Meeting with Jordi from the Centre Civic Barri Vell on 29 July 2025

Transcript (translated from Catalan)

Jordi: So, based on Paul’s email, where he asked me, “Now that we’re an official association,” and actually, the first time we met and he talked to me about Girona Buddies and everything, I said, "Wow, you’ve got a lot of people around you, look at your followers"and so on. And Girona Buddies is being talked about more and more in Girona—because I was just saying to Paul the other day, I saw a video he posted on Instagram of those people picking up litter, for example, or whatever it was, and that video made it to me through different WhatsApp groups I’m in. And I was like, “Wow,” and people were even asking, “Do you know who these people are?” I saw a group, in that case very connected to the local government here in Girona, to Guanyem Girona, and I said, “Look, this group is made up of people who bring together newcomers and locals, they meet up, they do activities and so on.”

So when Paul explained to me what Girona Buddies is, I said, "Wow, you’ve got this whole community around you—people who want to do things, and all kinds of things. It’s not like saying, “we’re an association that focuses just on chess” or “we’re an association about rentals,” no. You’re a group that does this, this, this, this, this, or whatever else.

So, there are advantages to being a formal association. One of the main advantages is that by becoming a fully legal entity, you gain legal personality. That means any paperwork or admin you do with the City Council or any other administration isn’t just one person acting on behalf of a whole group—it’s now the group itself that signs things digitally. You now have, I assume, a president, a secretary, and a treasurer—those are the three key roles needed to form the association, right? Those are your official representatives. And then, if needed, you can have additional board members (called “vocals” here), and then—this is something you’ll need to decide yourselves, now that you're an association—whether or not to have official members. That’s totally up to you.

There are associations, for example, that have members who pay an annual fee—usually no more than €20 a year. That gives the association a small income to be able to do things. On the other hand, being an official association also allows you to apply for different grants from public institutions. I can apply for a grant from the àrea de participació to help activate neighbourhoods. I can apply for a grant from the Generalitat for events of public interest. I can apply for a grant for whatever purpose. But if you’re not an association—if you’re just acting as a private individual—you don’t have access to any of that.

Also, as an association, you’ve written your own statutes, which means, as a group, you’ve clearly defined your mission, your goals, your methodology, etc. So, anything that falls outside of that defined framework—let’s call it your brand or your scope of work—then it’s your responsibility, as president, as an association, or as members, to say “no, this doesn’t fit with who we are.” So, for example, you wouldn’t be able to do it in the name of Girona Buddies.

Here, you’ve outlined the values you have as an association, the goals you have as an association, and the ways you operate as an association. On the administrative side, until now, whenever you wanted to organize an activity—whether at the Barri Vell civic center or any other civic center—it wasn’t a problem. And even if you want to organize an event in a public space, being a registered association allows you to submit the application as an entity, and that gives you permission.

For example, let’s say you want to hold a Girona Buddies party—you’d submit a request to the City Council saying, “We’re an association, and on this date we want to hold this event in a public space.” If that public space isn’t already reserved, they’ll allocate it to you. You can even request barriers, tables, chairs—whatever you need. Whereas if you were applying as a private individual, it would be a lot harder.

Also, as Paul mentioned earlier before we started, now that you're a registered entity—I think you've already signed up with the Municipal Register of Associations, and if not, we’ll do it soon and I’ll explain how—you can also have your official address (the asseu social) at a civic center or the closest public facility to you. I’m saying Barri Vell because you’ve already done some things there, but it could also be another civic center. Having an official address means you don’t need to use someone’s private home—you can list this place as your official headquarters, where your mail and any official correspondence can be sent.

And it saves you another thing too—until now, as an informal group, every time you wanted to use a space here, you had to submit a request saying, “Hi, we’re a group that wants to hold an activity,” and you had to apply for use of the space. But now, if your official address is here, you don’t have to go through that process. You’re already registered as an association with an official address at this center, for example. So you just call and say, “We need a space for this activity,” and if a room is available, that’s it—you can go ahead without any paperwork or admin, because you’re already recognized as a local association. And local associations automatically have access to space. That’s basically how it works, more or less.

Paul: And if we want to use a room in a civic centre, we just need to call?

Jordi: Correct. For example, let’s say you had your official headquarters in the Barri Vell. You just pick up the phone, call reception, come by one day, speak to whoever’s there—Jordi, Miri, Maria—or if you bump into me, you say, “Hey Jordi, I’m interested in next Wednesday, do you have a space available?” I’ll check if there’s a space available, and if there is, I’ll say "Yes. Ok, then I’ll reserve it for you." That’s it.

Paul: And does it have to be who calls? Or could it be...?

Jordi: It could be, yes, well, that could be you, of course, if there’s someone who—for example, let’s say you’ve got this group that does yoga, for example. And if it’s someone who comes often to do yoga, and we at reception know who they are, then they say, “Hey, I’ve come by—can you book me a space another day?” That’s it. Because we know that this person represents Girona Buddies in that area. There’s no problem at all. So that’s the idea.

Paul: It’s a very informal thing.

Jordi: Not just informal—because it does get formalized by the fact that having your headquarters here means the organization is officially carrying out activities in the civic centre. So then you don’t have to say something like, “A group came on this day, we didn’t know who they were, they said they were representing some informal group called Girona Buddies, and they need a space.” Now we know that if your official base is here, then you can carry out any type of activity in this space, because this is where your headquarters are. It’s like saying—it’s like you’re at home here. And we, as a neighbourhood-based facility, as a local centre, what we want is to make access as easy as possible.

And would it work in another civic centre? Well, in another civic centre, since your headquarters are here, you’d go and say, for example, “We’d like to go to Sant Narcís.” You’d say, “Look, we’re an organization called Girona Buddies, our headquarters are here, and we’d like to have access to a space here.” Then maybe, if it’s a one-off thing, they’d ask you to submit a one-time space request, but if they get to know you, you won’t even need to do that anymore. What would likely happen? When they receive the request, the director of the Sant Narcís civic centre would probably call me and say, “Hey Jordi, some people came in…” And if it’s your group, I’d say, “No problem, you can give them the space.” And that’s it. Because we’re a network of civic centres—we’re not all separate centres. So you get the idea—we’re a network of civic centres, and because of that, the directors of each centre meet every Tuesday and we update each other on what’s happening in each place. Mainly to avoid duplicating activities. Sometimes it happens anyway, but it helps us spread out our staff, avoid duplicating, and make sure that if one neighbourhood is doing something, another isn’t doing the same thing but instead something else the neighbourhood needs. It helps give us an overview of what’s going on in the city. We have civic centres in every neighbourhood of Girona. And that helps a lot to know, “Ok, in this neighbourhood there are these needs, these requests,” and in another area, they may be completely different. For example, here in Barri Vell, aside from running the civic centre, we also manage many other social spaces that aren’t civic centres. So I’m very connected with Pedreres, which has a certain type of residents, but they’re very different from the people living in Torre Gironella—which also depends on us—or the people in Sant Daniel, or in Adalesa, or in Vista Alegre, all of which also fall under our responsibility.

So, each area has its own needs. To give you an example: let’s say Girona Buddies wants to do activity X. And I say, “Wow, that activity X sounds great, but instead of doing it here, why don’t we do it in Les Pedreres, where it fits really well with something that’s already being proposed there?”

What I mean is—it’s possible. We’ll do the activity. We’ll do it here.

And that way, I can connect it with the neighborhood association. Because what we care about is creating social cohesion in the area—mixing organizations, doing things that include as many people as possible. On the other hand, if you’re doing activities and you’re a registered entity, I might say, “Hey, there’s an event we’re organizing from the civic centre called the Lodivers Festival, which we do in Adavessa the first weekend of May.”

And then I’d tell you, “Hey, Girona Buddies, we’re running this festival—why don’t you come as an entity and offer a yoga class or something else? That way people can also get to know you.” You’d reach more people who might think, “Hey, who are these guys?” And at the same time, you’re helping fill the festival with content that benefits the whole area.

That’s how everything fits together.

Paul: The idea is to mix.

Jordi: Exactly. Our main mission—just like you have your mission and statutes—our mission as civic centres is to promote social cohesion. Because we fall under the department of social services, and for us, social cohesion means improving the quality of life for the residents of the city.

When does social cohesion happen? When someone has their basic needs covered and they can go about their daily life, and they also have good relationships with those around them—that leads to a better quality of life. In fact, that’s why your group exists, even if you didn’t put it in those words. Because through each other, you improve your quality of life. You get to know people, you learn things, you never know when you might need help from someone for some reason, etc.

So, the more socially cohesive the area is, the more ability people have to overcome the difficulties and challenges they face. That is, above all, our mission as civic centres. So when we have a bunch of organizations on the table, we look at how they might work together, how they can collaborate on shared goals. That’s when we ask: “What can this group bring to achieve this? And what can that group bring to help with that? Why not bring them together?" Everyone contributes something, and in the end, the whole community benefits. That’s our goal.

Paul: I can’t really remember what I put as Girona Buddies's official goal.

Jordi: Well, I think one of your main goals—based on what you told me—is something that’s very necessary here in the Barri Vell: this idea of mixing groups of people who often don’t interact.

I’m not talking about immigration in the usual sense, like people arriving from the Global South—that’s more common in neighborhoods like Sant Eugènia or Can Gibert. I mean a different kind of immigration: people, like many here, who don’t have day-to-day economic struggles but who are still seen by locals as an invasion—people who “take over” the area, force others to change languages, and make it feel like you can’t speak Catalan anymore because now everything has to be in English or Spanish. So there are tensions—you see graffiti on the walls against cyclists, against tourism, etc. But what you’re doing as an organization—mixing local people with newcomers—is essential here in the Barri Vell.

Paul: Cristina thought the same thing, five months ago.

Jordi: I think this is something important in the Barri Vell right now. And now that you’re officially an entity, I think one of the important things you should do—and I can be the connection here—is introduce yourselves to the Barri Vell neighborhood association. I don’t know if you know them, but there is a neighborhood association in the Barri Vell.

I don’t know how many members of Girona Buddies live in the Barri Vell—maybe none, or maybe there are, I don’t know. But what’s been happening with the neighborhood association is that sometimes there’s this feeling—I’ve heard people say things like, “People with money have come in from outside, and I was renting, and now my flat is up for rent again, and I’ve had to leave the neighborhood.”

So maybe there’s a lack of understanding between the longtime local residents of the Barri Vell and the people who now live here—who also count as locals, even if they came from elsewhere—and who therefore have the same rights and the same responsibilities.

And when we create that connection, that’s when we improve exactly what we’re aiming for: social cohesion.

Paul: I was actually thinking about that yesterday—about tourist apartments and things like that. And I think Girona Buddies should stand up for the rights of people who live here more than for tourists. Because Girona Buddies is for the people who live here.

Jordi: Exactly. I was talking recently with a woman from England—Teresa, an older woman. She told me, “I want to integrate. But to do that, I need your help.” She said she loves reading and was looking for books by classic Catalan authors so she could understand what they wrote about.

So I found her some books by Mercè Rodoreda, for example—in English—so she could say, “Wow, who was this Mercè Rodoreda?” She wanted to feel part of this city and this country, and that meant learning.

So we’re also looking for ways to support that. And if we can open the doors to create these kinds of spaces and gatherings, for us, that’s a success. That’s what it’s all about.

Paul: And the next step is getting a NIF (tax ID number), right?

Jordi: Yes. So they haven’t given you a provisional NIF yet? Nothing?

Paul: I don’t think so.

Jordi: Okay, you should probably ask about that. Because whenever you do any administrative process, they’re going to ask for that NIF. First they give you a provisional one, and then you get the definitive one.

And then, depending on your interests—for example, if later on you want to apply for grants to run activities... Keep in mind that associations are non-profit, so you can’t use them to make money. You can request grants, but you then have to justify how you used the money.

So if you ever apply for a grant, the next step would be to open a bank account in the name of the association.

Paul: Yes, because we have expenses.

Jordi: But you don’t have income.

Paul: Yes, we have no income.

Jordi: So the question is: where’s it coming from? Out of your own pockets?

Paul: Basically.

Jordi: Right, so one thing you can start thinking about—just an idea—is that now that you’re an official entity, you have the option of applying for grants. The other option is: now that we’re an entity, let’s create members of the association.

Meaning, you’re not asking for €20 a month—you’re asking, at most, €20 per year. But you decide the amount. Most associations ask for €20 a year, but you can ask for €10, or €5, or €50—that’s totally up to you. It’s also a way to have some income and to build loyalty among your members.

Then, once you have members, there’s something else: you take on a responsibility that’s written in the standard bylaws, which is that once a year you must hold a general assembly with all your members to share financial reports—to say, “Look, we had this much income, these were our expenses, we did this and that,” etc.

In other words, since they’re members, they’re entitled to know what the association has done—represented by the president, secretary, treasurer, and any other board members. They’re the ones who explain: “Here’s what we’ve done. We brought in this much money. And how did we spend it? We didn’t spend it going out to dinner, just the three of us—no. We spent it on yoga workshops, on an outing we organized, on buying this or that material.”

Paul: And that’s only if we have members?

Jordi: Yes, because if you don’t have members, you’re not obligated to explain anything to anyone. Because the only money you might have would come from a grant—and in that case, you only need to justify to the grant provider how you spent the money.

Paul: I have a question.

Jordi: Of course.

Paul: Some people want to give paid classes.

Jordi: Right, let me explain how the civic centre network programming works. The majority of activities are actually organized by the entities themselves. What does that mean? It means that if you’re an entity—like Girona Buddies—with your own bank account and all that, then you have the ability to say, “I want to run this activity,” and then you, as the entity, pay the person teaching it.

So that means: the person giving the class gives you an invoice, and the entity pays them. That’s why I asked earlier if you have income. It’s like hiring someone from outside. Imagine Girona Buddies wants to organize a festival because it’s been, say, X years since it started. You’d hire musicians and others—same idea. If you want to organize an activity as an entity, then the entity is responsible for paying the instructor.

Paul: And for example, Cristina is a yoga teacher. If she wants to run a yoga class and charge the people who come?

Jordi: Right, then there’s the whole registration system. It’s actually very simple. Soon we’ll have the new course catalog, and I’ll show you the booklet when it’s ready.

So let’s say an entity like the Barri Vell neighborhood association organizes a painting course. Then there’s an enrollment process, and people pay. We have a standard pricing system—X hours equals X price.

People register, they pay, and that money goes directly into the entity’s bank account. So as the entity, you collect the money and then use it to pay the instructor.

We, as a civic centre, are here to support all this—and this is important to say. As director of the centre, what do I care about? I care that people come to the civic centre, that people associate this space with community.

If the activity brings people in, that’s great! I don’t care what it is—it could be painting, yoga, aerial dance, whatever. The important thing is that people come and connect here.

You decide what course you want to run. I have nothing to say about that. Of course, as a community facility, we try to keep prices affordable so everyone can participate.

Here, for example, we also have offices for Social Services. They help people with various needs—often financial. When the course catalog is ready, I bring it to Social Services, and if they see someone they think would benefit from an activity—for example, to help someone meet people—they can offer a grant.

So the person doesn’t have to pay out of pocket—the city covers it.

Paul: And if we just want to organize something super informal, as a one-off, and the teacher wants to ask people for money?

Jordi: Right, so if it’s just a one-off thing, I’d say: try to find a teacher who won’t charge you. Because right now, if the money has to come out of your own pockets, that’s not ideal. So if you can find someone willing to do it voluntarily, even better.

You need to think about this: if you’re going to hire a teacher, you need money to pay them. That said, you can do a one-off session with a small registration fee—I’m not saying you can’t. For example: “We’re doing a yoga session, and it costs €5 per person.” People sign up, pay you those €5 as the entity, and then you say, “We’ve collected this much.” You ask the teacher to invoice you—say, €100 if you got a lot of people, or €50 if fewer came.

But yes, you’d need a bank account for the entity.

Paul: That’s important.

Carla: I guess you’re thinking about Girona Buddies members running those workshops or activities?

Jordi: Exactly. If the people running the sessions come from within your own group, it’s super manageable. You have 1,000 followers now—1,022, actually.

Carla: Out of all those people, there’s definitely someone.

Paul: Exactly. The idea of Girona Buddies is that there’s no central organizer. We have a lot of people, and we want them to organize things themselves.

Jordi: That’s totally doable.

Carla: Open it up to everyone.

Jordi: The important thing is to make sure the registration is open. That is, you as an entity are offering an activity that’s open to the public—anyone can sign up. The key is to get your name out there.

So it’s important—sorry to insist—but to make it a public offering. You can announce it through our website, with posters, through your social media channels.

The registration system is connected to us through the civic centre, so you don’t have to build your own website or anything. We’ll post it on our site, give you the link, and people register there. The payments go directly to your entity’s bank account.

And I think the key is this: it needs to be open to everyone. Not just a closed Girona Buddies event.

Paul: I agree with that. Activities are better if they’re open to everyone. That’s one of the most important things about Girona Buddies—it’s not a closed group. We have someone who wants to give weekly classes of… I’m not sure what.

Jordi: That can be arranged. The important thing is to let us know as early as possible—mainly so we can check if the space is available.

That’s one of the advantages we have, so to speak: we’re a civic centre, but we have access to lots of additional facilities. If we don’t have space here, we can always use the Mercadal Civic Centre, just behind Llibreria 22 in Plaça Jordi de Sant Jordi—that’s also under our management.

We also have rooms in Les Pedreres, in Sant Daniel—we’ve got various spaces where things can be done. We’d be able to find a space for it.

Paul: And here’s a question from someone else—they wanted to know: are there any downsides to becoming an entity?

Jordi: Disadvantages? The main disadvantage—let’s be honest—is that being an official entity means there’s a president, a secretary, and a treasurer who will need to dedicate time from their lives. Whether it’s doing the accounting, organizing general assemblies, applying for grants and subsidies, managing registrations and checking who has paid… There’s work involved. That’s the main disadvantage. But I think you’re already doing that—or at least you, Paul, are really going for it. You once told me you were chasing people down, organizing this and that. So you’re already putting a lot of your free time into it.

Paul: For now.

Jordi: Also, the good thing is, you can say: “I’m founding this association,” but one day you can also say, “Guys, I’m tired—who wants to take over?” And that way, Girona Buddies doesn’t die out.

Paul: If there’s someone in the group to take over…

Jordi: Exactly. And if no one steps up, then yes, it fades out. But as long as it’s registered, if someone wants to take it over later, they can.

Paul: There’s a group in Girona called La Brigada de… I can’t remember the name…

Jordi: La Palestra?

Paul: No, it’s a group that collects trash from riverbanks and nature areas.

Jordi: Ah—could it be the Naturalists of Girona?

Paul: El Salabret.

Jordi: Ah, Salabret—right, yes.

Paul: And they don’t want to become an official entity, because they told me that if you’re an official entity and you want to organize something in the city—like a cleanup—you have to request permission. Maybe that’s…

Jordi: Well, we’ve had people—whether they’re in Girona Buddies or not—who go out and pick up trash without asking for permission.

Paul: Yeah, that’s what I thought too.

Jordi: Now, if Salabret one day wants to ask the City Council for a grant to support their activity… What’s going to happen? Will someone go to the council personally and say, “Give me money”? They’ll ask, “But who are you?”

Paul: Exactly.

Jordi: Are they supposed to give money to just you? Or are they giving it to an official organization, with people behind it, legal status, a bank account, bylaws, etc.? That’s different.

Paul: Right. I think they misunderstood. Because if they just want to go pick up trash—you don’t need permission.

Jordi: No, no, picking up trash doesn’t require permission. The problem would come the day they want to—say, I’m making this up—hold a big event in a public street. “We want to gather 100 people to celebrate something with food in the street.” Then the police might show up and say, “What’s going on here?” And they’ll say, “Oh, we just met up.” But the police might say, “Hold on—you can’t just gather here with food and tables and whatever without permission.” Then they’ll ask, “Do you have a permit to use this public space? Do you have a health and safety certificate to serve food? Do you have permission to set all this up?” That’s when it becomes a problem.

Paul: Exactly.

Jordi: Well, for anything at all, you have my contact. Call me, email me—we’ll talk. It’s totally normal to have lots of doubts at first, don’t worry. And more questions will definitely come up later.

Paul: Thanks, Jordi.

Carla: So, does every civic centre have its own space, or not all of them?

Jordi: All civic centres have spaces. I really recommend checking out the civic centre network map. For example, if you’re from Salt, maybe you’ve already been to Can Ninetes in Santa Eugènia?

Ed: Where?

Jordi: The civic centre in Santa Eugènia—Can Ninetes. It’s practically next to Salt. It’s an old gymnasium. It’s really close to the CAP Rabal and the gas station in Santa Eugènia.

Ed: Ah yes, in front of the library.

Jordi: Exactly. And there’s a civic centre in that library too.

Ed: That library’s pretty old.

Jordi: Exactly. It’s a civic centre. In Sant Narcís, there’s Plaça Sant Narcís, right by the church, and under the arches there’s the Sant Narcís Civic Centre—which I highly recommend you go visit. In Vilarroja—though that’s further away—there’s another one you could check out. There’s one in Pont Major. There’s one in Taialà. In Palau, you know that gym, Wellness?

Carla: Yes, of course.

Jordi: Well, right there is the Ernest Lluch Library. And inside that library is the Palau Civic Centre—it’s smaller. They’re waiting for the library to move out of that space. Then the Casa de Cultura will expand to take over that area for a bigger civic centre.

Carla: There used to be a library in the Casa de Cultura.

Jordi: Exactly. That one moved to the big library, which is part of the old military barracks. And here there’s a space. But they’ve found archaeological remains there, so everything’s on hold. It’s a bureaucratic issue between the city council and the provincial government. But the Ernest Lluch Library is supposed to move there. And all that space will become a civic centre.

Paul: Can Ninetes has a big kitchen.

Jordi: So do we here! Haven’t you seen this civic centre? Come on, let’s go on a tour. Upstairs, we have a second floor for physical activities—like yoga, dance... A lot of students from the Salt Theatre School come here to rehearse. And when they put on their show, they give back to the community. I tell them, “I’ll give you the space, but before the premiere, do a general rehearsal here in the Casabàs Room with free entry, so everyone can come see it.” So the neighborhood gets to enjoy a free theatre show, just because we offered them the rehearsal space.

Paul: But now that we’re an official entity, we don’t have to...

Jordi: No, no, you don’t. But someone might say, “Hey, the Ludivers Festival is happening—would Girona Buddies like to participate or run an activity?” That would be very welcome.

Paul: That’s great! We had a theatre teacher who wanted to use the Civic Centre, but there was a problem: the Civic Centre doesn’t want to give rooms to just anyone.

Jordi: Right. But if you’re an entity, then yes, of course.

Paul: So with Girona Buddies, we can help people.

Jordi: Exactly.

Paul: We can, through this group...

Jordi: If you’re an entity, you can request rehearsal space. You’re recognized as an entity.

Paul: This room... I hadn’t seen it before.

Jordi: We have a room that’s usually used for painting workshops. For example, there’s a group that enjoys painting. You should also know there’s another entity here called Gargots, which organizes painting courses and also paints here. It’s a way to collaborate.

Paul: We had a neurodivergent meetup here.

Jordi: That’s possible. Yes, yes. We also have a kitchen!

Paul: It’s bigger than I imagined. Bigger than the one at Can Ninetes.

Jordi: Yes! We have a microwave, oven, stove, fridge to store things… And as I said, each entity with their headquarters here gets to have their own cabinet to store materials. Some of the cooking-related groups have their storage here. Fundació 3 keeps their stuff here. Another entity keeps their things here. Everything is labeled, and everyone has their own materials ready to go.

Summary

Benefits of being an association

• We can ask for public grants (money)
• Booking space at the Centre Civic Barri Vell is easier. We just call/email the Centre Civic and ask for a room. There is no need to fill in forms. First though we need to set our asseu social (official address) to Centre Civic Barri Vell
• Civic centres work as a connected network, so once recognized in one, other centres (like Sant Narcís or Can Ninetes) will easily allow us to hold events there too.

Disadvantages of being an entity

• No disadvantages except some extra paperwork

Running paid classes

• We can run paid classes (e.g. yoga) at the centre civic, with official registration and payment through the civic centre's system.
• Class participants will pay the class fee into Girona Buddies’s bank account, and Girona Buddies will pass the money onto the instructor

Integration & Social Impact

• Civic centres aim to build social cohesion (connecting newcomers with locals).
• Jordi encourages Girona Buddies to collaborate with the Barri Vell neighborhood association and take part in public events (like the Ludivers Festival).
• He sees the group’s mission as vital for integrating new residents and reducing local tensions.

Next Steps

• Get the association's tax ID number (NIF).
• Open a bank account.
• Change the address to the Centre Civic Barri Vell