Projeto Rua “Em Família para Crescer”

Contribute to the decrease in the number of children, adolescents and young people at risk and/or in danger by promoting their socio-family reintegration.
matilde-sirgado
Liaison Person at the Board of Directors: Dr. Matilde Sirgado
Coordination: Dr. Matilde Sirgado

General Objectives

Target Group

Taking into account the scope of the Projeto Rua, it has been determined that its target group is very diverse. However, aware of our role and purpose, we emphasize that the main target group are children, from 0-18 years, and their families.

However, we must not neglect the other groups that appear at various levels throughout our work, with whom we share our experience and intervention strategies.

They are all those who come to us (students from different areas and countries) to obtain information about our project and where we privilege direct and personalized contact.

We direct our action to children and families, supporting them in their social environment, intervening in an integrated way in communities with adverse contexts, namely in the city of Lisbon. We speak of multiproblem families characterized by low self-esteem with little ability to evaluate and invest in their potentialities. They are marked by uncertainty and instability, living on support/subsidies and, still, manifesting difficulty in investing in the education of their children.

We also speak of children and adolescents who are in a vulnerable situation conditioned by experiences that do not favour their healthy growth. The majority in school age whose course is characterized by absenteeism, successive retentions, poor participation in activities of curricular enrichment and early school leaving.

We also refer to the accompaniment of adolescents who daily make the street their space of survival and learning. They present deviant behaviors, difficulties in accepting/complying with rules, due to the lack of discipline in their daily life that leads them to enter the judicial system (marginal paths and disruptive behaviors).

Generally, they come from all over the metropolitan area of Lisbon, being diagnosed by the team or flagged by other entities.

We refer to all those who, for reasons inherent in their own life history, have not had the opportunity to learn how to live with family, and their suffering is mirrored in the only language they know: violence, theft and consumption.

Today, in the 21st Century, there are many efforts made worldwide to reverse the situation in which these children and young people live. This is what the IAC – Projeto Rua has been doing over the past 28 years, with increasing importance given to the Rights of the Child and with increased effort for these to be fulfilled, in order to provide a complete emotional, social, community and educational accompaniment.

Intervention Axis

Organgrama de Eixos de Intervenção

Youth Development and Inclusion Center

General Objective

Intervene in emergency situations in the face of missing and/or sexually exploited adolescents and young people with a particular focus on those who are on the run.

Team

Center for Education and Training

General Objective

Promote the development of personal/social skills and the acquisition of knowledge in the school/professional area for a constant group of 45 young people.

Strengthen the theoretical-practical knowledge of social actors and promote the transferability of methodologies on the problems of these young people.

Team

Centre for Community Support

General Objective

Prevent situations of children at risk in 3 communities with adverse contexts.

Prevent risky behaviour in 3 schools of the communities involved.

Team

Administrative Support

Team

History

The Project “Street Work with Children at Risk or Marginality” started on 16 October 1989 under the EEC’s Third Programme to Combat Poverty, which aimed at the economic and social integration of disadvantaged groups. It was the only project approved for Portugal as an innovative initiative and of which Adelina Odete Marques was an enthusiastic co-author. It appeared in the city of Lisbon, specifically in the downtown area, to intervene with children who wandered and slept in the street, on the subway grills, being “exposed” the intervention of other services.

We can identify four phases in the structuring of the Projeto Rua, taking into account both the dynamics generated, the strategies and methodologies employed, and the actors involved.

Our Projects

Ação Aprender na Rua

Ação Educar e Formar para Inserir (AEFI)

Mala VIP

Projeto: Educa(CON)dado

Our Documents

Analysis of the results of the questionnaires applied to the children and youth monitored by the Street Project (2021)

Photo Gallery

Mulher Activa Award 2008 Video: Matilde Esteves Sirgado
Mulher Activa Award 2008 Video: Matilde Esteves Sirgado