ASSOCIACAO ILGA PORTUGAL

description of organisation

ounded in 1995, ILGA Portugal is the oldest and largest NGO struggling to protect and promote the rights of (our target group) lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people and their families in Portugal.
Aims:
Our mission is the social inclusion of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex persons in Portugal, through a broad programme of support in the social field that guarantees the improvement of their quality of life through:
- an extended social support program.
- the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender expression and identity and sexual characteristics.
- the promotion of citizenship, human rights, and gender equality.
We are a national organisation with headquarters in Lisbon, where we run the LGBTI Community Center.
Regular activities • The Community Centre has a monthly social and cultural program, through we create and dynamize local events and group activities, such as round tables, workshops, exhibitions, training sessions, karaoke nights, movie nights, theme parties, and special days, such as visibility and remembrance days, or social dinner at Christmas night or New Year’s Eve party. • The Community Centre also provides specialized services and activities such as mutual support groups, sports group, book group, choir, rainbow families, documentation centre/ historic archive, STI prevention group and others. • We plan and organise grand events such as the annual rainbow awards gala, the rainbow garden, pride parades/events, political debates with representatives of political parties, conferences with European / International organizations or advocacy meetings with key entities. • We manage and run the only LGBTI helpline in Portugal and we also offer professional services like victim support service and social support service. • We also facilitate the access to specialized health care, especially for Trans people, migrants, victims, and parenting. • We organise training for strategic key players and audiences like health professionals, educators, and others. • We manage the country's only Documentation Centre with LGBTI repository. • We create training materials and technical guidelines for more inclusive schools and universities.
What are the activities and experience of your organisation in the areas relevant to the European Solidarity Corps?
ILGA Portugal is the only community based LGBTI organization in Portugal working in the social, community and political/advocacy areas at the same time, and we do it with a wide scope of services, responses, and community groups – since our foundation.
And we also work with a wide range of social and political organizations and allies, because the discrimination that LGBTI people suffer have many times the same root of structural discrimination that other vulnerable groups, with parallel negative impact on society.
We encourage the democratic participation, we fight the social exclusion, we promote the health and wellbeing, a better and inclusive education and training for all, and we work with migrant communities. And we do this through a wide range of community services and responses:
Fighting social exclusion – to fight the social exclusion and social isolation we run mutual support groups (such as women; men; trans and non-binary people; black people; people with disabilities and LGBTI parenting). We run community activity groups (theatre, choir, sports group, dance, yoga, book club and the rainbow family’s group) and the Community Centre cultural program is also a mix set of smaller activities throughout the year (7/365), debates, participation in the definition of public policies, presentation of academic research, books and exhibitions and other cultural events, promotion of thematic parties and the celebration of days of visibility and memory and many other activities. We manage and run the only LGBTI helpline in Portugal and we also offer professional services like victim support service and social support service.
Protecting nature - through the implementation of internal policies for the reduction, reuse, and recycling of end-of-life materials, in the day-to-day activities of the organization and in major annual events; also in the training and qualification of new volunteer people, for changing attitudes and behaviours in the organization; in the promotion of workshops focused on environmental preservation / reduction of the ecological footprint.
Promoting health and wellbeing – Through the different mutual support groups already listed, with our psychological support service, victim support service, STD prevention and mental health and self-injurious behaviours and LGBTI helpline. We also facilitate the access to specialized health care, especially for Trans people, migrants, victims, and parenting. In the training of Health professionals and in the advocacy for better public health policies.
Promoting education and training - in the training of strategic key players and audiences; in the development of studies and research and in the advocacy for better educational policies; creating training materials and technical guidelines for a more inclusive school; training for education professionals as well as enhance and monitor observation internships and professional internships; managing the country's only Documentation Centre with LGBTI repository, which directly supports school and academic research at various levels of education, and working closely with privileged players such as school and public libraries and archives.
Working with migrant communities - support for asylum seekers and refugees; training for key entities (public and social); networking with other European organizations; advocacy for better public policies.
And we promote every year national/regional/local events with a strong visibility and political message, parallel to the community engagement and pear support, such has Rainbow Awards Gala (where we reward the best practices towards LGBTI persons), pride parades/events, political
debates with representatives of political parties, conferences with European / International organizations or advocacy meetings with key entities.