Impulso Joven.Programme at the Quatre Camins Youth Prison (Barcelona) [Finalizado Octubre 2025]

“Impulso Joven” is a project carried out at the Youth Prison (La Roca del Vallés, Barcelona) whose main objective is to help young people develop social skills and conflict management skills, aimed at improving their relationships with their families, their “peer” group and the community. The programme promotes a change of stance in young people that supports their process of reintegration into the community once they leave the prison, whether on open regime (third grade), on parole or on final release.

This project was launched in May 2015 as a result of collaborative work between Fundación Salud y Comunidad and the Secretariat for Penitentiary Services, Rehabilitation and Juvenile Justice of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The collaboration with the Department of Justice arose from a needs assessment carried out by both parties and has resulted in an innovative initiative in which young people become the protagonists of the action.

The project’s methodology is based on accompanying young people, which involves designing individual pathways that take each young person’s requests into account, in order to improve family interaction, strengthen social bonds, improve conflict resolution, foster and promote social inclusion and career guidance, and reduce the likelihood of reoffending.

Throughout this process, coordination with the professionals from the prison’s multidisciplinary teams is key.

The “Impulso Joven” programme includes three possible subprogrammes or pathways to respond to each young person’s particular circumstances. The three subprogrammes are:

1. Families subprogramme.
2. Subprogramme to improve relational competences and skills.
3. Access subprogramme (job placement pathway)

Specific objectives

• To promote the acquisition of skills and competences in young people’s interpersonal relationships with the group and with their families.
• To strengthen group cohesion to make coexistence among young inmates easier.
• To address emotional aspects that help achieve personal goals and challenges (self-confidence, autonomy, etc.) and support the process of social inclusion.
• To encourage the establishment of links with the network of existing community resources and social programmes.