Mobility is one of the critical aspects to be tackled when it comes to combating social exclusion. The project “Access to mobility for unhoused people,” launched by Sant Joan de Déu Hospital with the support of Moventia and TRAM,
helps to reduce this inequality faced by a large number of people by facilitating the use of public transport.

The initiative aims to provide free access to public transport in the city of Barcelona and its surrounding areas to homeless people in the different direct assistance programmes run by Sant Joan de Déu Social Services Barcelona, so that they can travel to their training, work or job search activities and medical appointments, regain their network of social and family relationships, take part in activities to strengthen socialisation (such as leisure and cultural activities) and any other tasks or activities coordinated with the professionals at Sant Joan de Déu to help them get their lives back on track.

Moventia and TRAM have been supporting the project for seven years as part of the
actions that both of them carry out as socially responsible companies. Their involvement helps to fund almost the entire annual cost of the project to facilitate access to public transport for the people assisted by Sant Joan de Déu Hospital’s different social programmes. During 2023, the funding had a direct impact on nearly 600 people, and in the seven years that the partnership has lasted, nearly 3,600 people have benefited.

Since the companies were founded, both Moventia and TRAM have followed a clear
commitment to people, not just their workers, users and clients. In line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 17 (Partnerships for the goals), the two companies run their own programmes as well as partnering, as in this case, with NGOs and foundations to promote a better society and contribute to improving the quality of life of the most vulnerable groups.

Public transport, a tool for inclusion
The event to renew the partnership was attended by Moventia’s Corporate Vice-President for Internal and Institutional Communication, Sílvia Martí; TRAM’s General Manager, Humberto López Vilalta; the Director of Sant Joan de Déu Social Services Barcelona, Salvador Maneu; and the Director of Obra Social Sant Joan de Déu, Oriol Bota.

During the talk, it became clear that public transport is an essential tool in helping people to perform everyday activities such as studying, working or maintaining their social network, especially for homeless people who need to access various public resources spread across the city of Barcelona and its metropolitan area. Moreover, access to transport allows them to enjoy complementary activities that have a direct impact on their recovery by strengthening their social and community ties.

The meeting also discussed the positive impact of the project on employability – in the last year, nearly half of the people in the programme have come out of it with a job, in a return to the levels achieved before the pandemic. In the same period, there has also been an increase in the number of people leaving the programme with an economic income, a total of 86% of the people assisted.

About Sant Joan de Déu
Sant Joan de Déu Social Services Barcelona, an organisation that was founded 43 years ago, has the mission of welcoming and comprehensively accompanying people in a situation of homelessness with the aim of promoting opportunities for personal and social development so that they can carry out their personal projects, and is a benchmark in this field in the city of Barcelona. The organisation attends to around 600 people in Barcelona every year – 15% of the total number of unhoused people in the city according to the latest diagnosis report from XAPSLL (Support Network for Unhoused People).

For its part, Obra Social Sant Joan de Déu works for social improvement and puts
solidarity at the centre of people’s lives through the projects run by the Sant Joan de Deu centres. Its commitment also includes raising social awareness of situations that are often not very visible and to providing administrative support to the centres in terms of attracting donations.

About Moventia
Moventia is a family-owned, multinational company specialising in the mobility sector. It was founded in 1923 in Barcelona, Spain, and today – almost one hundred years later – it is a large, consolidated company with a workforce of 5,000 employees. Moventia’s objective is to connect people and cities through a flexible, customer-oriented business model based on multimodality, always with innovation and sustainability as its main objectives.

Moventia has two business divisions. The first is Moventis, a benchmark in public mobility with urban, interurban and discretionary transport services. Moventis moves more than 150 million passengers annually over 110 million kilometres, with a fleet of 1,850 buses and coaches, 41 trams and more than 45,000 bicycles.
The second division is Movento, which is dedicated to private mobility through the sale and repair of vehicles. Movento is one of the leading companies in private mobility, with more than 27,000 new and second-hand vehicles sold per year. It
is also an expert in fleet management, after-sales services for trucks, vans, cars,
motorbikes, buses and coaches, and it offers Car as a Service subscription options under the brand Movento Drive.

About TRAM
TRAM is the company that manages the Barcelona Metropolitan Region’s two tram
networks and that has made the tram the most highly rated mode of public transport according to the EMEF (Weekday Mobility) Survey carried out by the Metropolitan Transport Authority. Its involvement in the access to mobility programme for unhoused people is one of the tram’s most important Corporate Social Responsibility projects and is framed within its Annual Social Responsibility Plan under the commitment to support an initiative that promotes equal opportunities, inclusion and self-improvement.