SOI Cartagena has developed a program that encourages people with and without disabilities to carry out plans together
Going out with friends, enjoying a good movie at the cinema, participating in workshops or practicing sports are recreational activities that improve the quality of life of those who do them, since they allow learning and training while meeting other people.
The value of this quality time is something that the professionals of the SOI Cartagena Foundation verify every day, promoted in 2011 by Asido Cartagena and Astus, which facilitates people with intellectual disabilities and / or cerebral palsy over 16 years of age to participate in activities leisure that they themselves choose. It currently has around 90 partners.
These people are active participants in numerous group activities and encounters -such as the theater workshop or the Latin dance workshop- that promote entertainment, friendship and closeness between them. “Leisure is the first indicator of the quality of life of any person” emphasizes the director of SOI Cartagena, David Rivera.
Julio Ferreira: «The project encourages us to be accepted as we are»
The good reception of all these initiatives has not diminished the desire of the SOI Cartagena Foundation to continue offering new recreational alternatives to its members. For this reason, this year they created a new program, under the name of ‘Inclusive leisure and community participation’, which goes one step further and provides individual and professionalized support to people so that they can carry out leisure activities in their environment that allow them interact with people without disabilities with whom they share tastes and hobbies. The innovative nature of the initiative has earned it the support of the ‘La Caixa’ Foundation, which has selected it this year in its aid program for social initiative projects, endowing it with 15,840 euros.
To participate in the initiative, participants must have an interview with the professionals of SOI Cartagena, in which they try to “discover their real tastes, what things motivate them or what dreams they have,” highlights the project coordinator, Virginia Picorel. Once a personalized leisure plan has been created and the activity they would like to attend has been selected, the entity searches in the area where they live, to facilitate their movements, a company that carries out this activity, with which they contact to explain the project and propose the incorporation of the person. After its approval, the user of SOI Cartagena begins to do it with the support of a professional, “who accompanies him to help the teacher understand the disability and so that person can also keep up with the rest of his classmates”, he highlights Rivera. This support is temporary, since the objective is that once it is adapted, it is the participant who goes independently.
Autonomous people
Beyond its playful aspect, the initiative has an inclusive character that seeks “that they can do an activity like any other person”, summarizes Picorel, an idea shared by the director of SOI Cartagena, who emphasizes the need to “create an inclusive society in which everyone participates. Physical disability is more evident, but in the case of people with intellectual disabilities, what is involved is trying to ensure that they have autonomy and that they carry out their right to participate in the community leisure offer. You have to put all the means to ensure that they are not invisible, because they are very prepared to do all kinds of activities, “he stresses.
Being independent and being able to enjoy one of his passions at the same time is what Julio Ferreira has achieved. The 43-year-old soccer fan spends his free time rooting for his two favorite teams: FC Cartagena and Jimbee, with the company of a supporting professional. “The project is important because it includes us in society and encourages them to accept us as we are. These foundations give a very important value to people with disabilities and break with the vision that was had of us in the past.
Great learnings
That empowerment that Julio Ferreira talks about is not the only positive effect of the program. The initiative not only benefits its participants, but also leaves a very positive imprint on the professionals who take it to the field that stays with them forever.
This aspect is precisely the one highlighted by the support professional, Mónica Villalba, who considers that the SOI Foundation “has been a burst of energy.” “They are people from whom you learn a lot and change your schemes,” he says.
Boost to great ideas
‘La Caixa’ Foundation continues to support those groups that seek to improve society. Recently, the entity has presented the projects selected this year in the call for grants for social initiative projects. In Spain, the ‘La Caixa’ Foundation has chosen 216 projects, among which it will distribute more than 4.5 million Euros. Of the total number of initiatives, 10 of them come from associations in Murcia, which will receive a total amount of 180,190 euros, thus helping 442 people.
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