Gloria Canals, president of Aura Fundació since 2019 , has a degree in Clinical Psychology and Therapeutic Pedagogy from the University of Barcelona and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.
He has dedicated his life to making visible and normalizing the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in society.
In 1989, he promoted the first Supported Employment project for young people with intellectual disabilities in Catalonia, with the aim of offering a job alternative beyond traditional occupational centers.
As a pioneer in Spain and Europe, she introduced the “Supported Work” methodology and was one of the founders of the Spanish Association of Supported Work, which she chaired for six years. Her professional career began working with people with cerebral palsy and in one of the first inclusive schools of the 1980s, the Escola Verge de la Pau. When she observed that many of the people with intellectual disabilities who attended these schools could not continue in inclusive environments, she decided to create the AURA project. With a grant from the Department of Labor, she started this pilot project with eight people with Down syndrome.
The AURA project demonstrated that, with the appropriate supports, people with intellectual disabilities who wished to do so could hold a job in an ordinary work environment.
She is a founding member of the European Union of Supported Employment (EUSE) and the Catalan Association of Supported Employment (ACTAS), which she chaired for 4 years. She is also vice-president of the Iberoamericana Down 21 Foundation.
He has given numerous lectures, both in Spain and abroad, and has directed and coordinated several congresses, courses, conferences and seminars.
In 2019 he participated as a speaker at the World Down Syndrome Day Congress at the UN headquarters in New York.
She is co-author of the book Project Aura: an experience of labor integration of young people with Down syndrome (Milan 1990) and author of several articles in technical journals on the labor integration of people with intellectual disabilities.
It is worth noting that, in 2022, ONCE recognized his outstanding career, awarding him the ONCE Solidaris award for his valuable contribution to improving the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities.
In 2024 she received the XVII Gaudí Gresol Award in the category of Illustrious Catalan , again in recognition of her work in favor of people with intellectual disabilities.