Viladecans City Council

Viladecans is a city located in Barcelona metropolitan area with 67.000 inhabitants aprox. Although Spanish cities do not have competences on education, Viladecans is very committed to promoting education in the city. Just to name a few examples: the municipality has provided all public schools with a smartclassrrom (more than 5,100 have benefited) and 67% of citizens have nowdays higher educational level than their parents. In the city’s strategic framework adopted in 2021, Viladecans defined as one of its two City Missions to achieve 0 school dropout rates by 2030. More specifically, Viladecans aims to make the city a school, where all urban spaces, citizens and actors educate, learn and collaborate to build an equitable, innovative education, prepared for uncertain and changing scenarios, that responds to the diversity of needs of young people and children, that works to achieve a 0 school dropout rate by 2030, and where 100% of Viladecans born after 2015 achieve at least post-compulsory education. Moreover, one of the six thematic strategic axes of the Viladecans 2030 Strategy is related to Educational Innovation. Viladecans has participated in several EU funded projects focused on educational innovation, digital and equitable education, etc. and understands it from an integral and holistic approach with the aim of becoming a "360º educating city". Viladecans City Council is interested in participating in projects that are able to contribute to the deployment of this ambitious city mission and to achieve 0 school drop-out by 2030. We are particularly interested in the Erasmus + “European Policy Experimentation” call, in topic 4 – School Education, priority 8: Pathways to school success, sub-priority b) ‘Building a systemic, whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing in schools in Europe’. We are very intersted in participating as partners in a project focused on the importance of mental health and wellbeing as we consider this is key element for in reducing school drop-out and achieving school success. Viladecans currently chairs the Spanish Network of Educating Cities.