Who we are / Ideology

We understand social inclusion to be a process that entails a change, which affects the life of the person suffering from social exclusion or at a social disadvantage, and those people forming part of the social group from which that person has been excluded and, in particular, the relationship established between both parties.

Bearing this perspective in mind, inclusion can be conceived to have two fundamental variables:

• Individual autonomy: understood to be the possibility of a person to decide for him or herself. We consider that, to do so, he or she must have sufficient resources and skills that make it possible to have a minimally satisfactory set of vital daily practices and experiences that allow that person to have a reasonable level of self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Social Participation: involving participation with full rights in any social area and, above all, from our point of view, having a certain number of social relations in various scenarios, in order to make that person feel part of the community, in addition to knowledge and acceptance of the basic cultural practices and norms of the community in which he or she is being included.

From this point of view, our activities aim to cover both levels::

1. Working on personal aspects,yet without forgetting the importance of the local environment or falling into the temptation of making the victim the culprit (as if everything would be resolved by changing his or her personal aspects).
2. Intervening in the community in order to try to change the social situations affecting the individual inclusion process, yet without forgetting that, until we achieve this change, we need to offer the person tools that will allow for improvements of his or her situation in the short / medium term.

Our intervention is therefore a blend of the two conceptualizations put forward by Guy Cauquil. He suggests that, depending on the approach given to the intervention, we can have one of two models: the inclusion model and the model based on the fight against exclusion. The key elements of these two models are shown below:

Based on this logic, our intervention alternates between the “Inclusion” model and the “Fight against Exclusion” model depending on the possibilities, opportunities and suitability of the action for the desired end:

• We work with the INCLUSION logic when intervening for the purpose of increasing the level of personal and professional skills, where we are seeking normalisation through inclusion in the labour market.
• We use the FIGHT AGAINST EXCLUSION logic when developing plans which aim to achieve some type of social impact: Conecta Network; Insertion Companies (creation of wealth, social responsibility), networking (ALDAURI, EAPN, Neighbourhood associations etc), etc.

These two approaches serve to define the general objectives of each intervention made:

1. Mobilisation of people who are encountering social inclusion difficulties, particularly with regard to their access to the labour market:
   • Adequately deal with each request received by our service, considering the most suitable inclusion plans for each particular case, in co-ordination with the various services and social actors.
   • Give information: have and provide information that is continually up-dated on all types of social resources, aid, etc.
   • Provide guidance and motivation: Give support to each person so that he/she may establish his/her own inclusion process, by encouraging that person to use his / her own personal resources.
   • Provide training: making it possible to achieve the personal and professional skills required to facilitate inclusion in specific reference groups and / or in the labour market, aiming to channel the demand towards the training resources existing in the community network or, failing that, organising the necessary appropriate action based on the demand.
   • Facilitate the contact and / or inclusion in the labour market of hose persons assisted by SARTU.
2. Intervention in our local area in order to involve society and achieve a greater social awareness of inclusion.
   • Contribute to improve the intervention devices related to our mission.
   • Report those situations that generate the exclusion of persons or groups from the community.
   • Prepare and manage projects which, refer to specific areas, are applicable to these areas and involve the community in which the intervention is taking place, thereby permitting the social inclusion of these persons..
   • Participate in all those areas in which it is possible to present our approaches and ideas forming the basis of our work.
   • Contribute to highlighting situations of exclusion: diagnosing needs, studying actual situations.

In all cases, when carrying out our activities, we are bound by the following BASIC PRINCIPLES (*)::

• No action undertaken to address a problem must be segregating, In other words, it must not add a specific segregation to that already suffered by a person.
• The action must not be totally and exclusively directed against the group experiencing the problem. In addition to any positive effects, those interventions that are “only for and amongst” those persons classified as having a problem, always ends up by consolidating self-identification with the problem, the consolidation and spread of poor behaviour, segregation, etc…
• Any intervention project or program must be confined to a territory. It is not a question of being included in society as an abstract whole, but of making the person feel, at least partially, member of some social group, of some small community.
• Socialisation interventions must always be considered from a community, point of view. In other words, proposing the active participation of the community in which the action is to take place.

(*) Based on a formulation by J. FUNES