experience
Radars, a Barcelona community action 
project for the elderly 
The rapid aging of the population is one of 
the main challenges faced by many cities. 
Barcelona, with a population of 1,613,393 
inhabitants, is aging: 20.80% of the population 
is 65 or older and life expectancy is 82.2 years.
prevention and community action. Taking into 
account its positive results, in 2012 the City 
Council started to implement the project in 
different neighborhoods across the city.
By going door-to-door, volunteers, trained and 
coordinated by entities in the tertiary sector, 
identify and interview the elderly who may 
need help and invite them to become service 
users.  They invite as well neighbors who are 
sensitive to the needs of their surroundings to 
join the project as “radars”.
  
The following agents are involved on a basis of 
shared responsibility in the project:
• The local Social Welfare Services Team: is 
responsible for inviting the local agents to join 
the Stakeholders Panel, evaluating the degree 
of risk of social exclusion of the service users 
Xe[[\Ôe`e^k_\kpg\f]`ek\im\ek`fei\hl`i\[%
• The Stakeholders Panel: made up of 
ne ighbors,  loca l  shops,  ent i t ies  and 
neighborhood services, is the meeting point 
where the strategies and actions to be carried 
out are decided (detection of the target 
population, activities binding people to the 
territory, dissemination of the project, etc.).
Social changes have modified the traditional 
family care system. For this reason, the Radars 
project was created to improve the well-being 
of the elderly living alone and reduce their risk 
of isolation, loneliness and social exclusion.
Radars came out of a neighborhood in 
Barcelona in 2008 thanks to the participation 
of neighbors, local shops, pharmacies, 
associations, etc. who, together with the City 
Council of Barcelona, made up a Network of 
• The Neighbor and Shop Radars: made up 
of people, local shops and associations who 
sensitively and respectfully monitor the elderly 
on a daily basis. If they detect a change in their 
routines, behavior or physical aspect, they contact 
k_\E\knfibkf[\Ôe\k_\XZk`fejkfY\kXb\e%
Moreover, thanks to a telephone monitoring 
platform, neighbor volunteers or collaborating 
entities keep in periodical touch with the elderly 
in order to monitor their situation, invite them 
to participate in activities in their neighborhood 
or offer them company.
At this time, Radars is run in 24 of Barcelona’s 
73 neighborhoods and involves 247 entities 
and services, 1,023 neighbors, 587 shops and 
456 pharmacies that are caring for 764 elderly 
project beneficiaries who live alone and are 
mostly over 75. 
This networking project has consolidated 
as a best practice, from the point of view of 
prevention, strengthening social cohesion and 
inter-generational relations and improving the 
relationship between the Administration and the 
citizenry. Moreover, it allows the City to optimize 
its human, material and economic resources.
Presented by:  City Council of Barcelona, 
Social Services Department
Contact: Ms. Rosa Rubio Giner
e-mail: rrubiog@bcn.cat
The Radars project is a 
network that cares for the 
elderly l iving alone and 
is made up of neighbors, 
associations, local shops and 
social services professionals. 
24
participated. “The Value of the Citizenry” was 
k_\]fZljf]k_\[\YXk\jXe[i\Õ\Zk`fejf]k_\
meeting, in which the Network also discussed 
its contributions to the 14th International 
Congress of Educating Cities.   
 The 14th International Congress of 
Educating Cities, which will be organised by 
Rosario from the 1 to 4 June, will kick off with 
the lecture by Professor Gilles Lipovetsky on 
“Educating Cities, Creative Cities: Paths to 
better living together”.
 The next General Assembly of the IAEC 
will take place on 2 June in Rosario and 
will deal with issues such as International 
Educating Cities Day, the adoption of the 
2017 budget and the renewal of the Executive 
Committee.
 The Executive Committee of the IAEC 
at its last meeting held on 11-12 March in 
Lisbon entrusted Cascais (Portugal) with 
the organization of the 15th International 
Congress of Educating Cities slated for 2018. 
The theme that will guide the lectures and 
workshops of the Congress will be “The City 
belongs to the people”.
K_\n`ee`e^gifa\Zkjf]k_\ÔijkEducating 
Cities Award on Good Practices on Living 
Together in cities are: the Opinmäki Learning 
Centre of Espoo (Finland), Learning-Service 
as a tool for coexistence and social cohesion 
of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain) and the 
Urban Regeneration of Gamcheon into a 
cultural neighbourhood of Saha-gu (Republic 
of Korea).
did you know that...
 Approximately 120 delegates from 55 
member cities participated in the IAEC 
General Assembly, which took place in Lisbon 
on 11 March. The Assembly began with a 
plenary lecture on “Heritage, Education, 
Culture and Citizenry” given by Professor 
María Calado, followed by a panel discussion in 
which delegates from Munich, Sao Paulo and 
Lisbon presented their educating experiences. 
The Assembly program was completed with 
study visits to experiences of the host city and 
a working meeting of the member cities from 
Northern Europe.   
 Throughout the biennium 2016-2018, 
the Spanish Network of Educating Cities 
is launching different thematic networks 
focussing on the prevention of school failure, 
the role of families in the educating city, 
responsible tourism, vocational training, 
learning-service, Arts as a tool for social 
cohesion, and the strategies for combatting 
`e\hlXc`k`\j%
 Last 12 April the city of Santarém hosted 
an Extraordinary National Meeting of 
the Portuguese Network  in which 70 
representatives from 33 municipalities 
citizen education that must be strengthened 
through public policies and initiatives from 
civil society.
The International Educating Cities Day 
seeks, therefore, to promote awareness 
and to inspire new actions that can foster 
this model of local governance in which 
education plays a key role in building cities 
k_Xk kiXejd`k mXcl\j Xe[ ^\e\iXk\ \hlXc
opportunities and individual and collective 
growth; cities committed to human rights 
that foster the enjoyment of knowledge and 
lifelong learning; cities that seek listening 
and dialogue mechanisms and that invite 
their citizens to actively participate. 
We encourage local governments, educational 
institutions and organizations of civil society 
editorial
25 years after the proclamation of the 
Charter of Educating Cities, the General 
Assembly of the International Association of 
Educating Cities gathered in Lisbon agreed to 
establish 30 November as the International 
Educating Cities Day.
This initiative reveals the fact that the 
Charter of Educating Cities which was 
proclaimed in 1990 is still a source of action 
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has been called with the intention of making 
visible this commitment shared by hundreds 
of cities around the world.
Cities of different sizes, cultures and latitudes 
will unite, in this way, to issue a message to 
k_\ nfic[1 k_\ Z`kp# `kj jki\\kj# jhlXi\j Xe[
institutions can be a source of education, a 
to program different events on this day in 
order to reinforce local action and heighten 
citizen awareness, create synergies and invite 
new educative agents to make the Educating 
City their own and work towards it.  
For 24 hours cities in different countries on 
all continents will celebrate 30 November 
together, renewing their commitment to the 
Charter of Educating Cites and inviting many 
other cities to join this pledge to lifelong 
education for all.  
The Secretariat of the IAEC
c/ Avinyó 15, 4thÕffi
08002 Barcelona (Spain)
Ph. + 34 93 342 77 20
Fax. +34 93 342 77 29
E-mail: bidce@bcn.cat
02 Educating Cities
interview
What are the challenges and main priorities 
of the municipal government of Caguas?
Puerto Rico is going through a moment of 
economic recession with high unemployment 
and high public debt. This is impacting our 
city although we have implemented budget 
controls and public policies to mitigate the 
challenges we face through programs, such 
as: citizen mobility, democratic education, 
regional alliances, sustainable development 
and the creation of opportunities for young 
people, amongst others. 
Caguas joined the IAEC in 2009, which has been 
the impact of this commitment in the city? 
Our commitment to the principles of the 
Charter of Educating Cit ies has been 
translated into the integration of these 
principles in our Second Strategic Plan 2010-
2020.
We promote the active participation, and the 
democratic education of students and all our 
citizens as the key plank in the development 
of projects and decisions that affect or impact 
them directly. Our communities undertake 
their own exercises in citizen participation 
and develop strategic plans that center on the 
common good, healthy coexistence, solidarity 
and the fostering of values that differentiate 
us as a people.
Additionally, we are working on the promotion 
of the use of the city as a giant classroom 
where public spaces are used to foster and 
strengthen life-long learning for our citizens 
no matter their age, gender, social class or 
nationality, amongst others.
Amongst the initiatives developed for the 
use of public space we would like to point 
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a group of citizens meets monthly as the 
People’s University, which promotes citizen 
participation in a variety of contemporary 
subjects and where everyone’s opinion counts.
What does your governing model comprise? 
Based on the idea of Democratic Governance 
as the art of governing people in which 
public management is more open and where 
the responsibility for governing is a shared 
action between the government and the 
people, in Caguas we value and foster citizen 
participation in planning, management itself 
and assessment. 
In  1977 we began to implement the 
Democratic Governance Model through 
the creation of the Community Self-
Management Department, thus becoming the 
first municipality in Puerto Rico to take this 
initiative with the support of the Autonomous 
Municipalities Act. 
The preparation of the Strategic Plan arose 
from a participatory process bringing together 
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the private sector and citizens in dialogues 
and conversations in each of the 11 districts. 
It was during this participatory, democratic 
exercise where the leaders of the different 
communities in the city formed groups to 
analyze the needs of their neighborhoods and 
to propose the future direction in which they 
wanted to move their city.
On the other hand, we have redesigned in 
administrative and community terms the 
traditional political leadership structure and 
we are working with community leaders to 
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\hlXc`kp`ek_\[\Z`j`fe$dXb`e^gifZ\jj\jf]
our communities. Collectively, and in the spirit 
of solidarity, the government and citizens 
actively participate in the decision making 
of their communities and city, putting social, 
economic and infrastructure projects into 
operation. 
Moreover, citizen participation generated 
in the city of Caguas has various facets that 
range from actions involving the community 
to social assistance, in which citizens are 
organized to help residents with a variety 
of problems. Likewise, the association 
makes alliances with the schools, churches, 
shopkeepers and other institutions in their 
communities in order to work with the 
neediest sectors.
In 2015, in order to fortify our model of 
democratic governance, we set up the Child 
and Teen Advisory Council (CANA, original 
acronym) in order to grant active participation 
and voice to children and teens in the city’s 
public policy, which is something we would like 
to develop further in collaboration with other 
cities in the IAEC. 
Caguas intends to get companies involved 
in a model of social responsibility. Can you 
give examples of any initiatives in this 
sense? 
The participation of companies in the 
preparation of our City Strategic Plan has 
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a tool for attracting more companies to our 
city, which is the Caguas Socio-economic 
Development Incentives Code. This code 
grants patent payment and moveable asset 
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of a company’s social responsibility, that it 
contribute 10% of these exemptions savings 
to an economic development investment fund. 
Moreover,  companies  in  Caguas  are 
collaborating on social development initiatives 
and community projects.  An example of 
this is the Beauty Salons project: small and 
medium-sized beauty care companies promote 
the prevention of gender violence in their 
establishments.
More information at www.edcities.org 
Mr. William Miranda Torres 
Mayor of Caguas, Puerto Rico
03 Educating Cities
overweight among the user population over 
19 years old. 
• To contribute to ensuring that all users 
increase their daily consumption of fruit by 
25%, to 400 gr. or 5 pieces a day.
Through this service, which is at the reach 
of all citizens, and through simple actions in 
nutritional education and raising awareness 
of the importance of physical activity, Quito 
seeks to foster healthier lifestyles amongst 
the population.
Presented by: Metropolitan District of Quito,
Health Department 
Contact: Ms. Estefani Jarrin
e-mail: \jk\]Xe`%aXii`e7hl`kf%^fY%\Z 
With a population of 2,367,162 inhabitants, 
Quito is the capital of the Republic of 
Ecuador and is its main administrative, 
economic and cultural centre. 
Changes in lifestyles and diet are leading to 
an increase in long-term chronic diseases 
and a slow onset of diabetes, high blood-
pressure and obesity. According to the World 
Health Organisation (WHO), chronic non-
transmittable diseases are among the ten 
main causes of death in the world. In many 
cases, these diseases are fostered by bad 
habits, such as physical inactivity, unhealthy 
diets, tobacco and alcohol consumption, 
amongst others, on which an impact can be 
made.
 
In the face of this situation, the Municipality 
of Quito decided in 2015 to set up a project 
called “Health on the go” (Salud al Paso), 
which provides the community with services 
for the care and promotion of health at 
permanent or itinerant points located in 
strategic crowded places in the city, such as 
parks, markets, shopping centres, schools 
and public transportation stations. 
At  each point  a  team of  nurses and 
nutritionists offers free services without a 
previous appointment during long opening 
hours. They perform basic check-ups for all 
people who choose to use the service, which 
comprise taking measurements of weight, 
height, blood-sugar and blood-pressure 
levels. Moreover, information is provided to 
improve the eating habits of the users and 
promote physical activity. 
In cases in which there is low risk of 
contracting a chronic illness, an individual 
intervention plan is designed consisting of a 
schedule of appointments for approximately 
6  m o n t h s  a n d  a  fo l l ow - u p  of  d i e t 
recommendations and physical activity. If 
the citizen accepts this commitment, up to 4 
appointments are made to assess the user’s 
progress, and to check if the factors have 
stabilised or worsened. Recommendations are 
X[aljk\[`]i\hl`i\[%
If high risk factors are detected, the users 
are referred to their respective health care 
units so that they can receive the necessary 
medical care.
From May 2015 until  March 2016, 10 
permanent care points and 11 itinerant points 
have been set up. During this time, around 
300,000 visits have been made, from which 
190,000 people have benefitted. According 
to the information gathered at the “Health 
on the go” points, a total of 46,000 people 
at high risk of suffering from a chronic non-
transmittable disease were referred to health 
care centres. 
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results indicators were established, and the 
following targets were set for 2025:
• To encourage the user population of “Health 
on the go” who are over 19 years old to 
increase their physical activity by at least 
10%. 
•  To stop the increase in obesity and 
experience
With “Health on the go” Quito promotes 
a healthy lifestyle
“Health on the go” provides 
free of charge health care at 
crowded points in the city 
in order to promote healthy 
hab its  and to  prevent 
and detect chronic non-
transmittable diseases. 
04 Educating Cities
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