Over San Xoán de Río
San Xoán de Río has just over 500 inhabitants. It has also dedicated 20% of its municipal budget for inclusion and applies a diversity-lens protocol to every decision it takes.
The municipality has built its vision by acknowledging its circumstances. Depopulation is the defining challenge of rural Galicia, and San Xoán de Río has chosen to meet it with a strategy: positioning diversity as essential to the survival and vitality of rural life. The strategy is anchored in two institutional declarations, namely one on LGBTIQ+ rights and one on diversity as a pillar of community resilience. A Social Innovation Department drives the work forward.
The reach of that commitment spans generations. Social networking programmes connect older women over 80. Digital inclusion training opens new possibilities for older persons more broadly. Awareness campaigns affirm LGBTIQ+ people’s place in rural life. Intergenerational projects bring young people into conversation with their elders. And integration initiatives welcome newcomers into a community that has understood, perhaps more clearly than most, that its future depends on them.
Finalist video