Support for Independent Living
Support for young people aged 15 to 25 working towards independent living, in education or training.
Responses
The Support for Independent Living responses are aimed at young people aged 15 to 21 who are working towards progressive autonomy, in their natural living environment or in residential care. Young people can remain in these responses until age 25, provided they are enrolled in an educational or training pathway, with a view to their full integration and autonomy.
The diversification of autonomy responses, within measures delivered in the natural living environment, responds to the growing complexity and transformation of society — which inevitably reflects in the profiles of young people taking part in the different responses:
- Independent Living Apartments
- Autonomous Residences
- APAM – Pre-Autonomy Apartments for Migrants
- CASI – Autonomy House with Intensive Supervision
- EIC – Community Integration Team
Independent Living Apartments
This service aims to support autonomy processes in a more gradual way, with close support and supervision ensured by a technical team present in the young people's daily life. These apartments are spread across the city of Lisbon and are aimed primarily at young people from care homes and/or at-risk situations.
Each apartment can host three to four young people with an autonomy measure, which provides them with a monthly financial allowance to cover their everyday and essential expenses. Each young person has their own private space (bedroom) and shares the common areas with the others.
Admission criteria
- Be aged 15 to 21.
- Have a promotion and protection process, preferably with a Support for Independent Living measure in place.
Frequently asked questions
The general aims of the work carried out in the Independent Living Apartments are:
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To support young people’s transition to adulthood and their integration into society through a specific intervention methodology aimed at responsibility and autonomy;
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To enable young people to acquire/develop personal, social, educational/training and professional skills;
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To mediate processes of autonomy and active participation in society, enhancing factors for social integration;
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To provide the conditions necessary for the physical, psychological and social well-being of the young people in the apartments;
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To develop individual support processes at psychosocial, material, informational and socio-occupational integration level.
The proposal to admit a young person to the Independent Living Apartments is made by completing the current application form, accompanied by a psychosocial report from the director of the care home or from the technical team supporting the young person’s situation.
Support by the team ends when it is found that the young person has acquired the necessary and effective conditions of autonomy and self-sufficiency, following assessment and a positive opinion from the Technical Support Team for the Independent Living Apartments, or when the young person turns 25.
Support is provided through apartment meetings, individual meetings, meetings/contacts with external bodies (education, health and other institutions), contacts with the young people’s families, and accompanying the young people on errands considered relevant. Young people are supported in managing their day-to-day life and in mobilising resources across various areas of their life (education, health, family, leisure, etc.)
Contacts
Support for Independent Living Unit
Largo Trindade Coelho
1200-470 Lisbon
* Cost of a call to the national landline network
Autonomous Residences
The Autonomous Residences emerged in response to the prevalence of young adults with cognitive impairment (Intellectual and Developmental Difficulties) who have functional skills, aiming to support and optimise autonomy projects for this group.
These residences can host three or four young people, each entitled to their own private space (bedroom) and sharing the common areas.
Integration into the job market is the key factor for autonomy, supporting the right to worker status, fostering a sense of belonging, enabling the development of financial management skills and promoting social integration and the feeling of contributing to society.
With regard to educational pathways, there has been an increasing focus on the training and professional re-qualification of some of the young residents, taking into account their profile, age and their potential in terms of personal investment for a new pathway. This
Admission criteria
- Young people with a disability or impairment who, with support, are able to live autonomously;
- Be aged between 18 and 25;
- Be in a care home or other facility, preferably of SCML;
- Have no family support network;
- Be motivated and willing to join the Autonomous Residence;
- Have a relational profile that allows for interaction and group living;
- Be working and/or enrolled in educational or vocational training;
- Show no history of substance dependency or a psychiatric diagnosis that would prevent admission to and continued residency in the Autonomous Residence.
Frequently asked questions
The main aims of the Autonomous Residence are:
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To give resident young people equal opportunities, supporting their social participation and the development of professional paths;
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To provide accommodation and the conditions needed for the physical, psychological and social well-being of the resident young people;
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To support individual mainstream projects beyond the residential space, in line with the residents’ characteristics and their sociocultural and age-related expectations, providing the adjustments and resources needed for their functional independence and autonomy;
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To promote strategies to strengthen personal self-esteem and the ability to organise daily living activities;
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To support the development and training of personal and social skills that contribute to learning the tasks involved in daily and household living, as well as to fulfilling social roles and living in the community.
The age limit for support is 25 or, in exceptional, duly justified cases, 30. However, this support is determined by the promotion and protection measure in place.
The duration of support is determined by the promotion and protection measure in place.
The proposal to admit a young person to the Autonomous Residence is made by completing the current application form, accompanied by a psychosocial report from the director of the care home or other facility where the young person is based.
The young person’s admission to the Autonomous Residence is preceded by a minimum period of three weeks of intensive skills training within the residence itself, and must be formalised through a written contract between the young person and the director of the Support for Independent Living Unit, setting out the rights and obligations of the parties.
Within no more than 30 days of the young person’s admission, an Individual Intervention Plan must be agreed and signed with them, subject to continuous assessment by the young person and the technical team.
Contacts
Autonomous Residences
Rua do Sol a Chelas, 78, 2nd floor right / 3rd floor left
1900-423 Lisbon
* Cost of a call to the national landline network
APAM – Pre-Autonomy Apartments for Migrants
The pre-autonomy apartment for migrants emerged following the increase of Unaccompanied Foreign Young People in Portugal, with certain emotional and functional support needs to access community integration responses on arrival. To respond to this need, SCML and the Aga Khan Foundation signed a protocol to put into operation an apartment with capacity to host six young people aged 15 to 21.
This service operates with continuous staff support, allowing a comprehensive understanding of each young person's main strengths and challenges at different times of their daily life. These staff are a safe haven to help understand and overcome difficult situations and, at the same time, to bring out skills essential for integration in the different contexts the young people move in. They are themselves responsible — supported by the financial allowance under the measure — for their food, clothing and leisure, building a routine and the conditions to pursue their dreams/projects.
Admission criteria
Admission of young people to APAM is subject to the following cumulative criteria:
- Be aged between 15 and 18;
- Be a young foreign migrant;
- Have a promotion and protection measure of Support for Independent Living applied in their favour, preferably, or a residential care measure;
- Be motivated to develop their autonomy process in a committed and responsible way.
Frequently asked questions
The proposal to admit a young person to APAM is made by any SCML service or by any external entity, by completing the current application form, accompanied by a psychosocial report.
The assessment of the young person’s admission proposal includes the following steps:
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Analysis of the application form and psychosocial report and verification of the admission criteria defined in Article 9 of the APAM Regulations;
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Meeting with the technical team that submitted the proposal;
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Interview with the young person;
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Opinion of the APAM Technical/Mobile Team.
The duration of support is determined by the duration of the promotion and protection measure in place.
The Technical/Mobile Team:
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Ensures the support of young people residing at APAM, as well as the support of young people who have been part of APAM and moved on to their natural living environment;
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Carries out the practical acts inherent to the measure applied by the Court under the judicial decision, monitoring and assessing each stage of its execution, and providing the court with the information needed to assess the execution of the practical acts of the applied measure, by drawing up reports or social reports within the deadlines provided or whenever facts justify it;
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Cooperates in the execution of the Individual Intervention Plan (PII) and works with the young person on its delivery;
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Promotes access to integrated education and training projects and supports the young person’s training and/or professional pathway;
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Ensures the young people’s engagement across the various areas of their life, namely health, education and employability.
Contacts
APAM – Pre-Autonomy Apartments for Migrants
Rua Inocêncio Francisco da Silva, 16, Ground floor left 1500-348, Lisbon
CASI – Autonomy House with Intensive Supervision
The protocol between the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP) and Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa enabled the opening of an Autonomy House to give effective expression to the Intensive Supervision in Autonomy Apartment measure, set out in Article 158-A of the Educational Tutelary Law. CASI provides young people with an environment of calm and security, as well as the conditions for meeting their needs and complying with the obligations and rules of conduct imposed by the court. The aim is to equip them with the skills and competencies needed for their reintegration into the community, particularly at work, as well as to prevent reoffending.
In addition to this offer, CASI also has a Supported Autonomy Apartment, with three places, for young people with a promotion and protection process and coming from educational tutelary processes who, after completing the measure, are still assessed as needing some support for their social reintegration, receiving in this offer technical support from the team.
The mobile team supporting the two previous offers also supports and accompanies the community integration of young people who have been in educational centres or under Intensive Supervision, in order to enhance their skills and avoid reoffending.
Admission criteria
This service is, preferably, for young people without a family support network, so as to enable the Intensive Supervision period.
The admission criteria are:
- Being in the autonomy phase of the educational centre or, exceptionally, in the consolidation phase;
- Having achieved, or being close to achieving, most of the objectives of their personal educational project;
- Showing personal and social skills and a level of motivation for change consistent with the aims of Intensive Supervision;
- Showing readiness for a future integration in education, training or work immediately or in the month following the start of Intensive Supervision;
- Showing readiness for a future integration in the family of origin, in an alternative family, in an institution or in independent living;
- Demonstrating full understanding of and commitment to the objectives, duties and obligations of the Social Reintegration Plan and the rules of operation of the Autonomy House;
- That the family of origin, alternative family or other figures in the community are available and able to cooperate actively in the Social Reintegration Plan;
- Have the latest assessments favourable in relation to holidays and/or weekends;
- Being in the last half of the in-patient measure or at the start of a successive in-patient measure, considering — in the latter case — that the proposed duration of Intensive Supervision is not equal to or greater than 1 year, nor greater than half of the total duration of the in-patient measure.
EIC – Community Integration Team
This team aims to support the transition to adulthood for young people aged 15 to 25 at risk or in danger — preferably with a Support for Independent Living Measure — to be carried out in the natural living environment, ensuring the practical acts of the measure decided by the Family and Children's Courts or by Promotion and Protection Agreements from the Commissions for the Protection of Children and Young People.
EIC's work is based on a contracted Individual Intervention Plan and on the establishment of close, therapeutically-intended relationships, grounded in trust and in the potential for change, as well as on coordination with all the services and responses needed to deliver that plan. The areas of intervention are as varied as Education/Training and Employability, Health (physical and mental), Household and Financial Management, Housing, Citizenship and Social/Support Network.
EIC works in 9 municipalities of NUTT-III (Vila Franca de Xira, Loures, Odivelas, Amadora, Lisbon, Oeiras, Cascais, Sintra and Mafra).
This approach — combined with the fact that each staff member supports around 12 young people and is based on the establishment of a close relationship, grounded in commitments from both sides and an individual intervention plan — has been well received by young people and has produced positive results in relation to the aims set for them.
Admission criteria
- Be aged between 15 and 25;
- Be at risk or in danger and preferably benefit from the application of a promotion and protection measure of Support for Independent Living;
- Preferably not have a family of their own and no children in their care;
- Have the maturity and willingness to take on commitments and action strategies leading to their autonomy process.
Frequently asked questions
The application is made by sending information about the young person across EIC’s various areas of intervention, by the team and/or adviser supporting them, to the director of the Support for Independent Living Unit.
Support depends on the objectives set and the young person’s needs, with a maximum age limit of 25, as set out in law.
EIC’s aims are to:
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Promote the rights and protection of young people at risk or in danger in their natural living environment, providing appropriate conditions to ensure their well-being and overall development;
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Support the transition to adulthood for young people in their natural living environment, providing conditions for autonomy in educational, training, professional and social contexts;
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Promote the strengthening of the informal and/or meaningful support network so that it can act as support for the young people’s autonomy process;
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Create the conditions for young people to access the network of community services at the different stages of their autonomy process;
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Support and encourage young people in developing their life project by providing information and advice in resolving complex situations and decision-making;
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Provide young people with psycho-pedagogical, emotional, relational, social and, where justified, financial support;
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Strengthen factors of resilience and self-esteem in the young people’s different living and meaningful contexts and develop their ability to discuss and accept rules, and to take and accept criticism;
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Support the building of life projects suited to their living context;
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Encourage young people’s participation in training, cultural, sports and leisure activities, supporting positive relationships with neighbours, school, the workplace and the community at large.
