This week we started Ativoluntário, a Project that seeks to encourage civic participation, being part of the "Programa de Capacitação Juvenil" by Jovem Cascais in partnership with "Colégio Amor de Deus".

The project main goal is to activate the existing volunteer inside each youngster through encouragement and empowerment so they can become active citizens.

With Ativoluntário, we intend that the youngster acquires and develops skills and values such as empathy, sharing, honesty, team spirit and cooperation, self-confidence, and respect for the other. We consider that these values are crucial elements that will help direct the actions of the future volunteer, contributing firmly to the Project's unity, and above all, for the youngsters' development.

The Project will be developed throughout ten sessions for each 10th and 11th class of "Colégio Amor de Deus" during which countless contents and essential concepts are to be explored. As an example, there are its values and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The presentation session of the Project let know, to each class, the Jovem Cascais's Team that will accompany and dynamize the Ativoluntário Project. The students also had the opportunity of knowing our many projects and initiative for youngsters and the general structure and guidelines of Ativoluntário.

The highlight of the premiere was the launching of the first challenge: to look to your peer and identify the highlights of his or her's face. This challenge provided an encounter between two youngsters so they could look into one another and even though they didn't know each other before or weren't as close, they were able to observe that after all the differences, they were part of the same. In that time and space, they got to put themselves in the other's shoes and reflect on the importance of altruism and respect for others.

Jovem Cascais's Team intends, with the development of this Project, to capacitate and raise awareness for the importance of identifying the main needs of one's school community and consequently to create solutions for the challenges that they find.

The Ativoluntário Project seeks to accomplish the 4th and 10th goals established by the Sustainable Development Goals - Quality Education and to Reduce Inequalities, respectively.

We seek to accomplish the 4th SDG by guaranteeing that the involved students acquire knowledge and needed skills to promote sustainable development through education, human rights, gender equality, global citizenship, and many others.

The 10th SDG will seek to be accomplished through the empowerment and promotion of social inclusion of all young participants and the school and local communities regardless of the characteristics that differentiate one another.