With an investment of five million euros, financed with support from the European Union, the Faro City Council, and the institution itself, the new headquarters of AAPACDM will be inaugurated in a ceremony on the city’s day, fulfilling a long-standing “aspiration” of the institution, which has been operating for about six decades, Jorge Leitão told Lusa.
The president of AAPACDM explained that the association was previously based in the city center, in “cramped” and “very tight, spaceless” facilities. Thanks to Portugal 2020 and the municipality’s availability, it was possible to construct the new facilities, located in Lejana, near one of Faro’s entrances.
“It’s a very large investment that we could never have been able to make on our own, obviously, and we had great support from the CCDR [Commission for Coordination and Regional Development], with European funding, and from the Faro Municipality,” he emphasized.
When asked about the improvements the new facilities bring to the association’s work, Jorge Leitão responded that they are visible, “first of all, in terms of the number of people,” with the capacity to accommodate 45 more users, but also in the activity of a residential home and a Center for Activities for Empowerment and Inclusion (CACI).
“We will have professional training, we will continue with the same services we had on Compromisso Street, although we now have a greater capacity to respond in terms of care, attention, and dedication to our kids,” he said happily, quantifying that in the old facilities, the association received 80 users.
Jorge Leitão emphasized the importance of the professional training aspect for the young people who attend the association, who “are fully capable people, properly trained, and can develop a useful and paid activity” in society, in areas such as cooking, catering, or gardening.
With the new facilities, AAPACDM will also have “an increase in work” and open “at least 20 more job positions” in “relation to the number of people it already had,” raising the number of employees from 35 to 55, he indicated.
“And if things continue to develop as we think, it’s natural that it may still grow in this aspect,” he anticipated, stressing that “not all people have the ability to do this type of work” and, sometimes, there is “some difficulty in recruiting people who adapt and are suitable for dealing with and treating this type of problem.”
The families of young people with mental disabilities in the Algarve will also benefit from the new social equipment, both through the impact of the association’s work results on the daily lives of the young people and children served, and through the social home, which “is very important” to “relieve families” with permanent or temporary accommodations.
As part of the Faro city day ceremonies, the inauguration of AAPACDM’s new headquarters is scheduled for 5:00 PM, with the expected participation of the Secretary of State for Inclusion, Maria Clara Gonçalves Marques Mendes, the Mayor of Faro, Rogério Bacalhau, the district director of the Social Security Institute, Margarida Flores, and the president of CCDR Algarve, José Apolinário.
