Next September, the FCB Foundation will open its first XICS centre here in Barcelona. The project is being set up in conjunction with the Barcelona City Council and the foundation of the La Caixa savings bank.
The project to set up the latest centre in the FCB Foundation’s XICS network – and the
first in Barcelona - was unveiled last Tuesday. The network was started in 2006 and there are
already 12 XICS centres around the developing world, all of them aimed at helping children out of
poverty and deprivation through the medium of sports and education. The launch was attended by Club
president, Joan Laporta, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, the director general of the FCB
Foundation, Marta Segú and the deputy director of the La Caixa foundation, Elisa Duran.
Support for 80 children
The new centre will be housed in an existing secondary school (the IES Ferran
Tallada in the Carmel district of Barcelona) and will cater for 80 boys and girls aged between 10
and 16, all of whom come from vulnerable and underprivileged backgrounds. The aim will be to
provide support for these children in a broad range of areas, including education, sports,
computing, family relationships, psychological support etc. The children will be able to attend
classes outside of the normal school timetable.
Over the next few months, the facilities will be renovated in time for the opening in
September 2010. The centre will have a classroom, three offices and two multi-propose areas, as
well as having access to two extra classrooms in the school.
“A crowning achievement”
Joan Laporta told us: “This is a crowning achievement. I am very satisfied
because the idea of re-thinking the Foundation has been a success. This is the last XICS centre
that I will unveil. I’ve travelled all over the world taking the heart of Barca with me. This
unveiling means that Barca is continuing to grow”.
For his part, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, was equally delighted: “Sport has
always been important in the life of the city. Today we are seeing the social side of a club that
wins league titles on the pitch but that also helps to win other leagues in our suburbs. I am very
proud that before coming here to Barcelona, you have taken the XICS programme around the
world”.
Objectives of the centre
The main objective of the new centre will be to help prevent vulnerable children
aged 10 to 16 from dropping out of school and becoming marginalized. The centre will provide a
programme of health and educational support and encourage a healthy lifestyle and access to sport.
The work of the centre will also extend to the families of the children.
The centre will also provide training for pupils at the host secondary school as well as from
other schools around Barcelona in different aspects of social work and physical education.
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IES Ferran Tallada
The school provides the usual range of secondary education plus practical training in social work.
It will be the first school in Barcelona to host a XICS centre and will join a network of 12
existing centres located in Morocco, Senegal, Brazil, Ecuador, India and Mexico –two centres
each-, Mali, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Catalonia (Santa Coloma de Gramenet) and Barcelona.
The project was set up by the current Board led by Joan Laporta in 2006. The FCB Foundation
works in conjunction with local organizations and local authorities and currently helps some 10,000
children around the world.