European project ‘Social Economy for Care’ visits ABD’s facilities to exchange knowledge with

Asociación Bienestar y Desarrollo (Welfare and Development Association) welcomes for three days social entities that are part of the European project ‘Social Economy for Care’, an initiative born in Belgium. ABD is an integral part, as a collaborating entity.

Specifically, the project focuses on the revaluation of personal skills and competencies to find enough professionals in the healthcare sector during the next few years. This meeting will also involve entities from Poland and Italy, which, together with ABD in Spain, are part of the research group. Despite having a European impact area, ‘Social Economy for Care’ is financed by the government of Belgium.

The project has its origin in the Flanders’ labour shortage, which has intensified due to demographic reasons. Because of that, there is a growing concern to find enough candidates to replace older employees. That is the reason why they are discussing innovative work solutions that allow entering the field of unskilled unemployed people or people with criminal records or migrants. ‘Social Economy for Care’ is the result of collaboration with the social economy sector, and includes initiatives related to manual work or soft-skills, in order to assess skills and competencies beyond formal education.

And, in this context of an exchange of ideas and experiences, Barcelona reception is taking place. It includes three days of visits to different services and programs developed by ABD. The main objective is to show proposals for home or residential care to prepare proposals for the future; but also to show good practices, the principles of care in the countries where participants are from, and how they affect to the labor market.

“We boost collective strategies to tackle individual problems”

The visit began at the headquarters of ABD in Quevedo Street, with the general presentation of the entity by the manager, Àngels Guiteras; the technician manager, Monica Planas; and the president, Felisa Pérez. Guiteras has explained the main objectives of the association, as well as the challenges that must be faced. “We are a small observatory. We innovate in social measures, in quality. For example, in the area of health and care, we are working with a technological counterpart. We are beginning to test a screen to help the elderly,” he explained. He also emphasized the importance of workers in ABD’s day-to-day life, “they are the ones who make this possible.”

The other two days, participants have attended the presentation of the housing project with services for the elderly, where they learned how the Sociosanitaria Operative Unit works. Likewise, they also had the opportunity to see the work of the Energy Agents, as well as the work that is done in the Baluard Room.

During Wednesday, the visit has been completed with the explanation of the Intercultural Mediators project, as well as the Active Community, Preinfant and Energy Control programs in the ABD facilities at 384 Independencia Street. The coordinator of the mediation program Jorge Pellicer explained that the City Council “recommends add up self-employed workers in risk of social exclusion”, in order to have a double social impact.

About the program of reduction of damages in drugs Energy Control, Anna Menezes has said that the final objective is to give useful information to users and to alert them about the adulterated substances in what they want to consume. “It is not a prohibitionist stance, but has an informative function so that the person can choose freely.”

The journey has lasted three days, and the entities which have been participating in the project ‘Social Economy for Care’ are Landsbond der Christelijke Mutualiteiten, IN-Z, CM Midden-Vlaanderen, and CM Limburg, from Belgium; ABD, from Spain; Societá Cooperativa Social “Insieme Si Puó”, from Italy; and Stowarzyszenie Wzajemnej Pomoocy “Flandria”, from Poland.