Organiser: Esmen Foundation.
Collaborating organisation: Ramon Molinas Foundation.
Dates of implementation: 01/03/2014 – 30/06/2014.
La Gavina, a centre which encourages the social and labour integration of people with intellectual disabilities
The Ramon Molinas Foundation collaborated with the Esmen Foundation in order to improve the facilities of the La Gavina Occupational Centre, run by the organisation in Barcelona. La Gavina Occupational Centre is a daytime care service which encourages the social and labour integration of people with intellectual disabilities – equal to or more than 65% – who, due to their condition, have difficulties assimilating into the world of work.
La Gavina Occupational Centre has a team of multidisciplinary staff. A care team of occupational monitors alongside a technical team comprising of a technical director, a psychologist and a social worker, work hard to care for the users. Apart from acting as a comprehensive occupational service, La Gavina offers therapeutic services, a dining room, advice and care to its users and their families, alongside personal psychological and social care.
It is the third consecutive year that Ramon Molinas Foundation has cooperated with the Esmen Foundation. In 2012, the RMF collaborated with the building of an extension for the La Gavina Occupational Centre. In the following year, the Foundation supported the updating of the facilities of the Albatros home residence.
Ensuring a dignified standard of living for users, the objective of the Occupational Centre
The principal objective of the La Gavina Occupational Centre is to ensure a good standard of living for all of its users through fostering their personal autonomy. In order to achieve this, professionals at the centre have created an annual programme of activities where the social and personal adjustment of its users, alongside the practice of pre-work exercises and occupational therapy, are cornerstones of the programme.
Personal adjustment activities allow the users of the centre to acquire habits to improve their personal and social autonomy, encourage personal relationships with each other, offer guidelines on how to behave correctly, and conduct activities inside normalised environments to stimulate their integration into the community. This segment of activities includes the establishment of a participating assembly, tasks related to habits in the dining room and kitchen, recreational activities such as going to the swimming pool and play centre, and activities for environmental awareness. In addition, the pre-work activities are designed for the users to acquire the necessary working habits for them to achieve full integration.
The Esmen Foundation, an organisation for people with intellectual disabilities
The Esmen Foundation is a private non-profit organisation dedicated to the care of people with intellectual disabilities. Formed in 1997, its principle objective is to promote, encourage and foster comprehensive rehabilitation. It works to treat and protect adults with psychological problems, personality disorders and those who experience difficulties with social and familial integration due to problems with the development of their intellectual faculties, in order to strengthen their personality, develop their emotional state and encourage their sociability.
Apart from the La Gavina Occupational Centre, the Esmen Foundation runs the Albatros home residence and Pingüinet Special Work Centre. The Albatros home residence is a permanent residential service which offers a complete care service to its users with the objective of achieving development through strengthening personal autonomy and emotional balance. Pingüinet Special Work Centre is a daytime care centre that cares for the social and labour integration of people with intellectual disabilities. Pingüinet is made up of people with disabilities, supervised by qualified staff, who offer dry or wet cleaning and ironing services to the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
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