History

The origins of the Vallès Oriental Private Foundation (FVO) go back to 1965, when a group of parents, concerned for the quality of life and future of their children with learning difficulties, decided to establish the County Association of Parents of People with Learning Difficulties in Granollers to promote care, recuperation and education for them. The statutes of the new body were approved on 28 June that year and it was later registered with the Directorate General of Law and Legal Bodies of the Ministry of Justice of the Government of Catalonia.

From the start, the management board of this non-profit association, chaired first by Josep Pons i Carrencà and later by Xavier Quincoces i Boter, saw that, to ensure the success of its future projects, it needed to hire qualified professional staff. This had to include both care workers to help users and management, who needed to work with the outlook of a private company.

With this in mind, in September 1991, Juan M. Monsalve Fernández was hired as managing director. His duties include running the different areas of the institution and undertaking new actions as part of future projects once they have been approved by the association’s standing committee.

These actions are included in the action plan containing the lines of work corresponding to the period 1992-1994. The first measure the organisation took was to set up a more flexible body – a Foundation – which was considered the most effective solution in legal terms.

On 17 October 1992, at an extraordinary assembly held in Granollers, an important agreement was made by absolute majority to contribute to improving the management of the association’s interests and activities. It resolved to set up a private foundation: the Vallès Oriental Private Foundation for People with Learning Difficulties. The foundation was established on a permanent, not-for-profit basis entirely for social purposes with the aim of caring for people with learning difficulties.

Xavier Quincoces Employment Centre

The Xavier Quincoces Employment Centre began in 1991 with the assessment of the first seven users and in 1992 the adult EVO (Assessment and Guidance Team) assessed 41 more people as members of the centre. The main group of 48 users who formed part of the Employment Centre came from the same workshop, which, after the publication of the Decree in 1987, was reorganised in April 1992 to form the Valldoriolf Workshop Employment Centre (now called the Xavier Quincoces Employment Centre).

It was not until 1996, with the publication of Decree 336/1996, that the Employment Inclusion Service (SOI) was regulated. This was for adults with learning difficulties who were not members of the Employment Centre and could not be hired by the FVO Special Work Centre because of their problems. They went under the misnomer “transitionals” because, legally, they were in a transitional situation under the regulations that covered them.

About 70 people joined the SOI to give the Employment Centre the two services it now has: the Occupational Therapy Service (STO) and the Employment Inclusion Service (SOI).

The renovation of the Occupational Centre’s facilities has made it possible to look after a wide range of adults with learning difficulties.

Xavier Quincoces Special Work Centre

The Xavier Quincoces Special Work Centre, governed by royal decree 2273/1985 of 4 December, is intended for people with learning difficulties with the productive capability to obtain an employment contract. It is also a preliminary step towards acquiring the skills needed to join the ordinary work of work.

To achieve these aims, work is carried out to adapt the employment conditions (physical and technical support) to compensate for the problems of the person with learning difficulties, adjusting jobs to people’s characteristics, improving specific machinery and ensuring ergonomic design in the distribution of tasks.

The FVO’s commitment to integrate people with learning difficulties in social and employment terms has been firm and constant. It has expanded the range of services it offers and the number of jobs specifically for people with disabilities every year.

Valldoriolf residential centre for people with severe learning difficulties

One of the initial aims of the County Association for Parents of People with Learning Difficulties was to offer a residential service for people with severe learning difficulties in Granollers and the county. The service was intended to house people who, for various reasons, could not receive the care they needed in their own family environment. To make this project happen, the association’s management board began contacts with the Government of Catalonia’s Minister for Social Welfare Antoni Comas i Balldellou to suggest the construction of a home for people with serious learning difficulties. After several meetings, the proposal was taken up by the minister, once the process for carrying out the project had been approved. Among its agreements, the association pledged to assign the site where the home and day centre were to be built to the Catalan Care and Social Services Institute (ICASS), responsible to the Department of Social Welfare.

The general assembly held by the association on 10 February 1990 unanimously adopted the agreement to “assign to the Catalan Institute for Care and Social Services (ICASS) of the Government of Catalonia 15,812.5 m²in the north of the property within the municipality of Roca del Vallès, belonging to this Board, to be used to build a centre for people with severe learning difficulties under the following conditions: the assignment will be for a period of 99 years, provided it is used for the care of people with learning difficulties and people from the county of Vallès Oriental will have preference for admission”.

Construction work then began, to be completed in the summer of 1994. While the work was going on, the Vallès Oriental Private Foundation for people with Learning Difficulties (FVO) was set up by the unanimous wish of the County Association for Parents of People with Learning Difficulties, which assigned the foundation all its assets, including the property where ICASS was given the right to build the home and day centre.

The new centre, built on a flat site measuring 2,700 m², came into operation on 5 October 1994 and was opened on 26 November that year by the minister Antoni Comas.

The centre is entered in the Register of Social Services Organisations, Services and Establishments of the Government of Catalonia’s Social Welfare Department with the number F-13,022. The property and movable goods inside the centre belong to ICASS but it is managed by the FVO, which was awarded the contract to run the centre under a public tender process on 25 July 1994.

Valldoriolf specialist care centre

The new centre, built on a flat site measuring 2,700 m², came into operation on 5 October 1994 and was opened on 26 November that year by the minister Antoni Comas.

The centre is entered in the Register of Social Services Organisations, Services and Establishments of the Government of Catalonia’s Social Welfare Department with the number F-13,022. The movable and immovable goods making it up belong to ICASS but they are managed by the FVO, which was awarded the contract to run the centre under a public tender process on 25 July 1994.

Accommodation Service

The Accommodation Service was set up in 1993 considering the needs detected among users of the day care centre to offer a solution to housing and care problems for autonomous people with learning difficulties. The FVO accommodation arose from the need to provide alternative housing for people who could not continue to live in their original homes or who were without a family or stable home. It was intended to provide a response to the legitimate right of any person to choose where to live and to enjoy the lifestyle they consider most appropriate to achieve the highest standards of welfare for themselves.

The first accommodation, the Vallès Home in Carrer Rosselló, was purchased in April 1992 with a subsidy of 10 million pesetas granted by ICASS and a mortgage of four million to complete the purchase price. It opened in January 1993 and currently houses eight users. The two flats initially making up the Font Verda Home were opened in February 1997. A third flat was opened in March 1998 in Passeig de la Muntanya. And the Jaume Gregori Home, which provides higher levels of care, opened in October 2004. The Jaume Anfruns i Janer home, the first centre outside the city of Granollers, was opened in June 2010, this home, in the Can Sabater development at Sant Eulàlia de Ronçana, has been providing service to 22 people with learning difficulties. The Jaume Anfruns i Janer home was made possible by a donation of land by the backer Jaume Anfruns i Janer. The construction project and facility were entirely paid for by the foundation. The El Cinquantenari home began operations in the 2016, providing service to 24 people with disabilities in the city of Granollers. The latest home opened by the FVO was El Cinquantenari 2, opened in Septembre 2019, providing service to 22 people with disabilities in the city of Granollers, in front of the El Cinquantenari home. in the city of Granollers. The latest home opened by the FVO was El Cinquantenari 2, opened in Septembre 2019, providing service to 22 people with disabilities in the city of Granollers, in front of the El Cinquantenari home.