Problem addressed

The Valencia Region has gone from having 12.3% of its population living in vulnerable neighbourhoods in 1991 to 43% in 2011, the highest rate in mainland Spain. The regional observatory data shows that in 2020 the most affected province was Alicante, with 26.31% of its population residing in areas of low vulnerability, 33.09% in areas of medium vulnerability and 12.19% in areas of integral vulnerability; in total, almost three quarters of the provincial population. Urban Vulnerability is a Public Health problem encouraged by urban segregation, a process of exclusion that confines populations with disadvantaged situations in specific territories. It is a direct result of the real estate market, in which we find a great disparity in housing prices depending on their location. The ecosystems generated by this concentration of urban problems have a negative impact on the health and well-being of their inhabitants. The social aspects identified as the most important determinants of health are unemployment, educational level and housing. Poor housing is a social determinant of health that is not sufficiently taken into account. The presence of humidity, the lack of resources to maintain an adequate temperature or the lack of natural light increase the risk of respiratory problems, difficulties in falling asleep or the appearance of musculoskeletal disorders. In addition, the residential situation has a direct impact on mental health and conditions the availability of social support networks. In these contexts, it is very difficult to generate social capital, social networks deteriorate and health worsens. For all these reasons, urban vulnerability and the tools to measure and tackle it can represent a great potential for innovation in public health, since they allow the monitoring of several fundamental social determinants of health. This idea is particularly indebted to the report "Social Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts", edited by Wilkinson and Marmot in 1998.

Innovative solution

The greatest difference between Asertos and other urban regeneration or community development programmes, is that we assert that the analysis of the problems and their impact on people only offers us a partial reality. In order to understand these ecosystems from their complexity, it is essential to complement the needs-centred view (deficit or pathogenic approach) with a view that focuses on strengths (salutogenic approach). The Salutogenic Theory offers us a theoretical framework from the paradigm of health creation, which we can operationalize by means of the asset model. On the other hand, we consider the Diffusion of innovations Theory as the framework in which to project social change. Change moves at the speed of trust. That is why if we aspire to change people's behaviours, we have to foster trusting relationships. In order to bring about social change, an active search for positive deviants is needed, understood as individuals or groups whose unusual but successful behaviours and strategies have enabled them to find better solutions to problems than their neighbours, who face the same challenges and barriers and have access to the same resources. Discovering, connecting and movilizing local resources with these innovators, attracts the "early adopters", who copy this change in behaviour. These two groups add up to 14% of the estimated program beneficiary population living in the neighbourhoods where we will work, which, following the innovation diffusion model, is the minimum critical mass needed to achieve long-term sustainable social change. We owe these ideas to the work of Mauricio L. Miller, described in his book "The Alternative: Most of what You Believe about Poverty is Wrong" (2017), and the work of the ABCD Institute and Nurture Development, described with particular clarity in the book “The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighborhoods” (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2022), by Cormac Russell and John McKnight.

Inspiration for the project draws on several pioneering approaches across Europe and beyond. Notably, the participatory urban regeneration work led by Quatorze in France, particularly in the reabsorption of informal settlements and the co-production of the built environment with local residents. The methodology of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), promoted globally by Nurture Development, also significantly influenced the project’s focus on community strengths and bottom-up mobilisation. Furthermore, the tradition of Housing Associations in Northern Europe, together with more recent innovations in cooperative housing such as Sostre Cívic in Catalonia, offered valuable models for sustainable, community-led housing under use-rights agreements.

Key results and benefits

This innovation was initially implemented in a single neighbourhood but has since been replicated in five different areas within the same city, adapting the approach to diverse socio-spatial contexts. The methodology has attracted interest from other territories, leading to ongoing collaborations to adapt the solution in Valencia and Almería. Additionally, through a current Erasmus+ project, we are exploring pathways to scale and transfer the model at the European level, while learning from the experiences of partner organisations in France and Ireland.

During the 7 years of work in the Cementery District we have generated a census of 125 people (61 women [W] / 64 male [M]) interested in participating in projects to transform the area, whether motivated by problems in their homes or by the desire to access employment. Training activities have been carried out in which 155 residents have participated (21M/43W). From 2020, the transformation of abandoned plots of land, which served as informal dumping grounds for people from inside and outside the neighbourhood, has given rise to the generation of common spaces with the participation of more than 100 people in participatory works, progressively generating green and leisure areas: Community Garden (400m2), the “El Cura” Gardens (1800m2) and the Sun Parc (500m2). The Resource Bank is nowadays formed by 68 people (37W/31M). In total, the mapping has brought to light 2467 assets (1043M/1342W). Men identified 23.5 assets on average, compared to 24.2 identified by women. If we look at the average by asset type, women identify more assets related to skills, home, places and imaginaries, while men identify more assets related to projects and partnerships. Attendance at permanences is an indication of motivation and willingness to change. It is worth noting that young couples with children are the most mobilised segment of the population. In many cases, in addition to being in a situation of need, they are starting a family project and are involved in changing things for the better. To date, the programme has accompanied more than 50 families in their housing improvement processes. Since 2017, 72 urgent interventions have been carried out to improve safety in homes, and there have been 13 complete renovations thanks to the specific agreement with the Regional Government, developed during the years 2022, 2023 and 2024. Through social and material changes, the programme reduces the inequalities present in our city and advances in the eradication of poverty.

Potential for mainstreaming

The implementation of the Asertos Programme in the Cemetery District of the city of Alicante has allowed, from 2017 to 2024, to shape a working methodology that is beginning to be replicated in other urban or rural contexts in our province. The most direct replicability that we consider is in the Valencian Region as a whole, which has more than one million people living in these areas (VEUS data, 2020). We have observatories similar to those in this region in our country (Spain) as a whole and in other European countries, such as Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands. These countries also detect Urban Vulnerability as a priority problem and may be interested in our results. In addition, we are committed to the creation of a social housing stock for rent, in the style of Housing Associations, which will follow the methodology of the Asertos programme. This is a multi-purpose cooperative for housing, users and social integration, which we have called Celestina Urbana (Urban Matchmaker), and will allow social investment, both public and private, for the purchase of devalued housing in vulnerable neighbourhoods, and its rehabilitation. In order to disseminate the methodology and share the tools we have developed, the cooperative has the figures of “expectant members” (people who want to seek residential solutions like the ones we defend in their territories) and “professional members” (people who want to orient their workforce to the development of this type of project). In addition, administrations will also be able to be part of the cooperative as “public members”. The massive improvement of housing in these neighbourhoods will be accompanied by social, labour and community support, allowing for an improvement in living conditions, but avoiding phenomena of urban exclusion linked to the improvement of the areas, such as gentrification.