A T-shirt that someone no longer uses can be the first piece of a puzzle that allows a person at risk of social exclusion to re-engage in the labor market. In this case the maker of the puzzle is the foundation Training and Work, an organization dedicated to the job placement of vulnerable groups that in 2018 managed to get a total of 1,034 people to find work, which represents an increase of 27.5% compared to the previous year’s placement rate. With a budget of 15 million euros, the non-profit organization managed to insert 29.6% of the 3,497 people served, according to the data provided by the organization in its annual balance sheet.
Training and Work bases its action on second chances, both for people and for materials. This foundation, created by Diocesan Caritas of Barcelona in 1992, works mainly in the provinces of Barcelona and Tarragona, in collaboration with public and private programs of insertion, with the help of Active Barcelonaother municipalities or the La Caixa Social Work and with users of social services who are redirected to them.
Its sourcesof employment, both direct and training, are based on hospitality and clothing recycling. From the first, they manage an average of two caterings a day and manage a social dining hall in Tarragona and the dining room of the Diagonal-Besòs campus of the UPC del Besòs, for which they prepared a total of 71,218 menus in 2018, reusing surpluses from different companies , as detailed by the director of the foundation, Albert Alberich. They have recently done a catering collaboration at the popular music festival Primavera Sound.
And for the second, they base their supply on the orange containers that are in squares, civic centers or supermarkets throughout the territory, where neighbors donate the clothes they no longer wear. New fibers or other materials are reused or extracted from them, which then return to the market in the form of recycled clothing via the “Amiga Store” chains.
Formació i Treball processes the garments at its plant in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, which in 2018 processed 11,000 tons of clothing. “It is the largest textile treatment plant in the south of Europe”, according to details from the foundation. Núria Rojo worked for a while in this factory. “This company changed my life, I didn’t know where to put myself, because I had nothing. The lives we all have who work there unite us more.” Today he has a contract in a company in the ordinary economy and explains that his project now is to save to try to earn a living with his true passion: art. “I’ve always been involved, but as a hobby, and thanks to the company [Roba Amiga] I think I can,” he explains.
Una ETT social
From the Training and Work foundation, they fight the dysfunctionalities of the market with their own weapons. In 2016 they created one temporary work company (ETT) social, specialized in the collective insertion of people at risk of vulnerability. “We realized that these people were the first discarded in the selection processes,” says Alberich. So they decided to become the middleman themselves.
In 2018, they provided employment through this mechanism to 61 people, with 166 contracts, of which a total of 14 ended up being hired directly by the company where they provided service. As of March 2019, there are already 45 people hired via this social ETT, with 74 contracts and of which four have already been incorporated directly into ordinary companies. “This year, at least, we will double the figures of 2018”, explains the director of Social Action of the foundation, Marina Arnau.