The project “Escola do Xisto – o nosso mundo” (School of Schist– our world), in Valongo, is “a clear demonstration of the collective commitment to inclusion and to fighting social exclusion’, said Metropolitan Executive Officer Orlando Leal at the closing session of the initiative, integrated in the Action Plan for the Disadvantaged Communities of the Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP).

For Orlando Leal, projects such as the School of Schist “encompass the equal participation of all people in society, regardless of physical, social, gender or ethnic characteristics”.

“But to inclusion we also add the appreciation of difference and the transformative power of art”, stressed the Metropolitan Executive Officer at the seminar that marked the closure of the project, developed by Associação Viver Alfena, under the theme: “Diferença que Cria, Arte que Transforma – O Impacto da Arte na Deficiência” (The Difference That Creates, The Art That Transforms – The Impact of Art on Disability). A seminar that, according to Orlando Leal, represents not an end but the “continuity” of a way of acting through a project “which reflects, in an exemplary way” the meaning of “effective public policies: proximity, humanisation, continuity and real impact on people’s lives”.

“This Action Plan for the Disadvantaged Communities thus aims to support territories and communities facing vulnerabilities aggravated by the recent social context”, highlighted the Metropolitan Executive Officer, underlining the fact that the School of Schist represented an investment of more than EUR 1.4 million, supported by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).

“The Porto Metropolitan Area´s mission was to ensure that these investments were handed over with efficiency, transparency and impact. We believe that working side by side with institutions such as the Associação Viver Alfena, and with our Municipalities, which have the deepest knowledge of the territory and the reality of the populations, is the most efficient way to optimize public programmes, thus offering them a greater capacity for transformation, "said Orlando Leal.

The aim of the School of Schist was to include children, young people and adults with disabilities and to stimulate personal, social and professional skills by introducing cultural and leisure activities that promote the fight against stigma and the inclusion and occupational integration of citizens with disabilities.