Spain - Youth participation and protagonism at state forum of Don Bosco Confederation
Guadalajara, Spain - November 2022 - From November 11-13, the Participation Forum, Confederation Assembly, and SYM worked in parallel form in different spaces. About 70 boys, girls, and young people met at the 8th State Child and Youth Participation Forum, organized by the Don Bosco Confederation, which took place at the Salesian work in Guadalajara. This event also had the first work forum of the Assembly of the Don Bosco Confederation, together with the Salesian Youth Movement. During the weekend these two working groups worked in parallel in different spaces. The Forum was a collaborative stage for dialogue, reflection and discussion, where young people from the Salesian Youth Centers, Oratories, and Federations expressed the concerns, needs, and opportunities that the Associations experience through the voices of the protagonists: boys, girls, and young people who feel the youth centers as a home where they share and grow. The Salesian Youth Movement and the Assembly of the Don Bosco Confederation, too, had a space to take up common points and convergences of both groups, recalling the reason for their service: to facilitate and bet on entrepreneurship and youth leadership, and to take care of the Salesian identity by carrying on the evangelizing and educating work, thus strengthening the capacity to transform society. All this, together with the accompaniment of SDB and FMA who also participated in this moment of sharing and listening.