Saregune : Community Technologies

1. Saregune
“visual reflexion”

2. Saregune
We offer training, blogs, technological support or any question
regarding new technologies, both to individuals and to associations
and groups.
“Community Technologies” Social movers of the neighbourhood
We work in the neighbourhood and with the neighbourhood. We
expect that Saregune becomes a reference point in the
neighbourhood, where anyone can go, without any architectural
barrier, without language barriers, without cultural barriers...
We want to be a part of the neighbourhood and we are working for it
Saregune to stop being regarded as a ghetto neighbourhood and become
considered as a rich and diverse neighbourhood, a neighbourhood
that moves.
What are we? What do we do?
Inclusive digital literacy
We are for everybody’s access to New Technologies as a source of
Association Sartu Álava training and information and therefore, we offer open and free
training, offering different courses and workshops, always paying
Saregune is placed in the Old Part of Vitoria-Gasteiz and is one of the attention to diversity.
projects of the Association Sartu Alava. We offer courses that go from Digital literacy to Blogs or photo
treatment. They are courses of 1h.30 min. sessions every day for 2,
The association SARTU-ÁLAVA is a private association without profit 3 or 4 weeks.
purpose, non-denominational and non-polytical, who works in the We think that access to training and, consequently, to information
sector of social service and whose objective is to fight against are a key for the personal development of people.
marginalisation and social exclusion.
We try to do it by:: Neighbourhood initiatives
- Paying special attention to the people in situation of the greatest We try to collaborate with the different activities and movements
social disadvantage. that occur in the neighbourhood. We take part in different
- Making available to them some resources of motivation, guidance, Platforms, we coordinate with other associations and groups... In
personal and technical qualification and qualification to have access short, we are for the collaborative and participative work as a
to the labour market in a continuous process of individual working tool in our daily work
accompaniment.
- Actively intervening in the social situations to build new, more
integrating possibilities.
Although our field of performance is the Province of Alava, we work
homogeneously in the entire Autonomous Community of the Basque How do we do it?
Country through our participation in SARTU Federation. We share
methodology, objectives, strategy and working bargaining with Employment and Training Plans (PEFs)
them. For all purposes, we act as one only body with joint A key part of all this is the 2 Employment and Training Plans, 24
management. people every year, distributed in 2PEFs, who are trained (650 hours)
and then part time employed for a whole year.
The dynamizing people, teaching the training and assisting the user
Meeting point people. These people have the space open from 9 in the morning
until 20.30 h, teaching 6 courses throughout the day.
Saregune is a space, open to The multimedia environment technicians, who manage, create and
everyone in which we use IT as an maintain different Web services, edit videos, elaborate posters or
excuse to break different barriers; anything the different associations and groups ask for.
digital, neighbourhood, cultural...

3. Free Software and Web 2.0
To be able to achieve our objectives we only use Free Software, open And we commit 100% for the philosophy of Web 2.0, which has as
and cost free software, accessible for everybody. At present, our key elements the participation, accessibility and collaborative work.
machines work with Ubuntu, we use the office-computing suite We coordinate with Google Calendar, we have materials in Slidehsare,
Open Office.org, we treat photographs with Gimp, we make design our photos are in Flickr and Picasa,...
with Inkscape, browse with Firefox...
For whom? city, 17 % of the population is immigrant (registered in the census),
unemployment, housing problems, lack of public spaces and
services, etc. which hade made it become an unattractive place to
live or from the commercial point of view.
Saregune is a space open to the citizens, whose only requirement is
motivation and to be willing to get trained. On the other hand, the institutional proposals of intervention,
focused on the business reactivation and the recovery of the rich
The people who come to register in the courses only need a user historical patrimony as a touristic motor, have taken social aspects
name and a keyword, the other data we ask for are merely for to the background and are not enough for the necessary social
statistics (date of birth, sex, postal code and country of origin). revitalisation.
In this context, Saregune appears as a project that, taking the break
Where? of the digital divide as the centre of interest, is aiming at breaking
other group of “divides”: intercultural, inter-neighbour, inter-
associative, cultural, educational, relational and collaborational;
where coming closer to technologies and using them is an
We are placed in the Old Part of Vitoria-Gasteiz, one of the parts in instrument to overcome the other “divides”, from the approach of
the city with the highest risk of degradation, where the highest the social change.
number of situations of social and economic problems occur:
commercial and service decline, the number of people receiving Basic
Benefits and supported by social services doubles the rest of the

4. With which objectives?
Socio-labour insertion
One of our great objectives is the socio-labour insertion of the
people in unfavourable situations, so that they can acquire
competences, knowledge and skills for interpersonal relation
allowing their access to the standardised labour market.
Diversity
We are for diversity, offering any person who comes to Saregune the
possibility to train or become a part of any of the employment and
training plans. training to the people that come to Saregune and the second of
We are working more specifically with the groups or with people creating blogs and poster works for the associations.
who ask us from their association, as new technologies offer us the
possibility to meet perfectly each person’s needs. Both plans are 650 hours training and offer a part-time employment
for one year, so at present, there are 24 people being formed and 20
employed.
Breaking the digital divide
We think that these days, it is essential to get into the train of new In the configuration of the groups, we make a special effort in
technologies, thus favouring access to any kind of information, making the group of young people participating represent the
services, resources... present population range in the neighbourhood: languages, cultural
In Saregune, we work with people, without making distinctions, habitudes, gender, socio-culture-economic level, training level, etc.
fitting their situation and trying to meet their needs. We aim at their acting as bridges with their different gropus of
reference to favour the attraction to the Centre and the technologies
for as many people as possible, respecting their idiosincrasy and
culture, giving example of respect to diversity and intercultural
approach.
Their passage by Saregune is aimed at qualifying them technically
and offering them a working experience boosting their personal
insertion itineraries and favouring working possibilities in a sector
with prospects. In this regard, there is an important internal
educational work, aimed at encouraging the necessary personal
changes to ensure the efficacy of each individual process.
This educational work starts in the recruitment, where, coordinating
with the Social and Community services in the area, we give priority
to people whose participation might mean a turning point in their
process.
They start playing new roles that help them break the labels and
Employment and stereotypes with which they are often classed in their environment,
starting playing roles of support to community, they become
multiplyer of contents: After receiving the training, they become
Training Plans trainers for the citicens, changing their role as trainees to that of
trainers.
In both training-working processes we work on aspects aimed at
Every year, we start 2 training and employment plans: one on improving a group of competences and attitudes that might be
“Specialists in social dynamism of the new technologies”; and the generalised to any kind of job. Besides, they are experienced and
other on “Multimedia environment technicians”. used in the stage of employment, where they have the opportunity
The first group is mainly in charge of preparing and teaching the to fit them and/or to strengthen them depending on their
experience and behaviour.

5. that of trainer on computing applications and related aspects.
They are the following:
7. Ability to work on the job in a responsible manner regarding
1. Ability and attitude to have a positive and realistic self-image, working safety and health, adopting the necessary measures to
based on the knowledge, analysis and willingness to improve minimise the working risks inherent to the job.
continuously their own abilities and limits (Self-esteem)
8. Ability to carry out a business plan and its feasibility, justifying
2. Ability and attitude to identify solutions to different problems and learning the system to start a business.
autonomously, making the necessary decisions, suggesting ideas
and carrying them out, with permanent willingness to find new
alternatives in a quick, practical and efficacious manner (Autonomy
and Initiative). Training-Employment Plan as:
3. Ability and attitude to work with other people in order to achieve “Multimedia environment technicians”
a joint objective, establishing an efficacious relation and being able
to solve jointly the problems that might appear, assuming the limits 1. Ability to work on UNIX-based operative systems: GNU/linux
and functions of each one. (Team Work). (Unbutu.
4. Ability and attitude of active listening, assimilating and 2. Ability for the advanced use of computing tools
transmitting verbal and non-verbal messages, in order to establish
the suitable and efficient personal relations to meet certain social 3. Ability for the video and audio edition with free software tools.
and working objectives (Communication ability and Social abilities).
4. Ability to use advanced browse and search tools
5. Ability and attitude to valorise, assume and execute actions
actively, according to the established standards and constantly in 5. Ability for the advanced use of protocols from nets and internet
time and coherently with the consequences of the decision making, (POP/SMTP/IMAP, HTTP, FTP, Telnet, SSH, TCP/IP).
until they reach the objectives set. (Responsibility, Commitment,
Constancy). 6. Ability to create web sites and vertical portals, dynamised
through emerging technologies, based on free and social software
(CMS, BLOGS, WIKI).
Training-Employment Plan as:
7. Advanced ability to use tools of design, programming and layout
“Specialists in social dynamism of new of web contents, paying attention to the possibility of access and
use of the designed web sites.
technologies”
8. Ability of advanced use of internet security tools and the
1. Ability to assist, with the suitable cultural skills and specificities, protocols for data protection in the net.
a diverse and intercultural public.
9. Ability and knowledge to work in conditions of responsibility and
2. Ability to work in Unix-based environments (Unbutu and Debian). minimising the risks in the job.
3. Ability to know internet and the different possibilities of its 10. Ability to carry out a business plan and its feasibility, justifying
technologies and services 2.0, both for people and for groups. and learning the system to start a business.
4. Ability to work with audio and video edition and treatment
software and digital image.
5. Ability to support, work and train on new technologies with social
and methodological skills favouring an easy approach to new
technologies for people and groups from different social, cultural,
ethnic and language origin.
6. Ability to forecast and minimise the possible environmental
impact that might be generated by the job or similar jobs such as

6. User people Hezigune :
In 2010 (January-July), 57 courses have been taught with different
subjects; using Free Software and Web 2.0 applications as a tool and Work with associations and groups
offering a total of 1,122 training hours. The most frequently
demanded course has been Introduction to computing. From Hezigune, we have consolidated a not-formal lifelong learning
space. With it, we will try to strengthen a continuous and sustained
process to implement the use of technologies in the community
dynamism and participation. It is an activity aimed at encouraging
I the interest in taking active part in the construction of a more
comfortable social environment, without exclusions and to generate
a rich and active network for the solution of the different problems
existing at local level in the Old Part of Vitoria-Gasteiz.
The role of technologies in the social dynamism is becoming very
t is worth underlining that the ages of the people coming to important. It plays an important role in the people training and
Saregune are very diverse, thus favouring inter-generational organisation and social initiative movements, allowing a responsible
relations. Ages from 31 to 50 are the most common. use of the new technologies as another tool to create and have
access to information and culture, a communication, exchange and
Regarding their residence, we can see it clearly that more than 63% participation tool. Technology is not a target, but a mean,
(383 people) of the people coming live in the Old part or close contributing positively to get other objectives.
neighbourhoods, thus complying with our objective of promoting Hezigune is open from Monday to Friday, from 16.00h to 20.30 h. As
inter-neighbour relations. all our services, it is also free.
Other of the data to underline are inter-cultural relations generated
in the center, as shown in the following grid, the people who have Training
come to Saregune come from 41 different countries.
We can design courses “à la carte” depending on the needs and
features of the people integrating the group. In this case, the trainer
will be the one coordinating this space.
In 2010, 310 hours of training have been taught to almost 400
people, of which, 59% are men and 41% women.
The group of introduction to computing and blog creation are the
most demanded courses
This generates standardised crossed interrelations taking as a base
the inter-culture.

7. Web projects The process usually has several stages: First meetings to know each
other and to work on what they want to create, which kind of tool
As we can see, there are blogs or tools of any kind, some Webs are they want or need. Basing on these first meetings, we elaborate
spaces created starting from scratch, such as blogune; and some several drafts to work on until we get the “ideal” tool.
others are spaces developed on Wordpress.org After the tool creation process, we offer the suitable training for
In the following map, we can see the blogs and Webs carried out their needs, so that they learn to use it and be autonomous.
since 2006, some in external domains and some others in our own Some of the important projects we have elaborated are:
domains, such as elkarteak.net, tieneblog.net or badubloga.net,
which we offer to the associations to create their own sub-domains.

8. Associative portal : elkarteak.info
This portal is one of Saregune’s “jewels”. It is aimed at being a useful Blogune
tool for the associative movement in Vitoria-Gasteiz. We want it to This blog is the main tool in the following campaign of: I want a blog!
become a reflection of diversity, richness, dynamism and diversity of It is a blog collecting all the information for the associations
our local associative movement. interested in creating a blog: for example, the steps to follow...
The objectives it pursues are: With this resource, we want to transmit to the associations the
Create a communication channel between society and the possibility of creating a Web space in a simple and free manner, with
associative movement. the continuous support and surveillance of a group of people trained
Make the associative activity existing in our city become visible. for this purpose.
Energise the associative movement, encouraging collaboration,
coordination and shared information, in the development of
initiatives and projects.
Neighbourhood television : auzo.tv
We have created auzo.tv taking profit of the easy and free
availability of the necessary technical means to make it visible and
extensible in the internet. Neighbourhood
Saregune represents an activity different to the present trend of
With it, we want to contribute to the citizens’ empowerment and
increase their possibilities to take part in the (re)construction of “ghettisation” of activities and problem situation in the area,
cohabitation spaces, offering tools of active, direct participation and regenerating it with new and leading activities, so it contributes
always from an educational approach to the community in general directly to:
(through individuals and through collective initiatives). - Change the perception in the neighbourhood of the trend to
The three great objectives we aim at reaching in the long term by degradation. They feel something is starting to change and they
starting it are: might recover their illusion and dynamism.
1. Create a joint neighbourhood identity, of cohabitation space, - Favour other kind of business and activity “in positive”, made real
mainly to fight against the perceived social injustice situations. in a different and new project like this one. (Not all the activities
2. Break the general belief that things are like this and cannot be should be commercial or touristic).
changed.
3. Generate a collective consciousness of the fact that there are It is placed in a busy place, very visible for the people coming to the
some possibilities, resources, creativity and people willing enough Old part through one of its natural ways of entrance. This boosts its
to change them. dissemination among people living in other neighbourhoods and
areas of the city and contributes changing, positively, the perception
of this area.
Saregune is thought to contribute, as another resource, to trigger
the work developed by other agents intervening in the place:
- Supporting the associative movement, to offer our space as a
reference place to benefit, encourage and offer the availability of the
technologies in the daily work: internal management (office
computing, technical knowledge of the computers...),
communications (electronic mail, web page, management programs
of shared work...), generation of virtual and real debate and
reflection spaces on shared matters and problems, fitting their
particular matters.
- Collaborating transversely with existing institutional initiatives or
future ones, strengthening and benefiting from the efforts for the
improvement of the particular social situations in the
neighbourhood.

9. It tries to encourage a presence in the virtual world of the business
activity in the area, contributing to improve and enhance a new and
different image, linking the social aspects with the cultural,
touristic... ones, finding spaces of shared interest contributing to
the improvement of the general situation of the neighbourhood.
Some of the collaborations are:
1. Amanda Platform
Amanda Platform was created in 2003 as a meeting of ideas,
approaches and experiences about the cohabitation of cultures in
Vitoria-Gasteiz. In it people with different working projects in
different fields in the Old Part come together. All are linked to formal
and not-formal education and related with the wellcome and
integration of people that have come to this area in conditions of
disprotection and unequality.
At present, the groups participating are Gasteiz Herri Ikastetxea
school, the Parents Association in this school, Social Services from
Campillo, through the street education program, Saregune, Hegoa
and the department of Didactics of the Teachers Training School.
We find it necessary to create a joint space to integrate and
articulate the different perspectives and the different lines of
performance and make them become a global project to reinforce and
consolidate the family and the school educational effort (community
educational plan).
2. Plataforma de Mayores (Platform
for the Elder)
From the Platform of bodies and services moving the resources
allocated to the elder people in the Centre Area (Medieval part, Urban
Expansion Area and Coronación) we have been working for some time
in the creation of proposals and activities to promote a model of
active, participative ageing, committed with the community they
belong to.
Our main objective is to configurate a network of social agents who
are in social, cultural, ludic, community and/or spiritual resources for
the elder in order to work coordinately and search for active ageing,
understood as a process to optimise the opportunities of
participation, health, welfare and safety as the cycle of life goes on
(WHO), taking into account that we are in a particular physical,
community and social environment as the Centre Area in Vitoria-
Gasteiz.

10. Impacts at community 6. It helps changing negative stereotypes of the neighbourhood,
both towards the people from the neighbourhood employed, whose
level role becomes one of community service and for the user people, who,
in this environment, can show their knowledge (of other languages,
use of technologies...) and break many prejudices regarding the
Apart from contributing to the improvement of the personal and foreigners and people from other ethnic groups and their respective
working situation of those taking direct part in the Employment- cultural habitudes.
Training Plans, at community level, it offers very significant
elements: 7. It socialises, demystifies and makes horizontal the role of
technology helping regarding its social role and use, not only
1. It allows the existence and work of a positive and friendly activity commercial. The use of the free software in the process helps
with direct and positive influence on the social dynamism of the deepening into the value of collaboration, the shared creation of
neighbourhood: encouraging personal interactions that create new knowledge and its contribution to the free cultural creation.
links of inter-neighbour relation and prevent situations of social
conflict, making information and knowledge come closer to those
who need them, attracting new transits of people with different and
new interests, compared with the previously existing ones (much
more negative)...
2. It generates new working expectancies in the young people in the
neighbourhood, who feel they can have some working possibilities in
the short-medium term in a sector with prospects. In the case of
Saregune, this has meant that, from the first year of work, we have
had an average of 60 candidatures for each Employment plan, with
possibilities for 10 people.
3. In many cases, this has involved a return to standardised learning
of people who, after school failure, had lost all hope and confidence
in the educational system, by generating new training possibilities
through the supported self-learning, continuous training and
lifelong learning linked to technologies.
4. It contributes to offer new insertion alternatives as a resource for
the Base Social Services in the area in their social and community
work, providing feasible alternatives to progress and improve the
conditions of some of the people they assist, who might be
proposed as candidates to participate in some of the processes.
5. It boosts the creation and consolidation of a rich and
interconnected social capital. Basing on the technology needs,
synergies and groups of common interest are generated, favouring
the approach and the shared work of the social initiative.