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By the eradication of social

exclusion and poverty
Jose Fuertes, Teresa Nadales and Maria Jose Vazquez

10/02/2014

FLORIDA UNIVERSITY

Index
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 2
2. RAIS foundation a place for a thousand stories ............................................................. 3
3. Why it is a good practice? .............................................................................................. 8
3.1 It offers a program of housing and job creation ......................................................... 8
3.2 This partnership is profitable because there is more income than expenses:.......... 10
3.3 It puts into practice many projects, workshops and actions that are really effective
and offer fully satisfactory results for those socially excluded people or people who are
living a delicate economic situation .............................................................................. 11
3.3.1 Key Results RAIS 2012.................................................................................... 11
3.3.2 Published Resources 2012 in the memory of RAIS foundation ........................ 11
3.4 The surveys conducted by sociologists of RAIS entity have had very positive results
..................................................................................................................................... 13
3.5 Each of the programs approved by RAIS association is directly related to at least
one of the three axes: social, economic or political hub: ............................................... 14
4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 16
5. References .................................................................................................................. 17

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1. Introduction
According to a book called social exclusion and inequality'' written by several
members of University of Murcia in 2008 , over the last decades in advanced societies
there have been several socio-economic changes such as unemployment and job
insecurity, the crisis of the welfare state, the demographic aging, the racial ethnic diversity,
the restructuring of the family model. Each one of these has promoted poverty and
inequalities, which are still present in our society today.
Several people who published a magazine called curriculum and teacher training
from the University of Granada and Cordoba in 2009 defined Social exclusion as a
concept that is theoretically explain in several events, fundamentally social and economic
events, which are related to the loss or the negation of essential rights that define social
citizenship.

This report is divided into three clearly distinct parts:

On the one hand, the first part has as an aim to find an association to carry out
any action against social exclusion and poverty. In this part we are going to talk about a
description about the organization, its mission, the members of foundation, its values, the
center mobilization, housing and employment, requirements to be a volunteer of the
foundation, all the organizations that are in contact with the association that we are
working and the subsides that the foundation receives every year.
On the other hand, the second one is the justification part of why we believe that
the association provides good practice for social inclusion, in which everybody has the
same role / function within society. In this part we are going to talk about why this
organization offers a good practice by several reasons to combat to social exclusion and
poverty.
The last part of the report is a conclusion about every important aspects about
matter dealt with before. It is to emphasize the most important concepts discussed during
the report.

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2. RAIS foundation a place for a thousand stories

RAIS foundation is an independent entity with a social initiative that is not lucrative
nationwide created in 1998. Its principal objective is opposition against social exclusion
and to give an answer to the need of people who have a social disadvantage particular
homeless people.
The mission of this organization is to improve the quality of life for those who are in
a dire situation. This social exclusion is fought throughout social changes, mobilization of
citizens, public/privet institutions and social agents.

People who cooperate with this organization try to obtain a society that avoids
social exclusion or people that exclude. They also are looking forward to a democratic,
participative and fair society. The scaffolding of RAIS is that everyone takes part of society
because they believe that these people have the capacity to build their own life project.
Relate to the management Team, this organization is formed by 13 professionals that
are linked to the academic world and social action. The support comes from volunteers
and advisors. Referring to our community (Valencia) the manager of RAIS foundation is
(Francesc Talens) graduated in psychology and leads this position since 2010.
RAIS Foundation fulfills these values to deal with social exclusion and poverty:

This cooperation trusts/believes in people and society because they have a

capacity to improve and change their life styles.

They believe in a collective work to get rid of stereotypes and errors, this triggers
cooperative learning sharing ideas.

The acceptance of reality is present but change is a desire. RAIS foundation works
to eradicate the causes of social exclusion.

There is a belief of social exclusion because it is a collective responsibility that is

why it is important to detect the problems and put a stop to them.

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Regarding mobilization of the center there are some meeting points, for example the
Day Center. These places offer basic needs like food, shower, clothes, recreational area
and counseling. Some of these activities that are designed to fight against social exclusion
are throughout group activities, for example RAIS foundation just created a football team
that made it to the championship in Seville. As you can see this kind of team work brings
people together and avoids exclusion.
When a person with social disadvantage arrives to this center, he or she has to do an
initial interview (a psychosocial intervention) with a social worker to detect their needs.
This intervention is based on establishing and itinerary for each person if required. After
this analysis has been done the social worker is able to offer feasible solutions to carry out
a decent life. Normally every year around 400 people assist to these day centers but only
around 30 people demand an intervention to start a program hoping for improvements.
In our case we are going to focus on a project that is in current process, it is called
(Housing first). This project consists on offering home to those in need; these places can
be lodging, supervised flats, guest houses or motels. RAIS also offers affordable and
permanent housing.
In this association there arent requirements to participate. You can be a volunteer if
you are searching for an organization committed to change towards a more equal society,
where nobody is left out. The work of volunteers is vital to RAIS; they have many areas in
which one can contribute with the organization.
If you are a company, you have to know that RAIS builds partnerships and collaborates
with business, private organizations and other factors who share their vision and values.
They focus on innovation and collaboration that create social values and provide value to
companies in development of their own corporate social responsibility policies.
RAIS needs our support to continue giving answer to the needs of people who are
socially excluded, many of them homeless. If you become their partner you will take part of
a transparent and open to the public organization.

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Moreover RAIS foundation wants to work with people and organizations to share their
ideas and projects that fight against social exclusion. Some of the organizations that RAIS
wants to cooperate with are:
On the one hand International Networks are:

EAPN: European antipoverty network

FEANTSA: European federation of national organizations that works with homeless

people.

Homeless world cup.

FEPsh: Support Entities Federation for homeless people.

On the other hand Territorial Networks (Valencian Community) are:

Plataforma de voluntariado social de Comunidad Valenciana.

Xarxa per la inclussi social EAPN-CV.

Equipo interinstitucional de trabajo con personas sin hogar-INTER.

Mesa de acogida de inmigrantes.

Hogar-INTER.

Every project that RAIS Foundation wants to accomplish is on their website

www.raisfundation.org where one can enter, to inquire some information or comment
and collaborate with whatever activity that they are offered to work on.
To carry out whatever project RAIS Foundation receives subsides by different
ways. It gets money by public and private entities or individual donations by citizens.
For example, Murcias town hall destines more than 47000 euros to maintain homes
for children and young people who have family breakdowns and to develop a
comprehensive action plan with homeless people. These subsides try to get a direct
attention on the street, a night center of low requirement, a social support and a
supported accommodation.

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One example regarding the solidarity of charity donors is that in 2012 the
foundation had 92 people (regular contributors) in RAIS organization whose
contribution in support of social exclusion and poverty monthly was 10.56 euros every
month.

Source of income

Management of social services

Public subsidies
Private funding and donations
other income
extraordinary income
contributions affiliates

Expenses
Other social resources
Residential resources
Citizen participation and
mobilization
Other expenses
Management, administration
and collection funds

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As you can perceive, this is the moneymaker of RAIS foundation in 2012 published
in there memory two years ago. These are all incomes and expenditures about
distribution.

Some aspects like employment are very important in our society, so each province
that collaborates with RAIS foundation has an employment plan where they offer
programs to research for a job. Specially, Valencia provides: training for employment,
mediation with businesses and vacant position, an integrate itinerary of insertion and a
professional guidance. All these programs, as expected are targeted for people at risk
of social exclusion, poverty and immigrants.

In addition to these, RAIS Valencia offers immigrant people the opportunity to

attend to a workshop so they can improve their skills so a decent job is within his/her
reach (ICT workshop is one of these possibilities).

When we started the project of investigation we were focusing on an organization

called EAPN. This is an organization that promotes activities, workshops and projects that
were uploaded to the web of the organization that attends social exclusion and poverty. Its
headquarters is in Brussels and it was very ambitious but we had to explain why it was
going to be a good practice, always focusing on the aspects and actions that were more
specific. Furthermore that is when we started our search.
After we started our search the hours passed till we came to the conclusion why dont
we ask our selfs which are the main problems in our country? ; Everyone said at the
same time: Unemployment and lack of decent housing. According to INE (National
Statistic Institution) as so far as subject-matters like housing, the amount of people that are
homeless during 2013 were about 23000. Between these people there are a lot of
immigrants, proletariat and middle class. If we were to compare in 2012 there was a total
of 5012 homeless people.

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Crisis has become the main protagonist of our daily life. This is difficult situation to all
of us, but it opens up a lot of opportunities to think, change and continue providing value to
society. RAIS Foundation wants to take part of this change and contribute to it from social
mobilization and fighting against social exclusion, in order to keep working day to day with
each person who comes to their centers, with people that are on the street, considering
they like an opportunity to contribute to a society without excluded people, fairer,
democratic and participative. Addressing our attention to the community of Valencia,
According to (the Mundo Newspaper 23 May of 2012) 1200 people in 2012 didnt have a
decent housing.

3. Why it is a good practice?

We are sure that RAIS foundation has a good practice for working on reducing
social exclusion and poverty for five reasons:
It offers a program of housing and job creation.
This partnership is profitable because there is more income than expenses.
It puts into practice many projects, workshops and actions that are really
effective and offer fully satisfactory results for those socially excluded
people or people who are living a delicate economic situation.
The surveys conducted by sociologists of RAIS entity have had very
positive results.
Each of the programs approved by RAIS association is directly related to at
least one of the three axes: social, economic or political hub.

3.1 It offers a program of housing and job creation

According to data published by the National Institution of statistics, the amount of
people who are homeless started of being 2.195 in 2005 5.100 in 2012. This is about
132% more.

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Homeless shelters for people who cant dispose of a home in Spain maintained
13.701 people during the past year a 15,7% more than 2008. This was data was provided
by INE (National institution of Statistics), this institution also carried out inquiry for people
without a home, it states: the average occupancy in these centers reached an 86%, the
same percentage was observed in 2008.

Referring to other expenses if we take a look at medical bill there has been an
increase of 10% in the last two years, in euros this amount adds 315.021.

Furthermore directing attention to unemployment in Spain, certain data was

published by the Ministry of Employment and Social security recorded 147.385 less and
represents the first downfall since 2006.
Unemployment also descends 147.385 in 2013 (the Expansion newspaper, 1
March 2013), first time in the year taking into consideration the crisis, the labor market
seems to improve. Lately the last downfall has been -107.570, this supposes positive data
in the register because the last sixteen years havent improved if compared.
If compared with what happened a year ago, unemployment descended 59.094
this is because of the improvement of the market in 2013. In Community of Valencia
consists in 547.360 people in 2013.
After reaffirming that unemployment and lack of housing are the principal problems
of our country and community we can find an organization called RAIS dedicated to
different services that reduce and avoided social exclusion and poverty with activities,
projects, and workshops.

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3.2 This partnership is profitable because there is more income than

expenses:
According to the report published in 2012 by RAIS we can observe the following tables
that the organization is profitable. This is because they have more income than expenses.
Therefore, we can say that is a good support that we evaluated.

BALANCE SHEET
ACTIVE

2012

A) NON-CURRENT ASSETS

7.148.270,95

B) CURRENT ASSETS

3.607.062,33

TOTAL ASSETS (A+B)

10.755.333,28

EQUITY AND LIABILITIES

2012

A) EQUITY

8.060.137,07

B) NON-CURRENT LIABILITIES

2.006.012,86

C) CURRENT LIABILITIES

689.183,35

TOTAL EQUITY AND

LIABILITIES (A+B+C)

10.755.333,28

BALANCE ACOUNT
ENTITY INCOME

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ENTITY EXPENSES

EXERCICE RESULT

4.444.373,75

26.475,73

3.3 It puts into practice many projects, workshops and actions that are
really effective and offer fully satisfactory results for those socially
excluded people or people who are living a delicate economic situation
3.3.1 Key Results RAIS 2012

They innovate serving people without nursing home.

147 people were attended in social and working insertion and supported employment
programs.

3185 people were attended during the year.

They have started two new centers: Murcia and Seville.

RAIS inaugurates the Carmen Sacristan Reception Centre in Madrid with capacity for
60 people. It is supported by Caja Madrid.

New corporative website: raisfundation.org

Solidarity album Songs Factory. Neither geniuses or artists

3.3.2 Published Resources 2012 in the memory of RAIS foundation
Lodging with low requirement:
There are resources (emergency homes, night centers, 24 hours centers) that try
to cover all the basic needs for that people who are in a high level of social exclusion.
In some cases these centers make an effort in periods of greatest cold or heat to try to
protect people of bad weather.
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Their priority is that people can access to this centers. Their rules are basics and
the requirement to stay in is simple. This allows people to have access to the resources
and to be attended.

RAIS foundation conceives these centers like an opportunity on get back on their
feet, so these people can improve there life. The different professionals that works in these
centers try to begin a way to enhance each person, independently of their social level, and
this will permit them leave their actual situation and stir the obstacles that will allow access
to stable resources.
Day center:
The day centers are a place open during the day that offers different kind of
services for people that are socially excluded and too, they are also meeting points. They
are set like a conscious start for people who are excluded, so recuperation and
strengthening itinerary is a possibility. After becoming aware of their situation, the person
is motivated to a change on the research of a new sense for his or her vital project. In this
way the person gets potential and trust again in him/herself.
The day centers are open spaces for social mobilization and that promotes
participation among people in different conditions.
People activation and mobilization:
People mobilization is a transversal tool in RAIS foundation work because this
identifies their intervention model. On the one hand, promotes activation and meeting
activities were excluded people can meet with the best of themselves. This work has a big
motivational component, assuming that all people are able to contribute something to
others. For all this they search group meeting points with other people, where they can be
integrated standardized environment. On the other hand, mobilization tries to involve
citizens in the fight against social exclusion: citizens, institutions, companies and other
social agents.
Housing for specific treatments:
This kind of resources try to give an answer to new realities and needs of social
exclusion, those to which traditional attention networks are not able to give answers. Their

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work is integrated and offers innovation, searching to create spaces that can integrate and
provide security to people.

Nowadays they offer three resources that are orientated toward people in situation
or risk of social exclusion with health problems: drug addiction, alcoholism, mental health,
periods of convalescence and palliative cares.

Street work:
Street work in RAIS consist on overcomes barriers in access to social cares
resources, that may be caused by a persons difficulties, and high levels of social and
personal deterioration of an individual to follow entry procedures of a resource. Also
consists on get closer the people to the resources and vice versa. They try to adapt
services to peoples needs.
Social emergencies:
Emergency services attend crisis or social vulnerability situations which can be
found unexpectedly, normally they require immediate action. Their mission is to give fast,
efficient action to affected people and managing the need of resources to end the
vulnerability situation or reduce its impact.

3.4 The surveys conducted by sociologists of RAIS entity have had very
positive results
In 2012 RAIS foundation implemented the system of quality EFQM (European
Foundation for Quality Management) inside the organization. In the quality systems it is
necessary to know the opinion of staff and participants. For this reason, RAIS
organizations carrys out the first surveys of satisfaction to people who are attended or
people who have collaborated in the foundation. A 75,5% of addressed people who
responded said to be quite or completely satisfied with services received, being the
most valued aspect the treatment received by professionals, considering it like sincere and
respectful by more than 81,9% of the participants.

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On September 24, 2013 RAIS organization obtained the label of European

excellence 200+ by Compromise to excellence1 .

3.5 Each of the programs approved by RAIS association is directly related

to at least one of the three axes: social, economic or political hub:
POLITICAL HUB: Program of low requirement and Awareness and education
program.
SOCIAL HUB: Emergency Social Services in Valencia (SAUS), Street work, Social
support program, Street Soccer National Championships, The meetings way,
Care program for immigrants at risk of social exclusion (PAIRE) and program
access to resources.
ECONOMIC HUB:

Employment program, Housing program and program

activation.
In the dossier called fallen from the sky2 written by Paloma Pedrero there are
some projects that RAIS organization has carried out over the years. These are some
of the projects implemented by RAIS foundation:

1. Emergency Social Services in Valencia (SAUS): It is a public service designed by

RAIS foundation five years ago that complete the other resources of the municipal network
since it caters for all people who are in the city of Valencia at any time of the day of the
year. On March 5, 2013 was published on the website www.raisfundacion.org that in 18
months they have dealt with domestic violence, injurys etc. They also have worked to try
to meet basic needs, such as sharing or research for food.

2. Street Soccer National Championships: It is a program approved by RAIS

organization which seeks to break all the stereotypes that surround to the homeless. As its

1
2

In Spanish means compromiso hacia la excelencia

In Spanish cados del cielo

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name suggests, this is a football championship in which the players are people who are
socially excluded people or living with a delicate economic situation nationwide.

3. Encounters way3: This program developed by RAIS foundation aims to give a single
home to people who have a disadvantage or are in a situation of social exclusion, in
addition to strengthening their social skills and self-esteem, living and encounter with
others and with himself.
4. Care program for immigrants at risk of social exclusion (PAIRE): Some immigrants
come to our country without the support of a social network. For this reason, some of them
add to the number of people at risk of social exclusion and need the support of entities like
RAIS organization, which offers a program of social support, individual monitoring,
information

and

support

in

the

search

for

employment.

5. Program of low requirement: In this program the homeless can spend some time with
others, recovering and obtaining ability to interact with the others, the capacity of listening
and conversation. Thought the relationship with mediators, social volunteers and
imaginative workshops they recover skills lost in the street and they are motivated to
change.

6. Street work: The team of professionals of RAIS foundation goes out to meet people
who live in this social exclusion, they listen to them, they talk to them, they offer support
and they motivate to them to initiate change through small improvements in their lifestyles.

7. Social support program: From unconditional acceptance and active listening, the team
of RAIS association is coordinated with other resources to support the person in process
of improving, to process the basic documentation such as the identity card or the health
insurance card or to apply for minimum insertion income.

8. Housing program: RAIS organization has a social pension, a supervised apartment,

five one-person flats, a floor for women with young children in their care and a small
3

``El camino de los encuentros

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residence with fifteen vacancies to support the treatment of alcohol dependence. All this is
as complementary resources of rehabilitation that these are enable the development of the
skills and the capabilities of cohabitation and the domestic organization

9. Program activation: This program intends to use participation as an effective tool to

enable people who fell into discouragement to convey that change is possible. As a basis,
they promote some activities like the organic garden or the theater group to make them
more useful.

10. Awareness and education program: RAIS Foundation tries to reach the general
public the reality of social exclusion in order to involve the citizenry in the transformation of
reality around us and in the attainment of a just and egalitarian society.
Also, RAIS Foundation owns several networks against social exclusion, since an
autonomic and a national level until an European level.

11. Employment program: This program facilitates the social and labor integration of
people in a situation of exclusion, through actions integral accompaniment, preemployment workshop and facilitation tools and strategies for searching and maintaining
employment. It also has a company insertion dedicated to the production and distribution
of ecological garden products.

4. Conclusion
To conclude this report, Out of all the organizations that we have investigated RAIS
foundation is the one that we concentrated on, this is because RAIS is a small
organization that was created in Spain Madrid (1998) and later on it extended its
dominance around Spain.
Moreover, the information that RAIS foundation (Valencia) has forwarded to us has
been explicit. Mainly we can sum up that they offer moral support, job training and
guidance throughout the process of research. In addition to the progress of this
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organization we can say that they have developed a program which considers volunteers
the main priority to contribute with the fight against social exclusion and poverty, also
having financial help improves their quest to obtain good results.

Because of all this we consider this foundation a good practice in spite of their
housing programs, the profitable income, effective projects, satisfactory results in the
surveys, but last but not least the programs they offer are related to social, economic and
political hub.
To finish off, we consider that any foundation or group of people that dispose of the
monetary funds that can be the key aspect to this reality where poverty and social
exclusion continue being a problem in our society.

5. References
Amigot, B., 2014. El paro baja en 147.385 personas en 2013, su primer descenso en un
ao desde el inicio de la crisis. Expansion, 1 March, p. 1.

Anon., 2014. La Comunidad Valenciana cierra 2013 con un 3,93% menos de paro. El
pas, 3 January, p. 1.

Anon., s.f.

EAPN-ES.

Available

at:

[Online]

http://www.eapn.es/

[Last access: 22 January 2014].

Anon., s.f.

Fundacin

Available

at:

RAIS. [Online]

www.raisfundation.org

[Last access: 5 January 2014].

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canciones,

F.

d.,

2012. Youtube.

[Online]

Available

at:

http://youtu.be/GZCjRyidqbM

[Last access: 3 February 2014].

post, h., 2012. Personas sin hogar en Espaa: En siete aos aumentan un 132% quienes
llevan ms

de

un

ao

sin

trabajo.

[Online]

Available

at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2012/12/21/personas-sin-hogar-en-

esp_n_2344229.html
[Last access: 7 January 2014].

Press, E., 20013. Cerca de 1200 personas carecen de hogar en la Comunidad

Valenciana. El mundo , 23 May, p. one.

RAIS, F., 2013. El Servicio de Atencin a Urgencias Sociales de Valencia ha beneficiado

a

casi

1.300

personas

en

18

meses.

[Online]

Available at: https://www.raisfundacion.org/es/informate/noticias_y_eventos/el-servicio-deatenci-n-urgencias-sociales-de-valencia-ha-beneficiado

[Last access: 3 February 2014].

RAIS, F., 2012. Memoria 2012- Contra la exclusin social, implcate, Madrid: s.n.

Magdalena Jimnez, J. J. L. J. T. u. d. G. y. u. d. C., 2009. Social and educational

exclusion as failures. Framework for your understanding and research. Revista de
currculum y formacin del profesorado, 13(3), p. 39.

Murcia, U. d., 2008. Exclusin social y desigualdad. Murcia: edit.um.

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