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Interview about Mi Casa project with Laura Espejo from Plena Inclusión

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In Europe, many people with intellectual disabilities still live in institutions.

Institutions are places where people with intellectual disabilities live with other people with intellectual disabilities. People that live in institutions live apart from others and are excluded from the community.
They also have to follow the rules of the institution and cannot decide for themselves.

The organisation Plena Inclusion wanted to change that.
Plena Inclusion is an organisation from Spain that represents
people with intellectual disabilities. Plena Inclusion is also a member of Inclusion Europe.

Plena Inclusion started a project called Mi Casa.
Mi Casa means “My Home” in Spanish. The Mi Casa project helped over 300 people with intellectual disabilities and complex support needs move out of institutions and into the community.

Plena Inclusion started the Mi Casa project after the Spanish government and the European Union gave them money. Mi Casa started in 2022 and finished in 2024.

Mi Casa got a lot of good feedback from:

  • the people who moved out of institutions,
  • the communities into which they moved,
  • the people that worked on the project.

Mi Casa is also helping the Spanish government with its deinstitutionalisation plan.

The plan wants people with intellectual disabilities and complex support needs to move out of institutions and into the community.

The plan also wants:

  • more people with disabilities to live independently.
  • to give people the support they need.
  • to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.

The plan started in 2024. The plan will run until 2030.

Every 2 years, the Spanish government checks that everything is working well and changes the things that are not working.

The Mi Casa project is important. Mi Casa proves that change is possible. And it shows the government in Spain that communities are better than institutions.

If you want to find out more about Mi Casa, watch the video.

In Europe, many people with intellectual disabilities and complex support needs still live in institutions. For many, the lack of support and housing means having to live in an institution as a last (and often only) option.

Plena Inclusión, our Spanish member organisation, set out to change that through their project “Mi Casa – a life in the community”. Mi Casa means “my home” in Spanish. The project aimed to provide people with intellectual disabilities and complex support needs with a better way of life by helping them move from institutions into ordinary homes in the community. And it did.

313 people with intellectual disabilities and complex support needs moved out of institutions during the Mi Casa project.

The project ran from 2022 to 2024 with support from the Spanish government and the European Union’s Next Generation funds. It created 69 small community homes across 7 regions of Spain. Around 4 people lived in each home. Every person had an individual life plan and received personalised support. Community Connectors helped people build relationships and use services in their local area.

Mi Casa provided the practical evidence that change is possible. Project reports also helped public authorities understand the benefits, costs and impact of community living. The project also informed Spain’s Deinstitutionalisation Strategy, which was launched in June 2024. The strategy aims to replace institutional care with personalised and community-based support. It focuses on independence, inclusion and quality of life.

Around 80% of the community homes created during the project remained open after it finished. The project also helped change attitudes among professionals, public authorities and local communities.
To find out more about the Mi Casa project, watch our video with Laura Espejo, Plena Inclusión’s Deputy Director.

To find out more about our work on deinstitutionalisation and the right to live independently have a look at this: