Associação Cultural e de Apoio Social do Sporting Clube da Cruz IPSS

Our organization is a Private Social Solidarity Institution and is called Sporting Clube da Cruz Cultural and Social Support Association. Our target group are children and young people aged between 10 and 15 years, living in the parish of Paranhos, whose largest is located in the various social districts of the city of Porto. Our biggest challenge is to help the integration and inclusion of this target audience, as they are often put aside by society, which makes the acceptance barriers much greater. They are children who mostly need great emotional support and support for affection and love; therefore, we try our best to convey these feelings to them, so that they feel loved and respected. We try to make the Association a space where they can feel themselves, without lies or "masks", with no room for judgments but for support and demonstration of the values inherent to friendship. Our main objective is to show these children / young people that it is possible to open horizons and show them that they are capable of changing their futures, but that, for this, studies and success in them, is something indispensable for this to happen. Therefore, our Association has a Study Room, where volunteers (mostly university students) appear daily to support the study of these children. We want to develop skills such as organization, time management, motivation, the ability to project into the future, logical reasoning and oral and written communication. We believe that these children / young people, with our help and support, are able to change their reality and that of their community; thus, aiming to reach the maximum potential of each child / adolescent, both at an academic, personal, but also social level. Improving your social and civic competences, the spirit of initiative, active citizenship, the fact that they begin to know European values and understand and understand that radicalism and violence do not lead anywhere is, without a doubt, one of our main focuses of work with these children. In addition to these motivations, there are also personal motivations, of which we want children to develop communication, assertiveness, decision-making, responsibility, problem-solving, time management, active citizenship, empathy skills. group work, respect for others, emotional management and sharing skills. Thus, we want to be active agents of positive change in our community, on behalf of the European Union and Solidarity and with the opportunity to show all young people the value they have and the ability they are given to change the society in which they are inserted.