The Càritas multi-purpose centers where you can do your laundry with a washing machine, shower your children in peace or receive digital help, served 3,222 people during 2022, a figure that is expected to increase due to the aftermath of the pandemic, high inflation and emigration. In relation to the previous year, this figure has experienced a rise of 68% in the five centers of these characteristics that Càritas has in Barcelona, ​​Badalona, ​​Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Cornellà and l’Hospitalet de Llobregat.

The head of the social area of ​​Càritas Barcelona, ​​Eduard Sala, points out that, in the Roquetes area alone, in the Nou Barris district of Barcelona, ​​955 people were attended to, 30% of the total. These centers are “a new initiative that has only been launched in Catalonia”, says Sala.

40% of the people who use them are couples with children and 16% are single-parent families. 88% of people served are unemployed and the remaining 12% have a precarious job “that does not allow them to make ends meet”, according to Càritas. Some people have serious difficulties carrying out something as basic as doing a washing machine or taking a shower at home because they have gone to live in rented rooms (40% of those attended) and share their homes with other families.

Among other activities, these multi-purpose facilities offer group work reception sessions, in which some 600 people have participated, while another 800 have attended groups to socialize. “We had the objective of serving as many people as possible and creating spaces where they can feel that they are someone, that they are part of something in which they can create, participate, contribute and that they can get to know each other in confidence”, Sala emphasizes.

Many of the women with children who go to these spaces come from various Latin American countries in search of better opportunities, and all of them ask their children to do activities to learn through music, tactile and visual stimulation.

“A son of one of the attending mothers, who is from Barcelona, ​​arrived at the center without speaking and had a lack of language, communication and socialization stimulation; and now he is able to speak fluently and interact with the other children, ”says the pedagogue of the Roquetes parenting space, Flor Núñez. In addition to the parenting space for children from zero months to 3 years, educational reinforcement is also offered for children, which allows groups of fifteen to spend the afternoon after school two days a week and at some point they can do the homework with the computer and wifi connection.