With the purpose of consolidating a collaboration agenda geared towards the wellbeing of the community of the Valparaíso Region, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso launched the “PUCV Connects: Propelling regional development” program, which includes a series of work encounters with authorities and public services, regarding initiatives led by our university and aimed to have a positive impact on the community.
The opening event gathered 12 ministry regional secretaries at our Central Headquarters, along to faculty, academic unit directors and PUCV centers. The meeting allowed to share the main action lines developed by the institution in health, education, innovation, environment, culture and social development, among other fields.
Jacqueline Páez, Vicerector of Community Relations, highlighted the collaborative spirit of the occasion, underscoring the fact that the university “has put value on a broad range of initiatives encouraged by our Academic units and centers, many of which have already entered in a dialogue with actors from the public sector. The goal is to move towards a more structured collaboration that responds appropriately to the needs of the territory”.
She also added that “the PUCV seeks to be an articulating actor, capable of connecting academic knowledge with social and public challenges, making an active contribution to the regional development through a tangible commitment with the community”.
CONTRIBUTIONS IN EDUCATION, JUSTICE, ECONOMY AND SOCIAL COHESION
Among the authorities in attendance, Juan Pablo Álvarez, the Education Regional Secretary, valued the opportunity and stated that there is high coincidence of the challenges faced by the educational system: “We have identified key topics, such as school climate, mental health, leadership and inclusion, and in all of them, collaboration with the university has been fundamental in order to strengthen public education in our region”.
For her part, the Justice and Human Rights Regional Secretary, Paula Gutiérrez, highlighted the joint work with the different Academic units of the PUCV. “From social reinsertion to joint work with the Social Work program related to human trafficking, and the constant collaboration with the Law Judicial Clinic, we deeply value this relationship that allows us to bring access to justice closer to all people in our region”, she mentioned.
The Economy, Promotion and Tourism Regional Secretary, Marcelo Arredondo, celebrated the chance of building bridges of collaboration with the university, highlighting that “we are always in a relation with the business world, with technological developers and with entrepreneurs that seek to become formal businesses. Our institutionality also has representation of fields such as tourism and small-scale fishing, to whom we have proposed working on blue economy and thanks to this meeting, we were able to present these points of encounter in order to address the development of the region along to the PUCV”.
MORE THAN 500 THOUSAND PEOPLE CONNECTED
In the last years, the PUCV has led more than 8,000 initiatives with direct impact on local communities, reaching more than 500,000 people, among them, neighbors, workers, entrepreneurs, public and private institutions, and territorial organizations from all of the Valparaiso Region.
With this new cycle of inter-institutional articulation, the University reasserts its commitment to sustainable, inclusive, and collaborative development of the territory, making its academic, technical and human capacity available to appropriately respond to public challenges with a sense of future.
By Javiera Allendes
Vice-Rectorate for Community Relations
