Against the profit motive of entities linked to disability

GironaThe collection of signatures has already begun for one of the first popular legislative initiatives (ILP) in the field of social services in Catalonia: a proposal that seeks to safeguard care for people with disabilities through a non-profit model. The initiative, driven by a group of families and individuals connected to the disability community, originated from the concerns of a group of mothers and fathers in Girona, but it unites the entire Catalan disability community. The action advocates that the exclusive social contracting of services for this group be managed by non-profit organizations. The objective is to guarantee personalized, comprehensive, and continuous support, free from economic interests and focused on the real needs of individuals. The Parliament of Catalonia accepted the proposal for processing on October 9, and the official act of authorizing the notaries took place on October 20. Starting that week, the challenge for the organizing group is to collect 50,000 signatures within 120 days, an essential requirement to open the parliamentary debate.

Protecting a model

From the Promoting Committee, the families behind the initiative assert that this is a call for social justice and emphasize that the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) "does not stem from any self-interest, but from the collective will to protect a social services model that puts people at the center, not economic profit." They also add that the deep motivation to transform the system is what drives their confidence in the success of the signature drive. The initiative's leaders explain that they highly value the draft law on instruments for the public provision of social services, promoted by the Government of Catalonia, but they want guarantees to be established within this draft law to ensure "the best possible care for people with disabilities who need personalized support." The families believe that this care "can only be guaranteed through exclusive concerted action with social initiative entities that have been created and developed by the families themselves." Born into families

The movement that today shapes the third sector for disability in Catalonia has deeply rooted in community roots: it was families, faced with a lack of public resources, who spearheaded the first associations to guarantee dignified care for people with disabilities. From the mid-20th century, mothers and fathers organized themselves to fill an institutional void that left an often invisible group without educational, occupational, or residential services. These initiatives, initially informal and often based in donated premises or community spaces, evolved into solid entities that are now benchmarks of the Catalan social model. As a result of this process, many of today's organizations—foundations, cooperatives, and associations—"maintain an identity marked by a vocation for service, a close connection with the community, and a commitment to putting the person at the center, far removed from any logic of economic profit," explains Albert Falgueras, a member of the group of families of people with disabilities that is promoting the legislative initiative.

The legacy of this family origin remains present in the sector's current demands. Those linked to these organizations defend a model of care based on continuity, personalized support, and community engagement, warning that "any shift towards commercialized models would jeopardize decades of collective effort," acknowledges Falgueras.

In this context, initiatives like the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) launched from Girona revive the founding spirit of the associative movement: to guarantee that care for people with disabilities continues to be managed by social initiative organizations, rooted in the local area and with a clear public vocation, and to prevent the entry of large service companies that only seek profit.