Agintzari has been fighting social exclusion since 1979. In 1983 it legally became Asociación Agintzari, participating in a number of programmes aimed at tackling social problems, carrying out research and providing care for vulnerable children and young people at risk. The association set up Community Intervention Teams to promote and manage care homes and develop social and educational family and street awareness programmes. In 1991 it became a cooperative, a business model providing a social structure accurately reflecting its objectives and enabling the creation of a more democratic management structure aimed at giving people decent jobs as well as instilling the virtues of a professional approach, quality in social programmes and a wholehearted commitment to society, particularly to the vulnerable and the socially excluded. The cooperative broadened the scope of its activities, previously focused on social and educational services, and began specialising in the provision of psychosocial and advanced consultation services. In 2000 these principles and values were endorsed once more when Agintzari became a social enterprise, thereby acquiring the status of a non-profit organisation. That same year also saw the Basque Government declare Agintzari a public utility organisation.