The municipal Office of Information and Social Attention (OAS) of La Laguna has assisted more than 3,000 people in its first four months of operation, of which more than two thirds have been women. A fact that “confirms gender inequality in the social sphere, also evident in the local unemployment figures, and that women are the main ones in charge of finding support for the needs of their families,” said the Councilor for Social Welfare, Rubens Ascanio, an area that has promoted this municipal resource, which has the support of the Ministry of Social Rights of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Concerted Plan.
The office, which opened its doors in June of this year, works as a first line of orientation and initial assessment to speed up consultations and procedures for people who come to the municipal Social Services for the first time or have not been present for more than a year. make use of them, reduce the waiting list in the Social Work Units (UTS), provide solutions to people with difficulties in accessing online procedures and offer the best and fastest possible care to neighbors.
This service “is one of the steps we are taking for the comprehensive improvement of Social Services in La Laguna, with a budget increase that has allowed us to exceed 120 euros of social spending per inhabitant, the largest of the large municipalities in the Canary Islands, and with a strategy that includes the reinforcement of the team of professionals, the modernization of the management systems and the commitment to cooperation, to unite efforts and respond to the situation of socio-economic crisis resulting from the pandemic ”, highlighted Ascanio.
The most frequent demands include basic benefits of food, accommodation, social support, and information and advice. In addition, the area develops specific care policies for the elderly, in a situation of dependency, families with minors or people with disabilities.
From the 309 people attended in June, this new service has been registering a notable increase, with 813 in September and 756 in October. By age, OAS statistics reveal that the groups with the most applicants are those aged 46 to 55 years (21.4%), over 70 (12.48%) and 56 to 65 years (17.4%) , while people under 25 years of age represent 9.08% of all users. In addition, 68.9% of the total number of people served have been women.
Rubens Ascanio highlighted the area’s concern about the feminization of poverty and defended that “if we want to put an end to it and combat inequality, we must also transform gender relations and the social structures, norms and values that determine them, a commitment that we have acquired in this group of Government and that has a great implication of the Area of Equality and LGTBIQ, that Idaira Afonso directs ”.
In fact, according to the latest unemployment data from the municipality, relative to the month of October, “the differences between men and women remain at 44.04% for them and 55.96% for them,” said the mayor.
