Organizer: Fundació Surt.

Collaborative institution: Ramon Molinas Foundation.

Implementation schedule: 01/01/2013 – 30/06/2013.

Open Doors to the Future, a project to help women at risk of social exclusion

Ramon Molinas Foundation supports the program Open Doors to the Future, created by Fundació Surt. The initiative is intended to help those women at risk of poverty and social exclusion as a result of the economic situation of our country.

From Fundació Surt a set of innovative actions have been created and launched, in order to promote the social inclusion of the beneficiaries through strategies of empowerment. These strategies are meant to increase their authority and power over the resources and decisions that affect their lives.

The project wants to run three lines of action to achieve the aim of the program. First, the entity will provide the support tools and the specific resources in order to face the situations of economic, social and emotional emergency of the women. This stage will enable to hold their process of inclusion and insertion. Second, Fundació Surt will mobilize the different agents so as to guarantee that the beneficiary women can link to their immediate environment, thereby favouring their social and labor inclusion. Finally, the organization will work in order to recover and develop the capacities and personal resources of the assisted women, empowering their autonomy and self-esteem.

The beneficiaries of the program

The profile of the women who participate in the program Open Doors to the Future is quite similar. The beneficiaries of the services of the project are in situations of economic difficulty (they have no income or are paid subsidies for less than 400 euros per month), are in charge of children, do not have decent housing, and do not count on with the support of family or friends. Most of them have been suffering this situation for two or four years.

This precariousness affects them. They find themselves disoriented and their emotional state is subjected to depressions and anxieties. Besides, their self-esteem is very low. For these reasons, Fundació Surt believes primordial that the beneficiaries of the program can acquire the necessary tools so that their personal situation does not worsen.

The process to promote their social integration

In order to promote the social inclusion of the 93 women within the program, in the first place Fundació Surt will carry out a series of tutorials where the urgent necessities of each one of the beneficiaries will be analyzed. Once this diagnosis is made, the entity will program individual sessions where they will advise them to perform procedures, guide them personally, or help them through economic or food inputs.

Once their most urgent needs are satisfied and their particular situations analyzed, Fundació Surt will offer them tools to recover and develop their personal resources. Within this line of action the first step will be to include them in group sessions where they will become aware of their situation and the beginning of a change process. Once obtained this consideration, the entity will act as a tutorial so that they can carry out a project of vital action. At this stage they will describe their own plan of action –personal, health, relationships, or occupational. They will draw a line of what they want to be. These tutorials will be completed with a module of career guidance and a training workshop in sales techniques.

Fundació Surt, an entity with over 20 years of experience

Fundació Surt was born in 1993 as Associació de Dones per a la Inserció Laboral (Women’s Association for Employment). Its aim was to facilitate the process of incorporating women into the labor market, in particular those that due to their social, cultural or personal situation were in a more vulnerable position. In 2001, the association became Fundació Surt.

Nowadays the entity wants to become a socially transformative project and committed with women in their effort to build a society with gender equity. A society where men and women are equal in rights and opportunities, without discrimination or subordination.

The consequences of the crisis, the main reason of the program

Following the crisis, Fundació Surt started to receive demands from people who were in critical economic situations, a fact that drove them to poverty and vulnerability, as well as their families.

The profile of the applicants was the same: people that not long ago were economically self-sufficient, but suddenly found themselves with a lot of difficulties to satisfy their basic needs. Many of them arrived to Fundació Surt with no resources, and were blocked by the impact of their new situation with consequences that went beyond their economic situation. The  program Open Doors to the Future was born to assist these women that were within this new poverty profile.

The results of the program, seven incorporations into the workplace

The program Open Doors to the Future has far exceeded the previous expectations. 93 women and their families have received economic support. Fundació Surt has been able to satisfy the demand of social aid in order to palliate the urgent needs of the beneficiaries.

90% of the women have recovered their capacities, their personal resources, and have defined and run their project of vital action. At the end of the program they have achieved to be more positive, have improved their self-esteem, have achieved more autonomy, have acquired better communicative skills, and have improved their relationships.

This process has led them to recover a good emotional state. On the other side, seven of the ninety three women have achieved to incorporate to the labor market. Instructor dining, waitress, saleswoman, cleaner, and hostess, are the professional profiles that the women have achieved after their progress at the program Open Doors to the Future.

Links of interest:

Fundació Surt website.