We are an association of people who live in the unregulated neighborhood "La Cañada Real". We want:
- to participate in making decisions that affect us,
- be recognized in our capacity to solve our own problems,
- enjoy our rights as citizens
- live legally, with dignity and contribute to the common good.
To be able to participate actively, we need access to information, empower ourselves, ease social barriers and adapt current participation channels

Spain, Community of Madrid, Cities of Madrid and Rivas; neighborhood called "La Cañada Real, sec. 6

Cañada Real is a neighbourhood 16 kilometres from the centre of Madrid. It was started as unregulated 70 years ago, due to the difficulties of affordable housing in the city. The
consequences are as follows:
- substandar housing, marginalization, ghettos and the creation of a stigma towards its
inhabitants. This situation affects women much more.
- great difficulty in exercising many rights as citizens: housing, health, education, public transport, information...
- difficulties in exercising their rights to parcipate in making decisions that affect them.
- not being recognized as interlocutors with the capacity to solve their own problems and
contribute to the common good.

The project will benefit all the inhabitants of Cañada Real, especially women. It will also serve as an example and inspiration for other similar situations in Europe.
In sector 6 of Cañada Real live 3000 people, 900 families. They are mainly Spanish Gypsies and non-Gypsies, Moroccans, Romanian Gypsy and Bolivian families.
We will also include the opinions of those who oppose or do not believe in social participation or do not let others participate (such as their women), in order to better understand their fears and prejudices and thus dismantle them.
- Husbands and family members
- Religious or traditional leaders
- Neighbours of surrounding cities

STAGE 2 Listening to the inhabitants: dreams, desires, motivations, barriers to social participation. Creation of a "baseline" and physical and virtual mailboxes to collect ideas continuously.
STAGE 3 participative workshops to prioritize, look for solutions and get commitment to face the problems proposed by the community.
STAGE 4 training workshops, face-to-face and distance, and highly adapted. There will be
basic and advanced levels: self-confidence; planning; channels of social participation; basic legal concepts; duties and rights of citizens; social networks, public speaking...
PHASE 5: Implementation of some of the actions.
PHASE 6: Evaluation of the actions, next steps.

We expect:
More women ́s participation and visibility, both internal and external to our neighbourhood.
Creation of new partnerships with other stakeholders and associations
Increased the membership of TABADOL and other local organizations.
Positive changes observed in "opponent" positions
Increased women ́s self-perception
New actions are promoted and executed by the women itself
Women's increased participation in voting, meetings, media...

People get involved when their rights are affected. When people perceive that are not heard, they disconnect of the society and even may adopt violent positions. The problem of lack of participation is common to all marginalized communities.

The basis of democracy is participation. Through adequate information, self-confidence, empowerment, trust on institutions and accesible participation channels, it is possible to
reduce risk of being used by radical and anti-system political or religious interests.

A successful intervention from the community itself will be an inspiring model for other
communities in similar situations.

Because we want to achieve citizen participation to our neighbors, to be informed of the progress being made. It is important to be taken into account in the decisions adopted within the Regional Pact for Cañada Real, which will be present for the next 20/30 years and will have consequences at the urbanistic, social, economic, cultural, infrastructure level, etc. We are motivated by our dream of working within our neighborhood and transforming it.

Coordination and mobilization: 20.000
Communication and public relations: 5.000
Training: 20.000
Materials: 2.000
Transport: 1.000

All ideas and suggestions are welcome!

Similar experiences, methodologies, dealing with difficulties...