Ongoing Projects and Activities

No âmbito do direito à informação e à participação, estão a ser realizadas sessões de apresentação de “Vila Verde, Amiga das Crianças” junto das crianças e jovens do Concelho. Estas sessões realizam-se nas escolas – públicas e privadas -, e abrangem todas as turmas desde o jardim de infância ao ensino secundário e profissional. Pretende-se dar a conhecer às crianças, não só o reconhecimento da UNICEF a Vila Verde no âmbito do Programa “Cidades Amigas das Crianças”, mas também introduzir as áreas de intervenção desenhadas no seu Plano de Ação Local (PAL). A intenção de melhorar as práticas permanentes e efetivas de participação das crianças, começa por lhes dar a conhecer o resultado de um processo em que elas próprias já participaram, nomeadamente no diagnóstico da realidade infantojuvenil e na partilha de sugestões de ações que, muitas delas, foram integradas no PAL. Pretende-se, também, que elas façam parte das decisões de como esta participação poderá ser concretizada e sobre que temáticas, começando por ouvi-las desde já nesse sentido.

The voting for the GIF logo has already been completed! Watch the video, made by two young people, to learn more:

Watch video click here.

A consultation is underway with children and young people from the public schools of the municipality to conduct a study on the level of satisfaction, safety, and adequacy (in terms of schedules and equipment) of school transport, involving students from the 5th to the 12th grade. The form for this purpose is being shared through the schools, but it can be accessed here:  link

During the dissemination sessions of “Vila Verde, Child Friendly” at EPATV and ESVV, opinions were collected from young people about issues they believe the Municipal Chamber should listen to. The feedback was extensive, and many young people expressed their willingness to work more closely with the Municipal Chamber on the various ideas and topics raised. More information on this will be shared as soon as possible.

The “Super’A” project is about to launch, a pilot initiative aimed at ensuring that children on the autism spectrum can benefit from individual mentoring at school. This project, Action A11 of the PAL of “Vila Verde, Child Friendly,” will take place at the Vila Verde School Group and is in partnership with SalusLive – Therapeutic Center and a researcher from the Neuropsychophysiology Laboratory at the University of Minho.

One of the operational objectives of “Vila Verde, Child Friendly” is to ensure the implementation of at least one literacy activity for parents/caregivers on various topics, with nutrition being one of them. In this context, several activities are being carried out for parents in the municipality’s schools as part of the Municipal Project “School Meal Provision.” The aim is to provide parents and the entire educational community not only with better information on how the meal supply system is implemented in these schools, but also to raise awareness of basic concepts essential for healthy nutrition for the children and young people of the municipality.

In the 2023–2024 school year, a reading promotion activity was carried out in partnership with APPACDM, with the collaboration of the Professor Machado Vilela Municipal Library, based on the book “Histórias Comidas – Eu consigo!” by Emília Martins, who authored both the text and illustrations. This action falls under the Strategic Objective “Promote well-being and equal opportunities.”

Reading sessions of the book were held in various kindergartens and primary schools in Vila Verde, reaching a total of 2,561 children.

Some of the kindergarten sessions were conducted in partnership with a local APPACDM team (technicians – including the author – and users), allowing children to interact with adults with special needs, who demonstrated how it is possible to “read” the book by interpreting the images.

During these sessions, children also had the opportunity to try “reading” the book themselves, clearly enjoying the experience as they realized they could indeed infer the meaning of the written text by interpreting the corresponding images.

Children were also invited to share their opinions on the session, with results showing overwhelmingly positive feedback: 90% of the children “voted” the experience as “I liked it.”