PROSALIS – HEALTH PROJECT IN LISBON IS A NONPROFIT

PROSALIS – Health Project in Lisbon is a non-profit organization, known for its work in social sector and in Health Care

PROSALIS – Health Project in Lisbon is a non-profit organization, known for its work in social sector and in Health Care. It works with drug addicts and other impoverished communities in the field of prevention, treatment, social and professional insertion. It is also a family oriented organization with generically representation.

PROSALIS is recognized as a Training Entity by IQF – Institute for Quality in Training, in several domains of intervention: Organization and promotion of interventions or professional and educational training activities; Development and execution of interventions or training activities; Other kind forms of social-cultural or pedagogical interventions, complementarily or in preparation for the training activities in order to became easier the social-professional process.

The Institution is also recognized by the National System of Recognition of Entities from the General Direction of Vocational Training. Prosalis through a professional team recognizes, validates and certificates the knowledge which the adults have acquired trough different situations of their personal, social, professional and life style, in the sense of obtaining an equivalence of those knowledge’s and abilities to the 3rd, 2nd or 1st cycles of basic education (9th, 6th or 4th years of scholarship).

PROSALIS, also provides assistance in other areas and works with other social partners and Institutions: Chairperson of F.P.A.T.- Portuguese Federation of Social Institutions Connected with the Prevention of Drug Addiction and member of: UIPSS - Social Union of the NGO’s; of REAPN - European Net, Anti-Poverty/Portugal; of the NGO Committee on Family at UN-Vienna – Austria – Holding the position of Secretary; of ICAA-International Council on Alcohol and Addictions and of EOEF-European Offenders Employment Forum

PROSALIS has developed the following projects:

- 3 ATL – After School Programs, 1 nursery and 1 kinder garden with the aim to accompany and support children after leaving school, with problematic social and family contexts, such as drug abuse, criminal behaviours, alcoholism and unemployment. These programs were extremely necessary in this population, in order to remove the children from the streets which are unhealthy and unstructured environments and also due to the extreme necessity to reinforce positively a learning environment, offering access to structured activities based on a set curriculum. These activities have the purpose to motivate these children in order to promote the interest and wish to learn and also to remove them from unsafe conditions providing and teaching healthy life styles and more productive life skills.

- Project of Fight Against Poverty with the support of National Fight Against Poverty Commission. It is a project of global intervention with the aim to fight the poverty and social exclusion through the creation of favorable conditions, new structures and also has the goal to contribute to the empowerment of this population, to increase professional and educational skills witch will allow the economical and social development of a quarter considered ill-favoured and of high risk.

As a Training Entity has organized:

- 16^th International Congresses about “Life Styles, Addictive behaviours, and HIV”, with the goal of debating the problems related to the addictive behaviours in Portugal in its social, cultural and technical aspects, aiming to improve the health professionals training.

PROSALIS while social health promoter entity decided to dedicate the last years to the social and family integration with the purpose of reaching an effective and successfully integration directed to the human development. The Institution has organized the XVI^th Workshop about “Drug Abuse, Prison Context and ill-favoured Populations in an Reintegration Perspective” which took place at the Parliament in Lisbon and the XV^th International Congress about “Life Styles and Addictive Behaviours”, Health, Immigration, Penitentiary Context and Social Exclusion in a Reintegration Perspective, which also took place at the Parliament.

The human rights promotion, the fight against poverty, the professional and educational training, the strength of the family structure, the social communitarian development, the empowerment, the personal and social skills development, which motivates the self-sufficiency, are some of the strategies to improve the quality and also the professional and educational conditions of these populations.

- 17^th Workshops, with different aims: sensitize to the problems of the consumption of drugs and alcohol use at work place, to the need to promote preventive strategies which should include counseling and treatment that will considerer the interest of the employers and workers, to promote the creation of integral and transversal public politics which consider the following aspects: cultural, social, health, employment, education and from the economy, aiming to raise the existing services and an articulated network in partnership, to promote the increase of innovator projects in order to give an answer to the needs of the populations in risk of social exclusion.

Santa Maria Project

PROSALIS has signed a protocol with the General Direction of Penitentiary Services in 1994, which allowed us to develop since then a continuity work in 28 Penitentiary Establishments around Portugal.

PROSALIS – HEALTH PROJECT IN LISBON IS A NONPROFIT

We started our experience with offenders in Lisbon's Penitentiary Establishment with a transnational project with partnership with Spain, Italy, Belgium and Germany financed by the European Social Funds “Employment Eixo/Integra”. It included a Graphic Arts and Photography Course given to a group of 17 young men, with a background of drug addiction and conduct disorders, which made us to implement interpersonal and behavioural strategies within our training modules, such as Group's Dynamics, Psychodrama, Personal and Social Development.

We believe that the professional and social skills implemented by our training programs have been fostering the individual growth, interpersonal relationships, enhancing self-esteem, sensibility, motivation, while establishing a concrete basis for an autonomous personal project on the outside world.

- An Internship Program with Pressley Ridge Schools, a non-profit and non-governmental organization witch is located in Pittsburgh, in the United States. This organization is geared towards providing support to children, adolescents and their families. This internship had the objective of interchanging the experiences between both professional staff from both countries.

- A Center for Treatment for drug addicts/families and other involved members has been proving services in this area. It also provides pharmacological and psychological consultations and exams with complementary diagnostics.

- PROSALIS has developed many professional and educational training projects with different goals areas, and target groups aiming to promote social and family integration of ill favoured people in the sense to avoid social exclusion.

- Food Distribution Prosalis since the year 2002 develops the food distribution program to ill-favored families of a poor quarter in the surroundings of Lisbon.

SEDE:

Av. Visconde Valmor, 66, 6.º, 1050-242 LISBOA

Tel. 217 981 040 Fax. 217 931 564

E-mail: [email protected] Site: www.prosalis.pt

Tags: health project, social health, nonprofit, project, prosalis, lisbon, health