The spread of COVID-19 around the globe is affecting us all, regardless of age, country or socio-economic level. However, the most vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens, as well as the fact that some groups may be most affected by severe – and fatal – forms of the disease, are more at risk of being especially harmed by current confinement measures, and the situation subseqüent this crisis that will result from the significant tensions that our economies will have to face, and the resources available for social policies and services.
We want to thank, first of all, the work of the thousands of professionals who are these days in front of the services, centers and social residences, and who are giving everything to continue to serve the people who need support. And we also want to recognize the citizens who face personal challenges every day to overcome this situation.
Now, more than ever, we will need to work together to strengthen and improve the Social Services sector in our towns and cities, and to help mitigate the effects of a global and local crisis that will mainly punish the most vulnerable. Social Services, which have not yet recovered from the effects of the last economic and social crisis, will again find themselves in the need to respond to the most basic needs of people and families, and to the weakness of the mechanisms to guarantee many citizens’ rights.
It will be difficult, when all this is over, that we continue as before. In fact, many diagnoses have already been made in Catalonia about the needs for sector transformation. With the new situation created by the pandemic, this transformation will have to take place without too much time to reflect and analyze what we have done and how we have done it. Creativity and innovation are imposed, finding new strategies and tools for intervention. Build different, to face differently the great challenges that this crisis and its consequences have to us.
In the iSocial Foundation we continue to work, founders, partners and collaborators, to carry out projects and activities that drive changes that are already essentials in our Social Services system.