Caritas is an international confederation arising from the social doctrine of the Church and focusing on the dignity of individuals. Its objectives are the fight against poverty and injustice.

Cáritas Bizkaia directs its action to those People in situations of exclusion or risk of exclusion giving priority to those most neglected who find no answer or support in society. We accompany people throughout their processes of social inclusion so that they can develop a decent life and we speak out against situations of injustice, working for the rights of all people.

We are an organization deployed throughout the entire territory, through interdisciplinary intervention teams that accompany and coordinate the activity of the different projects in each of the areas of the historic territory of Bizkaia. In this way we are able to deploy integral social actions which are close at hand to individuals and communities, hence allowing us to adapt to the different characteristics of each environment.

In the framework of our Social action model (SAM), we understand social exclusion as a process in which factors operate such as access to assets and resources, social network, health, autonomy and a meaning to life. Factors that act in an interrelated and complex way and which manifest themselves at individual, community and structural levels.

We focus the intervention on the potential and capacity of the individual. We are committed to significant, innovative actions, promoting commitment and social solidarity and acting in an integral and systemic way; combining all the resources of the organization, the environment and individuals to support the improvement processes. And we do this through:

• Support and mentoring (effective-affective refuge, delivering intervention based on mutual commitments; structuring the intervention through social support).
• Diagnosis and individualized intervention adapted to each reality/person (management and dialogue of cases).
• Design of integral interventions (involvement of different projects and other agents-entities, valuation and planning-insight from a local perspective).

Consistent with the above, the mission of the Area of Employment and Solidarity Economy is that people who are in situations of exclusion or vulnerability have access to decent employment, favouring processes to improve personal potential and developing social resources and social measures aimed at social insertion.

This is done through information and general guidance about resources (employment centre), training for employment (technical skills with and without a qualification), initial learning socio-labour and pre-employment workshops (training of socio-labour skills, in some cases , basic training), guidance on finding work for the self-employed or a job (Itinerary design and mentoring), labour intermediation (placement agency and job search activities) and promoting social and solidarity economy projects.

Cáritas Bizkaia belongs to and actively participates in the structuring of social action networks and in the tertiary sector, such as the Alternative and Solidarity Economy Network of REAS Euskadi, EAPN – Network in the fight against poverty and social exclusion, Harresiak Apurtuz – Euskadi NGO Coordinator for support to immigrants, Hirekin -Association for social initiatives and intervention entities in Euskadi and the NGDO Coordinator in Euskadi.

Among other acknowledgements, the entity has been declared to be of Public Interest by the Basque Government. We are an entity collaborating with Equality between Women and Men for Emakunde and we hold the Diploma in Advanced Management from Euskalit (Excellence Awards Entity).