The Barcelona conference in June 2004 was organised by ADIGSA the Catch partner in Barcelona. The topic was “Re-integration in the labour market, transition actions” the first of the three thematic areas within Catch. The conference was two days long and ended with a partner meeting where conclusions were drawn. Adigsa is a public company of the Department of Environment and Housing which administrates and manages the public social housing of the Gereralitat de Catalunya. Adigsa started 1985 and has from the start administrated more than 70 000 protected flats as well as conducted refurbishment and maintenance work on these flats.

The conference programme was a great mix between field visits and traditional conference speeches. The first day, Thursday June 3rd 2004 we visited three organisations who works closely with reintegrating homeless people into the labour market. Firstly we visited Posa´t a punt (Get in shape), a labour re-insertion programme for homeless and other socially excluded people promoted by Adigsa’s labour insertion department. Posa´t a punt started in 1997 and is an example of a Catalan social clause in public contracts. This social clause can be a criterion for admission, an element for assessment or an obligation in public contracting. The social clause is a legal tool facilitating the labour integration of those people risking exclusion or already socially excluded. The law from 2002 establishes that the different public bodies of the Catalan government “must reserve certain administrative contracts of projects, supplies and services for non-profit-making organisations whose aim is the integration of people at risk of social exclusion”.

When a project/company has been chosen a meeting is held between the construction company, the insertion company and the Adigsa technicians, who later conduct weekly monitoring sessions on the work site, in direct contact with the insertion workers. The selected workers get a work plan, individual tutorials are arranged and objectives are set. The persons who takes part in the programme is not a second-class worker who does a “subsidised course” but rather an employee just like the rest of his colleagues who work on the project.

After that we, the conference participants met with the people behind the Arrels Foundation, a private foundation working with homeless people. Arrels works with an integrative perspective and tackles the problem from different angels. It is important to fulfil basic needs but also to work with empowerment and to work with the recovering and gaining of new skills. They run a open centre, a housing programme and a mental health programme for homeless people.

Our last visit of the day was combined with the dinner at “La Terrasseta” a restaurant run by the Rauxa Association, which works to bring about the re-insertion of people who live on the streets. Rauxa is administering an integrated socio-health project for homeless alcoholics aiming at achieving total re-insertion with complete abstinence from drugs and a change of lifestyle. It is a non-profit NGO consisting mainly of volunteers, starting in 1989. The Rauxa project has five phases of various actions. They have a six bed van out looking for homeless at night, establishing the first contact. They have a residence with accommodation of 18 homeless and alcoholics where they offer rehabilitation, therapy and detoxification. On top of that Rauxa has 10 flats where they support and help the tenants to change their lifestyle. Rauxa can also offer individual therapeutic occupational training and they work closely with two cooperatives and run their own restaurant La Terrasseta. The long term goal for Rauxa Association is of course employment and a reinsertion in the society.

On the next day, the conference started with a visit by the Department of the Environment and Housing, Mr Salvador Milà. He talked warmly about the need to reserve officially protected flats for people risking or already socially excluded, like homeless people. He said, among other things, that experience of integration based on housing already exists in Europe. The minister proposed that subsidised dwellings should be in neighbourhoods with modern service and that the beneficiaries should become involved in the maintenance of the flats and the surrounding area in order to avoid ghettos.

The day followed with presentations from representatives of the organisations; Arrels Foundation, Rauxa Association and ProHabitage Association. We got the chance of getting to know the organisations Adigsa believes to be the most prominent when it comes to homelessness and reintegration in the labour market. New acquaintances were made between the visiting conference participants and the local organisations.

ProHabitage Association is an independent, non-profit association that acts as a social intermediary guaranteeing access to housing for people unable to find a home on the private market. Its aim is to defend the right to housing and employment for all, with every citizen enjoying equality of opportunity. They offer a youth housing pool for people between 18 and 35 years old where they mediate between the owner and young people to provide for and match the interests of both parties. ProHabitage also have a Mediation and social accompaniment programme and a Temporary social housing programme which benefits people who for various reasons have difficulty in paying their rent and the temporary housing is for people in need of urgent and short-term solutions.

The closing speech was held by Mr Richard Fernandez, The Secretary of Housing from the department of Environment and Housing. He reflected on the policies in the past, especially the housing policies and said that they had learned from it and that Adigsa has to put right what was done so badly. He further said that Barcelona has to work hard in order to avoid finding themselves in the same situation in 25 or 30 year’s time, owing to the new migrations and in that work labour insertion programmes and housing is extremely important.

To read more about the various organisations and their interesting work please click on the report from the conference below. There were many best-practices presented at the conference, we have, to get an overview used the same template for the general description of the best practises as well as contact information to the organisation if you would like to know more.

Download paper {pdf}

Programme Barcelona Meeting {pdf}

Best-practices

ADIGSA {pdf}

The Ark Trust {pdf}

The City Of Malmö {pdf}

Comune Di Bologna {pdf}

Cooperativa Parella {pdf}

Gavroche Association {pdf}

Lisbon Municipality {pdf}

Presentation {pdf}

The Salvation Army {pdf}