The Bellvitge Esplai Club has been awarded the Leisure Education Awards of the Carulla Foundation, in the trajectory modality.
| {youtube}l6SMh8y1fk8?showinfo=0&controls=0|260|146|0{/youtube} |
| Video of the 45th anniversary of CE Bellvitge |
 |
| Joana Martínez and Miquel Ariño, young monitors of CE Bellvitge, addressed a few words to the audience on behalf of all the awarded entities |
 |
| From left to right, Toni Reig, Director General of Youth of the Generalitat, Xavi Castellano, head of CE Bellvitge, Joana Martínez and Miquel Ariño, young monitors of CE Bellvitge |
 |
| CE Bellvitge team and young people |
The Bellvitge Esplai Club (L’Hospitalet) has been awarded with the Awards for Education in Leisure of the Carulla Foundation, in the trajectory modality, for its 45 years working in favor of education and the defense of children’s rights. The Bellvitge Esplai Club, which welcomes 500 children and young people, is a benchmark for educational associations and leisure education in Catalonia, the forerunner of a model of daily esplai, with an option for socio-educational work with criteria of quality and equity and was the initial seed of a great social and educational project at national level that is Fundesplai, the Fundació Catalana de l’Esplai. The ceremony of the XXI Edition of the Awards for Education in Leisure of the Carulla Foundation was held on Monday, March 16 at the Palau Robert in Barcelona.
The other winners were Associació Club d’Esplai La Florida (L’Hospitalet de Llobregat), Centre Parroquial Sant Vicenç (Sabadell), Associació La Rotllana (Badalona), Associació La Riborquestra (Barcelona) and Acció Escolta de Catalunya (Barcelona)
45 years of education in leisure and social inclusion
The Club was born in 1969 in Bellvitge, a neighborhood of L’Hospitalet, which was being built a few years ago to accommodate thousands of people from all over Spain. At that time, urban conditions and lack of services were very deficient. In that context, a group of young people started making children’s films on Sundays. Shortly afterwards, they organized the camps and did leisure activities every day in basements that flooded when it rained. The residents’ movement halted the construction of more houses and a partial plan was approved in 1977 that reserved green spaces and facilities. One of these was a plot of land to build a facility for children and young people. Five years later, in 1982, with democracy already in place, the Club’s new facility was inaugurated with the cession of the site from the City Council, funding from the Generalitat and the signing of agreements with both administrations.
Currently, the Bellvitge Esplai Club is an entity that develops with more than 500 children and young people a year activities ranging from the most traditional esplai , to others focused on the school environment or training. The Bellvitge Recreation Club does not close any month of the year, because in August it organizes a summer camp to respond to the needs of children in situations of social vulnerability.
Seed of a project of national scope: Fundesplai
The Bellvitge Esplai Club is the origin of many things: it is a benchmark for educational associations and leisure education in Catalonia, a model of daily recreation reference in Catalonia and the seed of many esplais centers in L’Hospitalet, Baix Llobregat and Catalonia. Indeed, the entity was the seed of the social and educational project that is Fundesplai (Fundació Catalana de l’Esplai), one of the main references of esplai education in our country, a significant actor in the third sector in Catalonia and an important ally of the educational community and public administrations. Last year, Fundesplai’s action reached nearly 200,000 people.