Accompaniment, an opportunity to strengthen the humanization of social intervention

Abstract

Social accompaniment is a relational approach methodology, but also a right included in legal texts of some autonomous communities, as is the case of Navarra. In this community, thanks to the drive of the Network to Fight Poverty and Social Exclusion, a model of social accompaniment was established a decade ago, agreed between professionals from public administrations and social entities. In 2021, an action-research process was launched to analyze the implementation of this model, developing dialogue groups in which professionals participated, but also people who had been accompanied through this methodology. As a result, a series of consensuses were established regarding the path traveled to implement this methodology, the current moment of social support and future challenges. It was highlighted that the differential character of this methodology lies in the fact that the leading role is played by both the person who accompanies and the person who is accompanied. For this reason, the accompaniment requires attention focused on people (in the plural), on the two human beings involved in the relational process. Thus, the functioning of this human relationship will depend on, for example, managing the balance between horizontality and verticality, the management of different times, the adequate transmission of power until the accompanied person achieves autonomy, etc. In addition, it is necessary that these relational processes can take place in frameworks of community support, networking and flexible organizations.