A total of 55 entities from the Rehab-Lab network gathered in Liège to share their knowledge and experiences

Liège (Belgium) hosted the annual European meeting of the Rehab-Lab Network, focused on the design and 3D printing of personalized functional aids, on May 30 and 31.

About sixty participants from the 55 FabLabs within the network, spanning France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and recently, Catalonia, attended. Representing Catalonia were Toni Codina, Director of the iSocial Foundation, and Felip Fenollosa, Research Director of the CIM Foundation at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). They represented the Rehab-Lab.cat 2023-2025 project, funded by the Next Generation funds.

Over two days, participants shared their knowledge and experiences in designing and 3D printing customized plastic parts that help improve personal autonomy in daily activities for people with disabilities.

During the meeting, the Catalan representatives, attending for the first time, had the opportunity to present the Rehab-Lab.cat project to the other European participants. Since 2023, this project has been implementing and expanding this innovative service in Catalonia to benefit people with disabilities.

Currently, Catalonia has its first two FabLabs for personalized functional aids, opened by the Ampans Foundation in Manresa and at the Guttmann Institute in Badalona. In 2024 and 2025, the iSocial Foundation plans to launch at least six more in various locations across Catalonia, in collaboration with disability sector organizations and with the support of other project partners: Avinent, CIM-UPC, Ampans, and Guttmann.

Additionally, the participants approved that the next annual meeting in 2025 will be held in Barcelona.

The five partner entities of the project will conduct guided workshops during the months of May and June with the users to detect the needs they have in their daily lives

This May, we inaugurated the first participatory workshops included in the research process of the All By Myself project, coordinated by the iSocial Foundation and supported by the Department of Social Rights of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The sessions will bring together people with disabilities linked to the entities that are part of the project to collaboratively detect the main obstacles this group faces in their daily lives.

The objective of these workshops, which will take place between May and June, is to generate a conversation among the people who fit the profiles defined by the project, to better understand their routines and observe the barriers they encounter. From everyday actions such as dressing, cooking, going out, taking public transportation, etc., to relational contexts such as leisure, the dialogues driven in these workshops will present different situations to jointly detect the pain points, a term referring to the existence of difficulties or needs not always detected or previously verbalized.

Users from the partner entities of the project (Ampans, Fundación El Maresme, FCSD, Support Girona, and the Alba association) will participate in the workshops, and the discussion topics will be adapted to their specific circumstances. Each workshop will have a total of between 4 and 8 participants and will last one hour. A person from each entity will also participate, facilitating the workshop, and a person will act as a rapporteur, noting all the information that arises.

These workshops will allow a better understanding of daily barriers and their context and will be the starting point for a reflection that, in a second phase of the project, will seek to design the best response to the observed obstacles.

The professionals come from entities in Catalonia and across the State

Flapp! and Nidus, the two virtual safes created by the iSocial Foundation in collaboration with Pere Claver Group, are consolidating with the training offered so far to 23 entities.

The two tools, aimed respectively at young people with emancipation needs and people in situations of homelessness, will be used by the professionals of these entities in their accompaniment tasks. Thanks to these applications, users will be able to store and share documents and photos in the cloud and contact their reference professionals more easily without needing to have their phone number.

A total of 223 social professionals have attended the training sessions, both online and in-person. Some of the entities come from Catalonia, such as Intress, Resilis, or the Pere Claver Group itself. Other organizations, however, come from other territories of the State, such as Castilla y León, Aragón, Balearic Islands, and Asturias.

These data show the interest generated by these tools, which today already have, between the two, 292 professionals and 368 users registered on the platform, as well as 114 services activated.

For their part, Flapp! and Nidus continue to grow to meet the needs of their users and have recently incorporated two new features: the chat and the alarm button, which aim to facilitate direct contact with their reference professionals, especially in emergency situations, ensuring the best attention and support.

iSocial has presented Nidus, a digital tool to support people experiencing homelessness, promoted jointly with the Pere Claver Group

Today, May 15th, we attended the I Jornada de Serveis Socials (1st Social Services Conference), organized by La Unió (Association of Health and Social Entities) at the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB).

Joan M. Adserà, president of La Unió, inaugurated the event and assured that all the entities present share “the purpose of building a national social services system that is equitable, sustainable, solvent, professionalized, and value-driven.”

During the conference, various social services professionals delivered different interventions. Toni Codina, director of the iSocial Foundation, participated in the round table “Cultural and Management Changes to Move Forward,” where innovative experiences in the sector were shared. In particular, he introduced Nidus, a digital tool to support people experiencing homelessness and the professionals who assist them, promoted jointly with the Pere Claver Group.

On the other hand, Marta Segura from the Department of Social Rights of the Generalitat de Catalunya highlighted some challenges for social services, such as flexibility, innovation, care, the dignification of caregivers’ tasks, and the restoration of trust.

The initiative, which aims to combat unwanted loneliness, is part of the projects approved by Fundación La Caixa in the 2024 call

Last Friday, May 10th, we attended the Caixaforum in Lleida to present Vincles at the event for the projects approved by Fundación La Caixa in the province for the 2024 call.

Toni Codina, director of the iSocial Foundation, and Gemma Valeri, coordinator of the Vincles project, participated in the event, where a total of 18 social projects related to the areas of poverty and social inclusion, people with disabilities or mental disorders, the elderly, and social action were presented.

During our turn, Gemma Valeri explained the importance of the Vincles project, a pioneering program that combines technology with community intervention to detect, prevent, and address situations of unwanted loneliness among the elderly in Alt Pirineu and Aran.

Vincles is an initiative jointly driven by the Basic Social Services of the Comarcal Councils of Alt Pirineu and the Conselh Generau d’Aran, with the participation of the Private Foundation Integra Pirineus, ABD Association for Welfare and Development, the Alba Jussà Association, and IDAPA, and the collaboration of Fundación “la Caixa” and the Diputación de Lleida. It is based on the successful experience implemented in several municipalities in the Basque Country by Agintzari S. Coop., a member of iSocial, and GISLAN. On April 10th, we held the first project presentation in La Seu d’Urgell, with the presence of the different organizations and entities involved.

We thank Fundació La Caixa for their support and trust in helping to ensure this project has the broadest possible impact among the population affected by situations of unwanted loneliness.