Portuguese partner
PIEF (Integrated Education and Training Program) is a socio-educational project with a temporary and exceptional feature, dedicated to young minors (between 15 and 18 years old), who are at risk of social exclusion, dropping out of school, risk of starting the path of delinquency (or already with criminal proceedings), usually with dysfunctional families and with a plethora of several other associated issues such as domestic violence, drug abuse and or addiction, alcoholism, criminal behaviors, etc.
This project is carried out at school by teachers with the adequate profile and skills to work with these young people.
This is a last-ditch effort after all other integration measures have been exhausted, in order to complete schooling, social inclusion and integration in the work force or forward studies.
The main advantage of the PIEF project is to be an adequate response to the needs and abilities of each individual student, who generally present deviant behaviors, aimed at gradually but firmly promote and ingrain a healthy and autonomous way of life, acting preemptively and/or correctively against such deviant behavior.
This project is also supported by a specialized technician (social worker in our specific case or a psychologist) who accompanies these young people daily, interacting and working side by side with teachers, school board of directors, student’s families, courts, commissions for protection of minors and all social institutions that accompany each student’s household.
The cooperation within all these integrated elements and working as a team, along with the collaboration and accountability of the youth, is the key to real preventive work.
For this reason, we continue to place our highest bets on this project, knowing that individual victories always outweigh the frustrations.
“Senta-te ao sol. Abdica
E sê rei de ti próprio.”
Ricardo Reis, in “Odes”
“Sit out in the sun. Let it go.
And be King of your own self.”
