It is not an easy center, but it is kind. And very productive. The Center Sant Jaume, a non-profit foundation of the Jesuits of Sarrià, has been working for a quarter of a century with minors, young people and families in highly vulnerable situations and at risk of social exclusion in Badalona, a city that in the In recent months there has been talk of group sexual assaults. In a difficult context, the Center Sant Jaume works for and for vulnerable children and young people. To give them the opportunities they need and with a clear idea: a certain social environment should not be a barrier to progress.
These days, the hustle and bustle of the center is taken away by the house, through which 180 boys and girls will spend the whole summer, but the work here never rests. They have a family space for children from 0 to 3 years of age and their families, with an open center, a Shared Schooling Unit (UEC) to guarantee compulsory schooling for young people from 14 to 16 years of age, as well as academic reinforcement programs. And they also have projects underway to prevent and reduce absenteeism, for example. Because his premise with all young people is one: "The future is at school."
There is no family like it in Sant Jaume, although they do share one characteristic: high vulnerability. Their fragility comes from housing problems (in many cases an entire family shares a room) or mental health. They are also highly vulnerable because there are many families from other countries and because there is a lot of single parenthood. And with all this they must work. Grau Ussetti, director of the center and social educator, defends the need to involve all possible agents. Because they deal with very complicated realities, such as adolescents with legal issues. But Ussetti claims that this is not a reality in Badalona, but that it is "a phenomenon that is based on a specific population base." And that it is necessary to allocate resources to it. Many more than have been dedicated so far.
The vast majority of families cared for here are from Sant Roc, although there are also quite a few from La Salut and Gorg. Pedagogues, social educators and therapists, as well as workshop leaders and other professionals, make up the team led by Ussetti, who claims that "children are the victims of the social environment in which they live".
Since 2021 the Center Sant Jaume has been working in a new building. A spacious, cozy and functional space that even has a professional kitchen where classes are given two afternoons a week. María José is one of the trainers. Today, after the course is over, she peels potatoes and prepares food for the youth of the farm. She values the experience of having a routine for the young people who attend her course during the year. Many did not know many of the vegetables that they have worked on during the course and are now more familiar. “Some started by saying“ I don't clean ””, she recalls. But here they work as a team and they see the reward for their effort: they eat what they have cooked.
Another of the jewels in the crown is the UEC. It is made up of 25 young people who are not in a “ordinary school environment”. It is, explains Ussetti, "disruptive and also absentee" students. It is like a school for second chances in which the importance is in "generating a bond". And although the director acknowledges that there are cases of failure, there are also other "very cool successes".
The sooner this change is worked on, the better. That is why in Sant Jaume they pamper the Family Space. An open and welcoming room in the upper part of the building welcomes eight families every day (there are a total of 48 registered), who come together to work on creating bonds with their children while sharing experiences with others. “A child cannot be a problem, it must be a reason for hope”, sums up Ussetti. Samara is 28 years old and has four children between the ages of 2 and 9 and today she has come with the little one "he plays and I talk to other mothers".
"90% of the situations that we monitor are highly vulnerable and these people are susceptible to things happening to them," says the director of Sant Jaume. The open Center that they manage for boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 18 collects a good part of this vulnerability. It is a preventive resource that Ussetti regrets that Badalona does not have in its portfolio of services. Minors referred from schools and also from social services arrive here –some of them without diagnosis- and are attended to in the afternoons. Habits are greatly affected: there is space for snacks and leisure, but also time to prepare homework. Grau remembers that at the beginning of this service there were showers and also dinner. The transversal will for these and the rest of the children and young people is to generate opportunities for the future: “to improve their situations”.
And at the Casal they have special assistants. This year five young people who come out of one of the projects that are developed during the course, become volunteers and lend a hand to the instructors. "It's good that they are referents for other children," explains Ussetti. "Let them be agents of change."
