Last Saturday, December 7, Engenho - Associação de Desenvolvimento Local do Vale do Este, in Vila Nova de Famalicão, inaugurated the extension and remodelling of the Community Support Centre in the parish of Arnoso Santa Maria. 

The Secretary of State for Social Work and Inclusion, Clara Marques Mendes, and the Mayor of Famalicão, Mário Passos, inaugurated the works, which improved the Day Centre’s spaces. 

The investment, made with a grant from PARES - the Programme to Extend the Social Facilities Network, focused on improving and rehabilitating the spaces, allowing for a better social response in the support service for the community of Vale do Este.

‘It's a project that has increased our response and allowed us to improve the services of the Community Support Centre, namely the Day Centre, but also the spaces for childcare, the canteen, the multipurpose space and the administrative services,’ said Manuel Araújo, president of Engenho.

The work involved an investment of around 280,000 euros and received 85,000 euros of support from the local authority. 

Increasing the social response in the municipality is a concern that has deserved the attention of the municipal executive and Mayor Mário Passos emphasised the importance of the social network in meeting this challenge:

‘We have accompanied and supported the various interventions that our institutions are launching in the field and that help position Famalicão as a more supportive, cohesive and inclusive municipality, and Engenho's work is a good example of its ability to respond to the community.’ 

At the session, the Secretary of State for Social Action and Inclusion, Clara Marques Mendes, pointed out the importance of the social sector as a public service of proximity duly recognised by the state, stressing the willingness to find the best solutions so that Private Institutions of Social Solidarity can ensure their economic, financial and functional sustainability and develop their projects to a high standard. ‘It's a challenge that requires appropriate responses and strategies,’ he said.

It should be remembered that Engenho was founded in 1994 with the aim of promoting community development in its area of intervention in the East Valley. This inauguration ceremony marked the end of the organisation's 30-year history.