Spain, León, Navatejera
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Asociación Vuelo is a non-profit youth association based in León (Spain) that works mainly in rural areas of the province.
https://www.google.es/maps/search/C%2F+Miguel+de+Cervante+nº6+2ºC,+Navatejera,+León,+24193/@42.6252085,-5.5678683,17z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDIxOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
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Our mission is to:
In León, which is mainly rural and depopulated, there are many empty houses but there is a lack of open, accessible, and dynamic spaces for young people. This leads many young people to leave or prevents them from actively participating in their community and encourages them to socialise in bars and consume alcohol with high rates of alcoholism normalised. As the population in rural areas is mainly elderly, municipalities don’t take care of the interest of the few young people who live in the area which motivates them to leave to big cities with more professional and leisure opportunities.
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The Riaño area, in the eastern mountains of León, is a territory of enormous natural, cultural, and scenic value. It is located within the Parque Regional de la Montaña de Riaño y Mampodre, a privileged environment with mountains, hiking routes, climbing areas, traditional livestock farming, and a strong cultural identity.
However, like many rural areas in inland Spain, it faces significant challenges. Depopulation has considerably reduced the number of inhabitants in many villages in the area, especially among young people. Many young people move to cities to study or work and, in many cases, do not return.
One of the main challenges in the Riaño area is the lack of spaces where the community and especially young people, can meet, create projects, or develop cultural and sports activities on an ongoing basis. Although there are associations and occasional activities, many villages do not have vibrant spaces that function as intergenerational or creative meeting points. As a result, many ideas never fully develop, or people with initiatives feel they must leave in order to carry them out.
In this context, we believe that Riaño can become the place to experiment with new ways of creating, and collaborating, because there are many people with potential to teach skills, jobs, creative workshops or just to debate and spend time together and create community.
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In Asociación Vuelo, we are promoting the creation of a creative community centre in Riaño. The project arises from the existence of a house in the village that had been empty for more than 10 years.The idea is to transform this space into a shared place that combines culture, sport, nature, and community.
The centre aims to integrate different dimensions of the territory:
Rather than a closed project, we want it to be an open process in which people from the area can contribute ideas and define what kind of space they need. For this reason, we are organizing community meetings to listen to proposals and collectively build the project.
Our goal is for the centre to serve both the local population and young people, artists, or individuals from other places who wish to come to learn, collaborate, or share experiences in a rural context.
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One of them is community activation. We want the project to emerge through dialogue with the village, organizing meetings, events, and open activities where people can collectively imagine what kind of space they want for our territory. We are also interested in recovering traditional forms of gathering such as filandones, combining them with contemporary proposals.
Another line is the connection between culture, nature, and sport. The mountains of Riaño offer an ideal environment to develop activities that combine climbing, hiking routes, art in nature, and well-being practices. We believe these activities can attract young people and generate new dynamics in the territory.
We also work on international connection. Through European projects and collaborations with other associations, we aim to bring youth exchanges, artistic residencies, and gatherings to Riaño that connect rural young people from different countries. This allows villages to become part of wider networks and to position themselves as places of learning and innovation.