting the actions carried out, by entities or people, to promote social participation, autonomy and quality of life of young people, and promote through this social recognition, the continuity of these actions. In 2023 with the approval of the Youth Policy Law the program is renamed "Joven Canarias" Awards.
