The mayor of Cieza, Pascual Lucas, accompanied by the councilors for Social Welfare and Education, Cristina García-Vaso and Manuela Fernández, respectively, presented the guide on disability at a press conference.
The mayor clarifies that the Cieza City Council, through the Municipal Disability Commission and the Educational and Social Inclusion working team of the Cieza Children's Network, "with this tool, aims to bring about change in our city based on an inclusive approach."
He adds, "It is well known that for me, and for the entire governing team, a fundamental objective is to work for people, for everyone, but with special sensitivity for those who most need institutional support, for the most vulnerable, in the effort to reduce disparities and support social cohesion. We firmly believe in an inclusive city in which all its citizens enjoy the same opportunities, regardless of our situation or any other circumstance in our lives. We want to include everyone, but especially children and adolescents with disabilities and those other children who, in some way, are excluded from the life opportunities that make full citizenship possible, and who have great difficulty participating in the activities of daily life, leisure, and free time they require due to their status as children. We also want to encourage them to have roles similar to those of their peers, and to this end, we will ensure that appropriate policies and practices are in place in our city."
Lucas assures that "work projects aimed at the inclusion of children with disabilities are being developed. These projects will be aimed at schools and society in general, always with a focus on inclusion. Because we want, from now on, and this is what the proposal presented by our city's Council for Children and Adolescents was fully approved, the spaces and activities carried out at the municipal level to have an inclusive nature, so that any child can participate regardless of their physical, social, or cultural condition."
One of the initiatives implemented is this Cieza Disability Resource Guide. It was developed with the support of professionals from the Cieza Children's Network. Its aim is to become a useful tool for children and adolescents in the city, so that they know the resources they can access to improve their quality of life and equal opportunities.
The mayor clarifies that this is "a simple tool that we hope will help satisfy the right to information for children and adolescents with disabilities, because knowledge and understanding of resources is a path that helps them visualize new goals and capture innovative proposals."
The guide contains information on social, sports, educational, leisure, and free-time resources for people with disabilities provided by public administrations and private entities in Cieza. Changes and modifications may be made to each of the resources listed.
Pascual Lucas concludes by hoping that this work "will be a reference document, a true guide for children and adolescents to discover new opportunities and together build a more supportive society."
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