The 2nd Island Youth Plan: a roadmap to serve nearly 23,000 young people in Fuerteventura
27 programmes, €550,000 a year and a horizon until 2030 mark the new youth‑planning instrument of the Cabildo, the most comprehensive and rigorous in the island’s history
The Cabildo of Fuerteventura presented on Friday the draft of the II Island Youth Plan 2026‑2030, the strategic document that will guide the island’s youth policies for the next five years. The ceremony took place at the Island Youth Centre in Puerto del Rosario and was attended by the Cabildo president, Lola García, the Councillor for Education and Youth, Adargoma Hernández, and the plan’s technical author, Naroe Valls.
The draft will be sent to the agencies involved in its implementation and to the island’s political groups before being approved in plenary, and it represents a continuation and improvement of the first Island Youth Plan (2020‑2025), the inaugural plan of the island. During a recent visit by the Canary Islands Government’s Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Childhood and Families, the Cabildo proposed a dedicated funding line for island councils that have an approved youth plan, aiming to boost youth‑related actions.
A plan tailored to reality and the Cabildo’s competencies
President Lola García emphasized that the new plan is sized to what the Cabildo can truly deliver: with the available budget, existing human resources, and within the competencies granted to island councils by the Canary Islands Youth Policy Law.
“There are problems that affect the island’s youth—housing, precarious employment, mental health—that we cannot solve solely from the Youth Department because they depend on the whole set of public policies and the general economic context. What we can say is that this Cabildo works toward that broader goal from every area of government,” García said.
“This plan focuses on what is within our remit, and it does so rigorously, with the aim of improving the living conditions of Fuerteventura’s young people. That is, ultimately, what it is about.”
What the diagnosis reveals: the reality of Majorero youth
The plan is based on a deep, rigorous diagnosis of youth conditions in Fuerteventura, using data from ISTAC, the Spanish Youth Council’s Emancipation Observatory, INJUVE, and a specific study carried out by the Cabildo in December 2024. The figures are striking:
- 22,829 young people aged 15‑29, representing 6 % of Canary Islands youth.
- Youth unemployment in the Canary Islands stands at 24.74 %, with peaks above 35 % among 16‑ to 19‑year‑olds.
- The average rent equals 99.4 % of a young person’s net salary, making independent living almost impossible; only 20 % of Canary youth aged 16‑29 live outside the family home.
- 40.9 % of Canary youth are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
- More than half of young people report having experienced mental‑health problems in the past year, with a pronounced gender gap: 60 % of girls versus 40 % of boys.
What works is kept; what doesn’t is removed
Councillor Adargoma Hernández highlighted that a key decision was to start from an honest assessment of the previous plan.
“Keep what has worked, improve what had room for improvement, and eliminate what was unviable. We didn’t start from scratch because it makes no sense when there are things that already function.”
Among the programmes that will be consolidated and strengthened are MaxoArte (the island’s youth cultural reference), Verano Joven, the Sustainability and Territory programme, and simplified‑justification grants for youth organisations introduced by the first plan.
In terms of youth information, the new plan unifies and professionalises all channels: editorial‑driven social‑media accounts, an attractive dedicated website, direct communication channels, youth correspondents in schools, and informational screens in institutes. The goal is that any young person in any municipality knows what resources are available and how to access them.
Key milestones of the new plan
In addition to preserving what works, the II Plan introduces concrete new commitments:
- Creation of the Island Youth Council of Fuerteventura, the democratic representation body for organised youth before the Cabildo, mandated by Law 2/2023 and to be launched in the first year of the plan.
- Renovation of the Tefía Youth Hostel, a unique facility in the island’s heart that needs upgraded infrastructure to join the Canary Islands Youth Hostel Network.
- Opening the CIJ on weekends, together with a separate, independent entrance that signals from the outset that the space belongs to young people.
27 programmes, 6 strategic axes and €550,000 a year
The II Plan is organised into 27 programmes grouped under six strategic axes:
- Governance and Participation
- Network of Spaces and Infrastructure
- 360‑Degree Information and Communication
- Talent, Culture and Educational Leisure
- Social Welfare and Inclusion
- Territory, Sustainability and Future
Each programme has concrete goals, measurable indicators, and an allocated budget, with a reference investment of €550,000 annually (excluding personnel costs of the Youth Department).
A major innovation is an automated evaluation system: three standardised sheets—programme‑tracking, activity, and satisfaction questionnaire—implemented as digital forms linked to a central monitoring dashboard. The activity sheet will be mandatory for all entities receiving Cabildo funding, allowing, for the first time, a clear picture of the real reach of all youth policies financed on the island. All indicators are disaggregated by gender, municipality and age group.
The plan also embeds a cross‑cutting gender perspective across all programmes and includes a dedicated gender‑inequality diagnostic, complying with the Organic Law on Effective Equality and the Canary Islands Equality Law.
The plan runs until 2030, is divided into three phases, features an intermediate evaluation in 2028, and will conclude with a final assessment and a public presentation of results to citizens.