Purpose: To monitor citizens’ well-being, promote a participative and cohesive municipality and establish Networks that promote social development, fight poverty and social exclusion.
Stimulus/Rationale: The municipality of Cascais promoted a Local Social Assessment led by the Social Network, an network of organisations that regularly checks on residents’ well-being. Its objective is to involve citizens and organisations in public discussions on living conditions in Cascais, stimulating good practices of citizenship while promoting a more participative and cohesive municipality.
"Social cohesion translates the capacity of a society to guarantee the well-being of all its members, minimising disparities and avoiding polarisation, according to a perspective of shared responsibility." Concerted development of social cohesion indicators - Methodological guide, CE (2005)
The notion of shared responsibility is the key to the social cohesion model of the Council of Europe on which the local social assessment of Cascais is based and which proposes to analyse a set of dimensions:
- Living conditions of inhabitants, in particular those belonging to groups most vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination;
- Local resources and actors (organisations, businesses, families, citizens, etc.) and the action they take to promote social cohesion;
- The basic ingredients of community life: values, bonds, trust, feelings, etc.
Based on a strongly participatory dynamic, the methodological options of the Social Assessment allowed the crossing of several perspectives, in a perspective of shared responsibility of the various socio-economic actors: local government, non-governmental organisations, public services, companies and citizens. Know more about the results of the Assessment here.
This assessment was carried out in the context of Cascais Social Network, a groups of partners responsible for promoting the social development of the municipality, based on updated assessments and through Social Development Plans (PDS).
The Social Network is a local governance structure that aims to articulate and congregate efforts among the active social agents in the municipality, with the following objectives: - Fight poverty and social exclusion- Promote integrated social development- Promote inclusion and social cohesion
The Social Network, framed by the Council of Ministers Resolution of November 18, 1997 (regulated by Law 115/2006 of June 14) is an active social policy program that promotes local partnerships that allow the development and consolidation of a collective awareness of social problems. The Networks should contribute to the activation and optimization of local resources for social intervention at the level of the municipality and of the parishes, focusing on a territorial strategic planning of social intervention.
The Social Network is composed of:- Local Council for Social Action (CLAS)- Executive Nucleus (NE) of CLAS - Strategy Commission- Parish Social Commissions (CSF)- Thematic and territorial partnership networks, platforms and consortia.
The Local Council for Social Action (CLAS) is made up of 131 public and private entities that have formally joined the Cascais Social Network.
CLAS operates in plenary, through a system of representation of all its members and is chaired by the Mayor of Cascais.
Its competencies include: Promote initiatives aimed at a better awareness of social challenges; Promote participatory Municipal Social Assessments, the Social Development Plan and the Annual Action Plans; Foster the articulation between public and private entities, aiming at a concerted action in the prevention and resolution of social challenges.
Process: The Social Assessment was led by the Social Network, composed by several local partners and has been combined with a Council of Europe methodology called Spiral (Societal Progress Indicators and Responsibilities for All) that aims to study social behaviours and citizens’ well-being.
The project develops in two steps. First, citizens answer questions on a wide range of topics, such as health, housing, culture and leisure, income, employment, education, etc. Secondly, the organisation asks them about their perception on well-being in Cascais; for instance: “What is well-being for you?” or “What would you do to ensure yours and everyone’s well-being?”.
Impact: The Social Assessment has addressed 240 residents, regardless of their nationalities and ethnicities. Also, the project involved secondary school pupils, young people followers of the youth associative movement, citizens over 65, senior academies, people with intellectual/motor disabilities and people with migrant backgrounds.
It is still used as a reference and helps inform local projects led by the municipality and by other partners.
Key reference documents:
