Lisbon, Portugal—UPF-Portugal held an information session to introduce its Character Education to three organizations that help immigrants.
The meeting took place in the Lisbon Peace Embassy on June 25, 2016. The attendees included the main representatives from two recent partner organizations of UPF, hoping to get an idea of the educational potential of these contents, in particular as part of education for citizenship, civility, ethics and morals.
The guests included students who are pursuing studies in various academic fields: sociology, law, entrepreneurship, education, international studies and coaching. The first part of the program introduced them to UPF and its founders and to the potential of the UPF Character Education.
In the second part there was a joint discussion on the benefits to all parties from cooperating in this kind in a common purpose.
One of the partner organizations was the Association for Change and Transcultural Representation, which works with the migrant community, especially in supporting children and young people; family support; aiding social and community integration; protecting the rights and interests of immigrants; as well as education and training. This association is certified in the Register of Private Institutions of Social Solidarity, with the ability to promote and ensure training. UPF is hoping to work with this association to update and adapt the contents of Character Education in order to include it in the national legislation of certified training.
The Advisory Group for Cabo Verde was generated from the Council of the Cabo Verdean Diaspora Communities, defined in the Constitution of the Republic of Cabo Verde as an advisory body for matters relating to the Cabo Verdean communities abroad. With this recently formed group, UPF wants to bring Character Education to the neighborhoods, communities, young people and families, etc., reaching Cabo Verdean immigrants but later expanding to schools and families through other associations, while seeking to gain support and financing from local authorities.
UPF-Portugal also hopes to join these two associations with another partner, the International Platform of Civil Society Diaspora Lusophone, which is concerned with immigrants from Portuguese-speaking nations. This organization created a training program in Leadership and Citizenship, a master’s degree in an E-learning component, in partnership with the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Advanced Studies, the Open University of Lisbon and the Portuguese Quality Association. It has applied to UNESCO for funding for this project. UPF is looking forward to working jointly with this organization to include Character Education in its master’s degree program.
In this meeting, all the participants said they were very pleased with the global goals set by UPF and agreed that the UPF Character Education has the greatest potential to bring positive change to society and solve the current problems, especially those concerning children and youth. They said they are interested in having their organizations support UPF in implementing its Character Education.