“Building Inclusion through municipal action” was the event that the Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia (FMRM) held this morning within the framework of the project financed with Next Generation Funds +QueEmple-A, in which it participates with Cepaim and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and which brought together more than 200 people dedicated to Social Services and the third sector in the region.
This event is also part of the Federation's programme for its 40th anniversary, which aims to highlight the importance of inclusion in local public administration.
The opening ceremony was led by the president of FMRM, Víctor Manuel López Abenza, and Juan Antonio Segura, general director of Cepaim, and the closing ceremony was led by the managing director of IMÁS, Verónica López, and the general secretary of the Federation, Manuel Pato.
For his part, President Víctor López, who also hosted the event, said that “the local world has a lot to say, and this is indicated by Sustainable Development Goals 11 and 17, which talk about inclusive municipalities and public-private partnerships, key elements to be able to advance in the development of programs that guarantee being close to people by helping them with real actions that offer positive results.”
Speakers
For its launch, it has had the support of speakers from experts in Inclusion from the three administrations, national, regional and local, as well as its partner in the project on migrant women, Cepaim.
From the Ministry of Inclusion, the person responsible for reporting on the progress of national policy in this area has been María Amor González Redondo, deputy assistant director of Inclusion Policies, who has opened the round of presentations and has explained that "from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, 34 pilot inclusion projects linked to beneficiaries of the Minimum Vital Income have been promoted, which have been developed with pioneering research methodologies in our country in the field of social policies."
The special relevance of these projects in the Region of Murcia is highlighted, since nine of them have carried out interventions in a total of 16 municipalities in the Region, developing inclusion itineraries that cover a very wide range of actions in different areas such as social support, employment, digitalization, education or 'non-take-up'.
The second talk was given by Cepaim, with interventions by Sara Caja and Miriam Esquiva, coordinators of program lines and the +Que Emple-A project, who presented the results of the impact of the study carried out in this project with migrant women, also in this case, recipients of the minimum vital income (IMV).
Following the first presentations, two round tables were held, the first dedicated to assistance resources and European projects in local administration, with the participation of the head of section and provincial coordinator of the IMV at the INSS, Jesús Saorín, the head of the economic benefits service of the Murcian Institute of Action, Josefa Saura, and the head of the Social Welfare service of the Murcia City Council, Consuelo García.
The second round table, dedicated to municipal experiences, was held to discuss success stories with similar projects that have been carried out by town councils throughout Spain. In this round table, the Secretary General of the Federation, Manuel Pato, who acted as moderator, opened a very interesting debate in which initiatives on absenteeism or improving self-esteem were presented by speakers from Seville and Santander who developed their presentation in an online format.
The last talk of the morning was given by Marcos Bote from the University of Murcia, to talk about the innovative evaluation method in social sciences, which is a fundamental part of measuring the impact of actions on users.
A total of 220 people have participated in the event, including, in addition to numerous third sector associations such as Unicef, Jesús Abandonado, Secretariado Gitano, or Proyecto Abraham, and municipal workers, more than 50 students from the Faculty of Social Work at the UMU.
Undoubtedly, this was a success in terms of participation, which paves the way for continuing to build social services in local public administration.
