Fighting child poverty in European cities
Eurocities selected this project, provided by municipal Social Services, as a good practice, along with 34 other actions by different European cities.
The main objective of the project implemented in Rubí is to provide fathers, mothers and other possible caretakers of children aged 0 to 6 a welcoming space in which to share experiences with other families and professionals. During six sessions, led by two social educators from the Social Services’ Child Service, the group explores concerns and questions on parenthood, working together to find solutions. The topics covered in this workshop include different child raising styles, upbringing without violence, child participation, emotional bonds, childhood development, interpersonal communication and conflict resolution.
The project was started up in 2019 with the participation of a dozen adults being assisted by Social Services. In this short term, the experience helped strengthen participants’ self-confidence and security as competent caregivers to their children, as well as letting the City Council detect which topics are of greatest interest to the parents with regard to raising and educating their children. The project also contributed indirectly to changing the perception that some citizens have of social services.
The report ‘Fighting child poverty in European cities’ recognises the good results of this initiative and highlights Rubí’s strategy to fight childhood poverty, based on these objectives: to promote an environment that can meet children’s basic needs in the social, educational and family spheres; to create support structures for families to ensure the welfare of children and teens; to foster a networking model based on cooperation in designing public policies for children; to promote the status and rights of children and teens among citizens; and to guarantee their access to cultural and knowledge resources.
Report Fighting child poverty in European cities
Preventing a lost generation of children
With roughly one in four children in the EU currently at risk of poverty or social exclusion, recent data collected by the Eurocities network shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on children. Even before the pandemic, child poverty levels were much higher in our cities than the national averages. Now, as more parents are 
losing their jobs, not only are more children slipping into poverty, but coupled with other impacts, such as the digital divide and shortage of affordable housing, it is exacerbating inequalities and social exclusion.
This was the conclusion of the recent Eurocities study, which collected data from 35 cities across 20 EU member states, demonstrating that urban child poverty rates are concentrated in the most deprived areas, where children are at three to ten times greater risk of poverty than in well-off areas. It also demonstrates that, with child poverty rates on the rise, no country, region or city is immune to this threat
Eurocities is calling for measures to prevent a lost generation of European children. Cities are already investing considerable resources from their municipal budgets in child care and family care services, but this is not enough. That money needs to be complemented by greater social investment in children from national and EU budgets.