Feeling inspired by Centro Contigo
Last week, we visited Centro Contigo in La Linea with our client, Arabella Featherstone from Feathers Fitness in Sotogrande. We were there to give them a donation of €1,000, which Arabella and her clients had raised and see the centre for ourselves. Arabella also led the older kids in a fitness class and joined the kids for “merienda”. We all left there with huge smiles on our faces, so inspired by the work they are doing and so I wanted to share our first-hand experience of the impact they are having on this community.
What is Centro Contigo?
Centro Contigo is a youth centre for kids aged 3 to 18 years old, located in a deprived area of La Linea. It is run by the Asociacion Familia Vicenciana and works hand in hand with the social services department of the La Linea Town Hall to offer as much support as possible to young people and families in the area. Many of these families are living in poverty and struggling to put food on the table and support their children with their school work. The charity is crucial to offer a safe place for them to be, away from the dangers of the street corners, and a place to study and strive for a better future.
We were shown around by Veronica Ruiz, who has worked at the centre for 25 years, and the Counsellor for Social Affairs and Community Relations from La Linea Town Hall, Zuleica Molina Herrera. Zuleica herself worked at the centre before joining the Town Hall, and so knows better than most the importance of the centre for the community. She explained that by working together, her department can offer a service which is almost 24 hours a day and 365 days of the year and acknowledged that Centro Contigo can reach the people that they can’t. She called them, “the eyes of the Town Hall’s Social Services Department” and stressed just how much they help the community. It certainly felt like a positive and fun place to be, where education was valued and where anything was possible.
Veronica explained that the 50 kids come to the centre straight after school for lunch, followed by some play time, then homework, workshops and sports classes, before they have “merienda” and then head home to their families at 7.30pm. These hours give the kids a safe and positive space where they can study, have support with their homework if they need it and develop healthy habits, skills and interests.
The centre’s motto is – Whatever you want to do, you can achieve it. The small but dedicated team are there every day to help them reach their goals. Veronica explained that education is key to opportunities and that any child that goes to the centre must attend school regularly and is inspired and supported to do well. She’s seen a massive change in students completing school and even going on to further education thanks to the centre. She told us that most of the community in the past didn’t value school and didn’t even complete the very basic education and this was a key factor to them being stuck in the trap of poverty.
Now their students are achieving some of the best grades in the class and the oldest students were planning their future. One student has even been accepted onto a teacher training course and the Town Hall, together with the centre, has been able to secure funding to allow that to happen. Veronica told us that now, the culture is inspiring success, and that if someone fails a test, their peers and their supervisors and teachers question why it has happened, when they had every opportunity to study and do well. The positive role models and the belief and practical support her and her team offer is really bearing fruit and showing others that it’s possible.
She’s very proud to have seen this change in the 25 years she’s been there and feels like these children leave the centre with the best chance of reaching their potential and achieving what they want to achieve.
All the kids were so welcoming, happy, friendly, polite and engaged and it was a joy to see. They divide the kids up into age groups and we saw the smaller ones playing in the playground and building a Lego model with one of the supervisors. The older ones were busy doing their homework, before playing football and basketball and they were keen to join the fitness class that Arabella ran. They were a testament to the hard work, dedication and care that the team were providing.
Supporting Centro Contigo
Feathers Fitness has been fundraising for the youth charity Asociacion Familia Vicenciana, located in the Centro Contigo in La Linea, since March 2024, and has organized several open weekends at the gym and fitness centre, as well as health and wellness activities such as hikes, meditation and breathwork sessions. Over just 8 months, these activities have raised over 1,000€, a fantastic achievement. This donation will be used to purchase food for the 50 students that attend the centre between 2.30pm and 7.30pm Monday to Friday.
Arabella’s parents had fundraised for the charity before, and so when we were looking for a cause for her Open Day events, she suggested them and asked us to contact them and set up an agreement. The team were lovely, really appreciative and visited the gym in Sotogrande during the first open weekend to tell us what they were doing and how their work really made an impact on the kids.
They help the whole family to give them the best chance of achieving their full potential and not falling into the traps of drugs or crime. A big part of the work they do with these kids is about getting them active, inspiring a love for sports and establishing healthy habits around nutrition and exercise. They have seen first-hand the power of sports to engage and motivate the children and improve their physical and mental health.
This is something that Arabella Featherstone from Feathers Fitness wholeheartedly agrees with and it fits perfectly with the mission of her fitness studio in Sotogrande; “I am so inspired by the work of Centro Contigo and how they are using sport and exercise to help these kids grow their confidence and inner strength. Having suffered with mental health issues and addiction myself and conquered those problems thanks to exercise and healthy eating, I know how powerful it can be. I am so happy to be able to raise funds for this great association and to be here today to lead the kids in a fun fitness activity.”
Join us in helping Centro Contigo
We were all so inspired by seeing the centre, that Arabella plans to go back to do more activities in the centre and will be fundraising for them at the Plaza Blanca Xmas event on the 7th of December from 11.00-14.00, to ensure all the youngsters receive presents for Three Kings.
Come and join her at Feathers Fitness at 11am for a 5KM fun run or walk. A donation of €10 per person will go to purchase presents for the kids at the centre, to ensure they have something on the 6th of January and start the year off with a smile.
If that sounds like too much like hard work, go along to Plaza Blanca from 12 to listen to the Sotogrande International School Choir sing Christmas Carols and enjoy hot chocolate, mince pies and mulled wine, knowing that all proceeds will be split between Centro Contigo and Apoyo Mutuo San Roque. There’ll be a raffle and an auction to raise more funds and it will be a great start to the festive period. We hope to see you there!