The Department of Youth, Education and Drug Addiction of the La Laguna City Council, led by Sergio Eiroa, has joined the ‘No to addictions, Yes to basketball’ project, developed by the Canary Islands Basketball Club Foundation, with the collaboration of the Basketball Club Canary Islands, to promote healthy habits and prevent addictive behaviors among the youth of the municipality. This initiative, which is part of the foundation’s program for the year 2024, is aimed at 2nd year ESO students from the Secondary Education Institutes (IES) of La Laguna, who are offered the opportunity to participate in various actions. recreational-sports focused on basketball and health education.
Thus, through activities such as basketball games in 3×3 and 4×4 modality, workshops on addictions and group dynamics, the aim is to educate the participating youth about the risks associated with the consumption of substances such as alcohol, tobacco and non-prescribed medications, in addition to raising awareness. about the impact of screen and social media abuse on their emotional well-being.
The mayor of Youth, Education and Drug Addiction, Sergio Eiroa, stressed the importance of promoting physical, mental and emotional health among young people through sports actions, such as basketball, “using these meetings to transmit the multiple benefits and positive values associated with physical activity, such as healthy living, sportsmanship, effort, self-improvement, cooperation, equality and inclusion, and also take advantage of it to reinforce their social and personal skills, which are so necessary at this stage of their lives.” “Prevention is key, and, through these types of initiatives, we want to instill that the practice of healthy habits, sports and teamwork are your best allies for balanced and positive growth,” he noted.
Eiroa accompanied the group of participants in one of the first meetings held in the Juan Ríos Tejera pavilion, which brought together about 120 students from 4 institutes in La Laguna, a meeting in which he valued this collaboration, highlighting that “it is a “an important step to offer students quality activities that promote their development.”
Dynamics and activities
Through this sports concentration, young people not only immerse themselves in the practice of basketball, but also have the opportunity to participate in workshops, such as music and dance, enjoy a healthy breakfast, and receive notions about techniques in this sport. . The day is enriched with talks in the field of prevention and the promotion of decision-making and critical thinking skills to help students build relationships that improve their self-esteem and reinforce their personal skills through sport.
