Matilde Cantos Fernández residents visit the Alhambra

This morning the Matilde Cantos Fernández Social Integration Centre inaugurated its programme of cultural activities for the 2011/2012 academic year, when ten of the centre’s 103 adult education students (primary, secondary and university admission) visited the site, accompanied by minders from the centre.
In the conviction that education and training are the cornerstones of social reinsertion, one of the fundamental aims of the Spanish judicial system, the penitential authorities offer residents of the centre a range of cultural activities throughout the academic year, beginning with this 3-hour tour through one of the major exponents of our cultural patrimony.
 
The Matilde Cantos Fernández Centre offers residents a range of educational and cultural activities, including courses on road safety, woodwork, sewing, art and therapeutic programmes (prevention of drug relapse, social skills and conflict resolution), gender equality, etc., all of which aim to provide residents with the necessary skills to live among and respect the interests of the greater community.
These programmes would not be possible without a group of volunteers who give freely of their time to assist the administration in the difficult task of social reintegration. Some of these volunteers accompanied the group as guides on their tour around the Nasrid palaces. The Patronato de Alhambra y Generalife team, also committed to helping those at risk of social exclusion, organised the visit in constant observance of the guidelines offered by the Spanish Constitution with regard to custodial sentences.
The Matilde Cantos Fernández centre houses people considered a low risk to society and on the path to social integration, responding favourably with regard to the factors that can lead to delinquency, and at low risk of relapse.