In an event held at the Palau Robert in Barcelona and broadcast by streaming, the iSocial Foundation and the UPC today presented the conclusions of the study ‘INSESS-COVID19: Identification of Emerging Social Needs as a consequence of the covid-19 and effect on the social services of the territory’. More than 100 people attended the event in person or online, which also included a brilliant lecture by Xavier Marcet on “The challenge of creating value and positivity in organizations in turbulent times”, and with interventions from the General Director of Social Services of the Catalan Government, Meritxell Benedí, the General Director of Equality, Mireia Mata, and the Vice-Rector for Social Responsibility of the UPC, Gemma Fargas.

The study was presented by its co-authors, Toni Codina, director of the iSocial Foundation, and Karina Gibert, professor of Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDEAl) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).

The study was based on a survey of 1,000 people using social services across the country, and processed using data science and artificial intelligence techniques. And he pointed out the main impacts that the Covid-19 crisis has had and is having on the 107 basic areas of municipal and county social services, in a double dimension: the impact on people in need of care, and the impact on the practice of professional social services teams. An impact that has come at a time when, as a society, we had not yet fully recovered from the economic crisis that began in 2008, adding an additional burden to social services of local bodies that are already far outdated. In addition, it has burst into a state of less advanced technological maturity than would have been desirable in social services.

First of all, INSESS-COVID19 shows how the current crisis of Covid-19 is impacting, on the one hand, on sectors of the population that were already victims of the last economic crisis and, on the other, on population groups and different social realities that form a new focus of emerging social needs that also demand the attention of the basic social services of the territory.

In terms of impacts in the field, INSESS-COVID19 concludes that the number of people using social services who do not work or receive any benefits has increased by 50% during the pandemic. It also shows that 62% of users have needed help, and 46% of these have been food. In addition, the feeling of loneliness has increased by 29%. The study points to the emergence of new profiles, new vulnerabilities and new “challenges” for social services.

The report is based on the results of 1,000 surveys carried out throughout the territory with the involvement of the basic areas of social services. 67.5% of the answers were provided by women, in response to the profiles given by the researchers. “Need has a woman’s name,” said Karina Gibert.

The results show how social services have had to continue to care for people who also suffered from the economic crisis of 2008 but who have been joined by new profiles, with a new and special impact on the elderly and women in general. In addition, it has burst the digital divide, the effects on essential workers or on time management, among others.

In the workplace, and beyond the 50% increase in those who do not work or receive any benefits, the number of people who work but receive a benefit has increased by 18%, and the number of people who do not receive it has increased by 11%. they have no job or occupation. People fired or laid off have increased by 78%, and 36% more have reduced their working hours. In addition, the number of people who had a business has grown by 110% and they have had to cease their activity or go bankrupt.

When asked about the future, 51% of those who do not work believe that they will not find work in January 2021. The reasons they give are the closure of companies, age or lack of training for the jobs that are now most in demand. 49% of respondents say they have teleworked – in January they were 5% – and 34% of those who have done so have needed emotional support. 22% of them say they have lacked family care time.

In the field of social services, 62% of respondents say they needed some kind of help and 46% of them say it was food. Of the latter, 64% have gone to ask their council. 12% have applied for the Guaranteed Income of Citizenship and 16% have asked for psychological help. In addition, 52% of respondents applied for grants that involved financial benefits during the first wave of the pandemic. However, 70% of them had not received the aid by 1 July.

The director of the iSocial Foundation, Toni Codina, explained that the Covid-19 is also causing consequences in the field of housing but predicted an “outbreak” of problems once the state of alarm is over. The results of the survey show that 25% needed help to pay the rent – 52% went to the town hall – and 27% needed help to pay for household supplies. In addition, 11% needed support to pay taxes. Codina pointed out that these figures are “still moderate”, but insisted that it would not be surprising for them to experience a significant increase in the coming months once the measures of the state of the alarm to contain the denunciations and the cuts supplies.

On the other hand, the study concludes that the feeling of loneliness has increased and has done so especially in women around the age of 60 who live alone and suffer from a certain digital divide. Overall, 73% of respondents believe that the Covid crisis has isolated them, 41% have required emotional support and 58% of those with disabilities say they are worse off after Covid-19. The same goes for those with a mental health problem, where 74% say they are worse after the first wave and among these there are 5% of new patients.

6% of respondents say they are victims of some form of violence and 72% of them are women. In addition, 17% of victims have a university degree and 15% report up to three different profiles of perpetrators.

Regarding the digital divide, 48% of respondents say they do not have a computer, 77% do not have a tablet and 28% do not have wifi. There are 4% who do not even have a mobile phone. 19% of those suffering from digital divide are due to lack of skills, while 15% are due to lack of access to devices.

The study also shows that Covid left 27% of respondents with unresolved lawsuits, including removal orders for gender-based violence and regularization processes. In July, 81% of these processes remained unresolved, with immigrants and women being the most affected profiles.

On the other hand, Codina explained that the study has also shown the enormous impact and challenge that this crisis has caused in social services care teams. They have had to face a sudden avalanche of demand for aid, the processing of benefits and management of all kinds in a scenario of serious difficulties in maintaining the intervention with people often with very serious and very complex needs.

In this sense, Codina pointed out that the crisis has highlighted many shortcomings in the Catalan system of social services that were already known, but that have become more evident. He added that this will force to accelerate the improvements and transformations already proposed by the new Strategic Plan for social services 2020-2024 recently approved by the Parliament of Catalonia. The director of iSocial has also said that new professional profiles will be needed to meet the new realities, as some were already observed in the crisis of 2008 but others, such as the digital divide, the increase in situations of loneliness and depression, or the impact on professionals in essential sectors, are new.

The video of the presentation of the report and of Xavier Marcet’s lecture is yet avalaible in our Youtube channel. The full version of the PDF report, you could consult it in the coming days from the iSocial website, along with the summary document presented at today’s event.

Today, October 8, the iSocial Foundation began the experimentation and evaluation phase of FLAPP!, the new app for teenagers and young people with emancipation and inclusion needs, developed by iSocial in collaboration with the Idea Foundation , the Sant Pere Claver Social Services Foundation, the Punt de Referencia Association, the School of Social Work of the University of Barcelona and the technology company Mass Factory.

This phase of experimentation and evaluation started with a workshop at the Coda2 center in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, in which 17 professionals (educators, psychologists, occupational therapists …) from the 6 entities involved in the pilot took part. Professionals have installed the Beta version of FLAPP! to their mobiles, and they have learned how to make it work and interconnect from it from their computers, using the FLAPP! web interface for professionals.

In the workshop the participating professionals have highlighted that FLAPP! was conceived before the outbreak of the Covid-19, but now the pandemic has become much more necessary to have the tools that FLAPP! will offer for remote care, on-line management, or document digitization.

According to Oriol Janer, director of the Dar-Chabab center and coordinator of FLAPP!: “This is the first contact of professionals with the application. Despite being aware that this is a first version, there was a good interaction right away and the impression that it can be a good tool is widespread. Everyone is looking forward to the reception for teenagers and young adults. At the same time, very interesting observations have already been made that will surely reinforce the first version 1.0 of the app that we anticipate will be operational in early 2021.”

This pilot will last 3 months, until the end of the year, during which 120 teenagers and young people and their educational references will use and experience the new application for smartphones. These are young teenagers between the ages of 16 and 23; who are both under guardianship and ex-guardianship; among which are both boys and girls; and which are cared for or hosted in 10 different centers and resources of the Catalan System of Care and Protection for Children and Adolescents, managed by 6 different social entities: the Idea Foundation (3 centers), the Sant Pere Claver Social Services Foundation 3 centers), the Punt de Referencia association (1 center); the Resilis Foundation (1 center); the Benallar Foundation (1 center); and the Alba Jussà Cooperative (1 center). These centers are located in the counties of Barcelonès, Vallès Oriental, Gironès and Pallars Jussà.

At the same time, during these three months, a research team from the School of Social Work of the University of Barcelona will carry out an evaluation of the impact of FLAPP! in the process of emancipation and social inclusion of the 120 participating adolescents and young people. FLAPP! includes five digital tools designed to facilitate this process of emancipation and inclusion in society, which were conceived and designed a year ago through a participatory process involving some young people who will now experience it, various educators and other professionals from the social entities that are members of the project, and technicians from the General Directorate of Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) of the Catalan Government.

FLAPP! it has also had the support of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), the Associació de Joves Extutelats de Catalunya (UJEC) and the La Caixa Foundation.

Today, October 6, the board of the iSocial Foundation has been extended with an eighth member social entity: the Resilis Foundation. For the first time, its CEO, Jordi Pascual, has taken part in the monthly meeting of the iSocial board, on behalf of this foundation, which last July approved the incorporation in iSocial.

The Resilis Foundation is a Girona-based entity born in 2006 that specializes in the management and development of projects, programs and services for the care of children and young people in a situation of exclusion, risk or serious difficulties. It currently has services and centers throughout Catalonia, and is linked to the Plataforma Educativa group. The Resilis Foundation takes its name from the concept of resilience, a term from physics and adapted to the social sciences that refers to an individual’s ability to develop optimally, despite the presence of destabilizing events and conditions of difficult life. Thus, Fundació Resilis wants to stimulate the resilient capacities of the population it serves, without forgetting the protagonist character of each individual in its history and on its way to an autonomous and full life.

With this incorporation, the entities that make up the iSocial board are now eight: Ampans, Associació Benestar Desenvolupament-ABD, Suport-Fundació Tutelar Girona, Fundació Família i Benestar Social, Grup ATRA, Fundació Joia, Fundació Catalana Síndrome de Down, and now also the Resilis Foundation.

This week we have begun work to accompany the Social Services team of the City of Sant Quirze del Vallès in the process of becoming a Basic Area of ​​Social Services.

For six months we will advise the council and the professional team of Social Services of this municipality of the Vallès Occidental in the design and implementation of the new Basic Area, which will join the other 107 Basic Areas of Social Services already existing in Catalonia. In accordance with the Law of Social Services of Catalonia 12/2017, having exceeded 20,000 inhabitants Sant Quirze del Vallès must become a Basic Area, no longer depending as before on the Basic Area of ​​its County Council.

The new Basic Area of ​​Sant Quirze, in accordance with the provisions of the Social Services Act, must directly assume management powers (study of needs, action plans, management of centers and services …), collaboration (with the plans and programs of the Generalitat) and coordination (of local social services, professional teams, collaborating social entities …).

The task of iSocial during these six months will consist of making a diagnosis of the starting point, analyzing the social needs of the municipality and the strengths and weaknesses of the current service; define and establish in a participatory way with politicians, professionals and citizen entities the strategic and operational objectives of the new Area and a detailed action plan for the period 2021-2023; define the processes for their implementation, monitoring and evaluation; and design the most appropriate organizational and governance model to carry it out, while identifying the necessary tools taking into account the importance of being innovative tools and adapted to the current scenario of accelerated digital transformation of all areas and sectors of the our society.

This Wednesday, September 16, we resumed the Postgraduate Course in Public Management of Local Social Services of ACM-UB-iSocial, which was interrupted last spring due to the pandemic.

Dr. Carles Alsinet, director of the Chair of Social Innovation at the University of Lleida, gave the inaugural lecture of this second part of the postgraduate course, with a talk entitled “Will resist Social Services to the emerging challenges for Covid19? ”. The conference was held online, and was attended by about forty people linked to the Social Services of City Councils and County Councils.

Due to the interest aroused by the conference, we have recorded it and will post it on our website in the coming days so that other people can listen to it. In it, Dr. Carles Alsinet has argued that “it is necessary to transform the model of social action to stop managing resources to promote people and identify challenges.” And he called for escaping the doubts that paralyze the projects and the necessary improvements in local social services, recalling that the new proposals need to be defended with data and conviction in front of the decision-making estates. His recommendations to the people in charge of the Social Services of the local bodies have been summarized in these four:

1. Have a positive leadership from the Social Services
2. Ensure decisions and actions based on data and knowledge
3. Increase connectivity between professionals and people
4. Advancing in the technological transformation

The current edition of the Postgraduate Diploma in Public Management of Local Social Services is scheduled to end in March 2021, and the next edition will begin in September 2021. During the next spring the ACM will open registration for all teams of Social Services interested in its 937 City Councils and County Councils members.

The GrausTIC Association and the iSocial Foundation award this prize annually as part of the “ICT Day of Catalonia”. The last edition was held on April 15, when the iSocial Foundation, in the hands of our director Toni Codina, presented the Award for social integration through ICT 2021 to Jordi Palouzié, director of information systems and telecommunications of the Pere Tarrés Foundation, for his “Help them grow” campaign.

The award is aimed at recognizing the company, organization or institution that during the calendar year from the previous Day to the present, has contributed most to the promotion of social integration by making accessible to all its products , services, projects or activities. Companies or institutions that have made real and visible efforts to incorporate design for everyone in their offer and interaction with people are valued. In short, how the Internet and new technologies can transform the way we communicate, buy, sell, and relate in a context of true social integration.

Any person, entity or institution interested in these awards may submit, within the established period, the persons, entities or companies it deems appropriate, by completing the form available on the website of the ICT Day of Catalonia.

Consult the program of the ICT Day of Catalonia.