A few days ago, the Ared Foundation chose the old La Modelo prison to hold its annual charity dinner. With this location, the social entity wanted to reclaim its origins, linked to the Wad Ras women's penitentiary center and the figure of Teresa Rodríguez, who was the founder and alma mater of the entity until her retirement in 2018. In the early 90s, Rodríguez proposed to the prison management and the Generalitat the need to give a new opportunity to women leaving prison, offering them training as seamstresses and giving them employment, since, otherwise, at the end of their sentence they would re-offend to be able to subsist.
This is how, in 1994, Ared was born, which taught a first sewing course to five women deprived of liberty. 28 years later, more than 14,000 people have passed through the entity, making it one of the social references in Barcelona, not only for women from penitentiary centers, but also for its comprehensive support and training programs for people at high risk of vulnerability.
"Most of the women we currently serve come from social services, not from prisons, but we reclaim our origins, because they continue to be a priority group for us. It is necessary to create training and support spaces where they are not judged and that allow these women to find employment. They have already paid their penalty, they have fulfilled their debt to society and Ared wants to be the bridge for their insertion or, rather, for their reinsertion: they have the right to a second chance!", affirms energetically Judit Mascó, president of Ared since 2018.
The solidarity dinner at La Modelo was attended by Faustino García Zapico, educator, and Begoña Longoria, social worker, co-founders and coordinators of the Educational Therapeutic Unit (UTE) of Villabona (Asturias), an entity that works to demonstrate that "another prison is possible". García Zapico and Longoria explained the bases of the "alternative model of educational intervention" they have developed and which allows transforming the penitentiary reality by "eliminating the prison subculture that makes prison a school of delinquency".
Ared is very critical of the current penitentiary system, based on a very punitive penal code that makes it "one of the most obsolete in Europe". "We propose to demonstrate that there are alternatives that have greater value for the reintegration into society of women deprived of liberty," says Ared, adding that "being a woman and having been in prison is one of the biggest stigmas one can have in society today." "Prisons are designed for men; they reproduce the macho world in which we live," notes the foundation chaired by Mascó.
Throughout its almost three decades of existence, from its headquarters on Zamora Street in Barcelona, Ared has diversified its activity and currently provides training, social support, and job placement services. In training, the entity offers courses in four areas: tailoring, cooking, pastry, and socio-health care, in alliance with the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC), the Ministry of Labor, and the European Social Fund.
For job placement, and with the help of entities such as Fundación La Caixa, Ared has multiple programs to assist different groups, whom it prepares and accompanies so that they can work in ordinary companies. In addition, it has its own insertion company, Salta, which provides a first job opportunity to people with special difficulties who, once trained, are inserted into the ordinary market. Salta operates with three business areas: catering services (Catering Ared), pastry and bakery workshop (Gourmet Ared), and industrial tailoring workshop (Confección Ared).
With this last activity, the entity works for various textile brands, manufactures home linen for hospitals, and also, for example, makes alterations for boutiques like Santa Eulàlia. In addition, it launched a brand of work uniforms that was presented in 2019 with a fashion show at the 080 Barcelona fashion week. "We are struggling to find our space within the competitive market of work uniforms," admits Mascó, who makes "an appeal to companies to provide work for their social workshops."
Training center, insertion company, and now also CET
In this work environment, the Ared Foundation has just taken a significant step by incorporating the Estel Tàpia Special Employment Center (CET) into its perimeter, a sewing workshop in Raval aimed at people with disabilities or mental disorders. "This workshop, which performs a similar job to Salta, was going to close and we have prevented its disappearance by incorporating it into Ared's structure, which will allow us to provide service to a profile of women with different abilities that we had not been able to reach until now," explains the president of the foundation. The facilities that the old Estel Tàpia had in Raval have been closed and all activity has been concentrated at the headquarters on Zamora Street, in Poblenou. The new CET Ared manufactures different textile accessories, such as bags, backpacks and masks, under the Vora Barcelona brand; and also reusable sandwich bags under the Ecotó brand.
Ared's catering division, which had a very hard time during the pandemic due to the cancellation of events, has found a new path of growth in the management of cafeterias in different types of facilities that opt to outsource this service to a company with a social vocation. Thus, Ared operates the cafeteria and restaurant service of the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF-BSM) campus on Balmes Street, and has also taken over the management of the cafeteria of the center that the Catalan Sailing Federation has below the photovoltaic panel of the Forum. Another of its clients is the casa de recés (residence) of the Fundació de l'Esperança, the facility for the fight against poverty that Fundació La Caixa has in the Gothic Quarter.
Finally, another flagship project of the Ared Foundation, in alliance with Sant Joan de Déu and the Barcelona City Council, is the social facility La Llavor, the first center exclusively dedicated to serving homeless women in Barcelona. In these facilities, located near the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, 40 women currently reside, who are provided with accompaniment and training services through a pre-employment textile workshop that should help them re-enter society.