The Department of Social Rights and Inclusion has laid the first stone of the new Barnahus of Tortosa building, a facility for children and adolescents who are victims of sexual violence and their families.
The Department of Social Rights and Inclusion has laid the first stone of the new Barnahus of Tortosa facility, a service managed by Suara Cooperativa. This building will consolidate the comprehensive care model for children and adolescents who are victims of sexual violence in Terres de l’Ebre.
The project, financed with European Next Generation funds, foresees the construction of a specific building of nearly 400 m² on land provided by the Baix Ebre Regional Council and which is next to it.
The Barnahus service aims to offer a safe, friendly, accessible environment adapted to the needs of children, adolescents and their families. With this, it is intended to centralize social, psychological, medical, police and judicial care in a single facility. In this way, revictimization is avoided and a collaborative intervention is guaranteed.
At the same time, the professionals of the Integrated Barnahus Unit are tasked with designing preventive, training and advisory actions.
In 2020, the government of Catalonia began the deployment of this model with a pilot test in Tarragona. By 2024, it had a total of 14 Barnahus throughout the territory. In the case of the one in Tortosa, which has been managed by Suara Cooperativa since its inception, it began providing care in March 2024 in a temporary headquarters while waiting for a definitive one. This will become a reality in 2027, since the works are estimated to last ten months.
“The laying of the foundation stone of this new facility is a key step in consolidating a model of care that puts children at the center and guarantees a comprehensive response, in a single space, to sexual violence. Having this specific building will allow us to continue strengthening the quality of care and continue advancing in our commitment to the protection and recovery of children, adolescents and their families”, assured Patrícia Benet, director of the Integrated Barnahus Unit of Tortosa.
With the new headquarters, it is also expected to continue expanding the number of care services, which already total 200 since the service began in Tortosa.
During the event, which took place on April 30, Raúl Moreno, Secretary of Social Rights, stressed the importance of this service starting with a temporary headquarters. “The emergency of the situation meant that, I believe, the service was launched with facilities that are not new like these. But we started to serve these 200 young people,” Moreno assured.
This is not the only Barnahus that we manage, since we have actively participated in the implementation of this model. Therefore, we also administer the Barnahus in Prat del Llobregat and Girona, where in 2025 525 people and 343 were served, respectively, according to official data.
The equipment
In order to create a safe environment for the people served, the architectural project of the new headquarters, complying with European standards, is designed to be a building that offers calm, privacy and confidence to the people who come there.
In detail, among other spaces, the building will house: three care rooms, one for treatment, two waiting rooms, one for group care, one for support in the judicial examination, one for visualization and one for medical check-up. In addition, it will also have a common work space for professionals, a meeting room for them and a multipurpose office, among other spaces.
The new facility in Tortosa represents another step in the consolidation of an innovative care system that puts children at the center, promotes non-revictimization, strengthens collaboration between administrations and professionals guaranteeing the principle of minimum necessary intervention under one roof. From Suara Cooperativa, this project is part of the cooperative's commitment to the protection of children and the development of high-impact social services in the territory.
