Parents and children draw a moment, a story, or an anecdote that happened at home. They put down on a piece of paper what they think, feel, or don't dare to say out loud; perhaps out of fear, perhaps due to a lack of trust, or insecurity. It's a simple activity, but it has helped dozens of families, in one way or another, to strengthen their bond, weakened by the hardships of economic difficulties or by a migration process that diminishes parenting skills. "Now my children tell me how they feel, and that has helped me a lot," explains Najam Ul Huda. She is one of the mothers who have come to the Poblenou socio-educational center to improve communication with their children within a program that seeks to strengthen mother-child relationships as a tool for preventing the institutionalization of minors—that is, to avoid the administration having to intervene and separate children from their parents by assuming their custody. Ul Huda says that the various activities they have carried out in this program, launched in 2022 jointly by the Pere Tarrés Foundation and the state coordinator of Salesian Social Platforms, with the collaboration of educational professionals, have helped improve the atmosphere within her family, with her children: she says they spend quality time together. Brenda Hernández nods beside her and recalls that before, in her parents' time, everything was very different. "Now, this interest in dealing with emotions makes the bond with the family stronger," she affirms. Cases like those of Ul Huda and Hernández are indicators that a new pedagogical model that involves children and families can contribute to strengthening family relationships and participation in community activities, argues the Pere Tarrés Foundation. The organization emphasizes that a shift in focus towards building bonds between parents and children can reduce the risk of institutionalizing children, a situation to be avoided as much as possible, underlines the Foundation's deputy director, Rafael Ruiz de Gauna. "The goal is for children not to be in institutions, but to be able to live independently with the best possible abilities," he explains. With the aim of minimizing these cases—prioritizing support for families to ensure children can stay and grow up in their family environment—the Som Veu project was launched in 2022, funded by the European Union's Next Generation fund and the Ministry of Social Rights. The initiative aims to develop a model for preventing institutionalization with proposals for psychological and socio-educational support for the entire family. The model was tested with nearly 600 children and young people and a hundred educational professionals from 39 socio-educational centers in nine regions across Spain.

Very rarely does the decision to remove custody reach the courts, and when it does, the ruling almost always favors the administration. Only 4% of biological families who have custody removed DGPPIA (the acronym for the General Directorate for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents, which replaces the DGAIA))withdraws guardianship of the children They appeal against the administrative measure that in many cases means that the child must be admitted to a foster home or live with uncles or grandparents. And, according to data from the DGAIA, in nine out of ten cases they lose the legal battle because the judge upholds the decision of a but this is a snapshot that coincides with the most recent data provided by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ): of the 10,000 withdrawals of guardianships that are issued throughout the State each year, a thousand families resort to the courts and only in 2% of cases are the destitutions revoked by Marta Tortosa and counselor of the Catalan Bar Council (Cicac), it must be taken into account that if there are so few judicial resources, it is because the affected families "are vulnerable, without resources," and cannot afford a lawyer to file a claim. "Court lawyers can only intervene when necessary, and an administrative procedure against the DGAIA is not considered that," he points out in an interview with ARA. Regarding the decision-making process for withdrawing custody, Gellida criticizes: "The administration investigates the matter, issues the resolution, and also executes the agreement. In a state of law, we have always kept in mind that the law is made by one person, executed by another, and the one who convicts is the judiciary. Even in the criminal sphere, there is one judge who instructs and another." He concludes: "At the DGAIA, they do everything; what we want is for there to be a separation of powers."