On Wednesday 6 June, the “la Caixa” Foundation announced the names of the projects selected to receive a subsidy in the call entitled “Child Poverty and Social Exclusion 2018”, part of the Programme of Subsidies for Social Initiative Projects. One of the recipients was the AIDIR Unit in the Ciutat Vella district (Barcelona), an initiative of the Department of Nursing in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The AIDIR Unit is a teaching innovation project that promotes synergies between the university and the professional world. It also helps ensures future nurses achieve excellence in terms of care knowledge and leadership skills. The students play a vital role in this project, as, with the help of a tutor, they provide health training and education to the community, patients and their family members and/or carers. There are currently two AIDIR units, both of which correspond to two very different realities: one is located in the Pere Virgili Healthcare Park, and the other in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona.

The aim of the AIDIR Unit in Ciutat Vella is to help reintegrate the most underprivileged persons/families at risk of social exclusion into society and create active learning opportunities in terms of physical and emotional health, cohabitation and employment. Partners in this endeavour include the Esperanza Foundation, Roure Foudnation, Obra Social “la Caixa” an other associations from the Ciutat Vella district.