- Ane Oyarbide: “If San Sebastián is to have a future, it must focus on its young people, with training and job opportunities, and alternatives to live and build their life projects in the city”.
Asier Amilibia and Leticia da Veiga, 25 and 18 years old respectively, are the two young natives of Donostia who will be on the Urban Future forum’s Young Leaders programme, to be held from 4 to 7 June in Rotterdam. Europe’s leading gathering of sustainable cities is undertaking the challenge of how we can improve our cities, and has a special programme to listen to the suggestions tabled by young people from all over Europe destined to become the leaders of the future.
The pioneer “Young Leaders San Sebastian” programme was introduced by the Town Hall through its economic promotion vehicle Fomento de San Sebastián, and aims to single out talented young people from Donostia who may come up with ground-breaking sustainable analyses and ideas to transform our city.
The winners were selected through a public competition in which candidates were asked to specify an existing challenge or problem, and table alternatives and solutions to bring about a positive impact and boost the welfare of local people. Candidates had to be under 30 years old, they had to have either studied a course or be studying a course at university, or engaged in higher VET studies, and address issues in relation to social cohesion, employment, access to housing, digitalisation or sustainability.
Local Economy and Employment Councillor Ane Oyarbide said: “if San Sebastián is to have a future, it must focus on its young people, with training and job opportunities, and alternatives to live and build their life projects in the city. At Fomento de San Sebastián we offer training programmes and grants, financial assistance to help them undertake and carry out their own projects, job insertion programmes and residence options. We wish to help them grow and build their life project and San Sebastián’s future. Programmes such as “Young Leaders San Sebastian” give them a voice, help them go further, and groom the leaders we need for our city to move forward”.
Young leaders from Donostia
Asier Amilibia is 25 years old, he has a degree in Tourism, and also a master’s in Innovation and Tourism. He is currently studying a doctorate in Social Sciences, with a specialisation in Smart City research. His Data2Smart idea is based on the creation of a tool to conduct an analysis of specific data on a city, using Big Data and Business Intelligence, for the purposes of transforming the information into visual graphics to make it easier to understand and to streamline decision-making to improve local people’s standard of living.
Leticia Da Veiga is 18 years old, and studying a senior NBA Administration and Finance course at the Nazaret Foundation. She wishes to address digitalisation and sustainability simultaneously, using digital technology to transform common everyday physical tools and objects into digital media, eliminating consumption of materials and the impacts associated with their manufacture, to make our environment more sustainable.
The two young people selected by Fomento de San Sebastián will be attending the Urban Future congress, and will be able to share experiences with other young people from around Europe and take part in training activities, discussion forums, workshops and networking events.
They will also have customised assistance in drawing up the proposals tabled, a chance to form part of the Talent Residences programme, and priority access to Fomento de San Sebastián’s training and acceleration programmes