Notícias

Caritas Coimbra launches project CRIARTE – with CEARTE, APCC and FPCE-UC

Project CRIARTE was presented last March 4, following a challenge made by Cáritas Coimbra to other local entities, which promptly accepted it: CEARTE – Vocational Training Centre on Crafts, APCC – Cerebral Paralysis Association and FPCE-UC – Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra.

This project focus on the acquisition of autonomy skills and employability of people living in social housing, especially Roma women, activating social responsibility to other institutions and public in disadvantage and raising awareness about joint and circular production.

“Projects like CRIARTE born from small dreams and then become effective actions, thanks to the combined will of Caritas and its partners,” said the President of Caritas Coimbra, Pe. Luis Costa, at the opening of the presentation ceremony. “This project was born from the needs felt on the filed and therefore it has to be assertive.”

The project aims to create a line of professional and distinctive crafts products and will be implemented at the Community Center St. Joseph (Caritas Coimbra) located in a social housing neighbourhood, in which this process had its genesis, 8 years ago, with the creation of Occupational workshops directed to women, especially Roma, and aimed at strengthening their personal and social skills, with a view to integration into society. “Caritas provides all the mobilization of will and strength to this partnership so that in one year it can be assessed as very fruitful, with the involvement of the Roma community”, also said the President of Caritas Coimbra.
Antonio Ferreira, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, reinforced the idea that the partnership with the University will support research, stating that “the connection of an educational institution to organisations working in the field is very important actions to the university concerns in the social area and therefore we cannot alienate. We are interested in doing research but also to be on the filed, with the people, especially those who are disadvantaged. “

The connection established with APCC, which works daily with people with cerebral paralysis, can also enhance mutual integration factors with the Roma. Antonio Silvestre, President of the Association stated that the institution “works with a very specific population and here will work also with another very specific public, that is the Roma. There will always be something to carry between them.” He also referred that APCC tries to take its users to the community, “not to have special treatment but to remember that all citizens have the same rights.”

CEARTE remembers that this EVT center “was originally born of the will of Caritas and IEFP and therefore their responsibility towards disadvantaged people is part of their identity matrix.” The Director of CEARTE, Luis Rocha, declared that CEARTE will provide training in three major areas: “training for users and technical team, support innovation and, for those who will, support Roma entrepreneurship in order to help them developing their own project,” although he is conscious that results will certainly not be “great statistical results, but rather small effective changes in people’s lives.”

Next year, Caritas Coimbra expects to have available the CRIARTE first textile products of the new innovative and personalized line, as the result of joint efforts of this unique partnership, which will combine knowledge and experience to enhance the project’s success.