Barcelona host families programme is urgently seeking new volunteers to provide temporary care for children from vulnerable households.
The city’s Municipal Collaborative Families Service connects willing volunteers with families who lack a support network, offering crucial respite during times of need.
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According to a report in La Vanguardia, the service currently has only around fifty active families, while demand is significantly higher.
Consequently, officials are making a public appeal for more residents to join this vital community network. The programme offers flexible support, ranging from a few hours to weekends or even up to six months. Therefore, it aims to complement, not replace, parental care during temporary difficulties.
How Barcelona Host Families Programme Creates A Safety Net
The service acts as a crucial bridge for parents facing unexpected crises. For instance, one mother, Júlia, received a last-minute call for surgery and had no one to care for her six-year-old daughter. Fortunately, she remembered the Collaborative Families Service from when her child was a baby. Within hours, a volunteer family in her neighbourhood offered to help.
“There are families in Barcelona with little or no social network,” explains Sílvia Collado, head of the service. “They often face economic and social vulnerability, and need someone to temporarily care for their children.” The service carefully matches families referred by social services, schools, or health centres with approved volunteers. Moreover, the arrangement is always supervised and agreed upon by all parties.
This initiative highlights the broader challenges of social support in the city, a topic also explored in our coverage of housing concentration and its social impacts. The programme specifically seeks to support those isolated by circumstance.
Jaume and Eva have been volunteer hosts for eight years. Their journey began after seeing a poster at their children’s school. “It just fit with our way of doing things,” Jaume recalls. They were matched with a single father who needed occasional support due to work commitments. “It was as simple as putting an extra plate of pasta on the table,” he says, describing how the child became part of their family routine.
Today, that child is a teenager who still joins them for family meals and celebrations. “It’s also good for the father, because it allows him to breathe, to have some time for himself,” Jaume adds. They insist the commitment has required no major sacrifice, simply an extension of their existing family life.
The profile of a host family is diverse, including single people, couples with or without children, young adults, and retirees. All applicants undergo a validation process with social and psychological interviews and home visits. Critically, every member of the household must agree to participate. The service then seeks the best possible match for each child’s needs.
Before any arrangement begins, both families and the child agree on practical details. The service provides continuous follow-up and even has an emergency phone line for urgent situations outside office hours. This structured support ensures safety and clarity for everyone involved.
Anyone over 18 who passes the psychosocial assessment can apply by calling 932 915 966 or 932 915 967, or by emailing sfc@bcn.cat. The team will explain the process and answer any questions. Hosts can define their own availability, whether for mornings, evenings, weekends, school holidays, or specific periods.
If circumstances change, hosts simply need to inform the service professionals. The goal is to build a reliable, flexible network that makes Barcelona a more caring community. Ultimately, the Barcelona host families programme represents a powerful model of urban solidarity. It demonstrates how neighbourly support can directly address gaps in the social safety net, one family at a time.
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