Procedures Manuals Book 0

ANNEX GUIDELINES

ASSOL’S GUIDELINES

PROCEDURES MANUALS BOOK 0

SECOND EDITION 2012

ASSOL ASSOCIAÇÃO DE SOLIDARIEDADE SOCIAL DE LAFÕES OLIVEIRA DE FRADES PORTUGAL

WWW.ASSOL.PT -

Introduction

The Procedures Manuals aim to organize and structure, in a single document, the guidelines, in which ASSOL compromises to follow on determinant aspects of its activity. The Procedures Manuals systematize the procedures for the provision of support to the people served. Staff can find, here, information about the ASSOL’s guidelines, the methodological and philosophic principles, the support programmes, the activities and procedures to follow and the instruments to use. ASSOL is an agency of the community, which develops all of its activity in a straight interaction with the people served, their families, staff, volunteers and all the social organizations with which it interacts. Hence result the guidelines and procedures that demand an active involvement of all these parts. The manuals are organized in 8/9 books. This book 0 is, now, object of a second edition in order to improve and complete it with a better description of the several structural policies of ASSOL. The several books, which compile the Procedures Manuals, need the reading of some of the books published by ASSOL, which are the essential tools to deepen on the Agency knowledge. The Procedures Manuals are composed by a set of 9 Books.

Book 0 – ASSOL’s Guidelines It starts by presenting ASSOL’s history, mission, values and philosophic and methodological principles, followed by the framework of the rights of the people served and the ethical obligations of the staff. It also defines the framework of the agency’s governance, the relationship among all the parts and it finalizes by pointing out the framing lines of the activity, such as continuous improvement, innovation and development.

Book 1 – Philosophy and Methodological Approaches It develops the problems of self-determination, quality of life and empowerment and presents the general lines of the Gentle Teaching and the Person Centred Planning, which are considered as the ASSOL’s working methodologies.

Book 2 – Integrated Project and Early Intervention These activities have the particularity of being totally developed in partnership with the health and education services. The manual establishes the key processes and their activities, registration instruments and the results indicators in the supporting answers to children and young people (over 16) from birth until the end of their school age.

Book 3 – Vocational Training Vocational Training is an activity co-financed by the European Social Fund, therefore, subdue to several norms and regulations, which frame the activity. The main specificity is the fact that all the vocational training is assured in normal work environments. The manual frames the interaction with the legal regulations in order to achieve the respect for the individualization of the processes, which are demanded by the different needs of the trainees. The key processes, their activities, the registration instruments and the results indicators are established for this activity.

Book 4 – CAO (Occupational Activities’ Centre) The first part frames this response in the legal system and its history throughout the ASSOL’s history and the goal of promoting social inclusion and self-determination. The second part describes the key processes of the application, sheltering and evaluation, supports’ negotiation, development of the activities and evaluation of the activities and supports. It also presents the results indicators and the registration instruments to use.

Book 5 – FORUM (Social Occupational Centre) This book is similar to the previous one, only with some specificity due to the fact that the people served have a disabling mental illness and the fact that this unit has an extensive partnership with the Psychiatric and Mental Care Service from Viseu’s Hospital. The key processes, registration instruments and indicators are very similar to the ones from the CAO, however, in the FORUM, the healthcare constitutes an autonomous key process.

Book 6 – Residential Care – Sheltered Home This book starts with the presentation of the service, followed by the description of the key processes of the application, sheltering and evaluation, supports’ negotiation, development of the activities of support and, as specificities of this unit, the key processes of nutrition and food, premises’ cleaning, security and environmental health and procedures in situations of emergency and other unusual situations.

Book 7 – Support Functions to the Activities It documents the procedures to follow in support activities to the ones which are, themselves, essential to the provision of quality services: administrative support, premises’ cleaning, security and environmental health.

Book 8 – Support Functions to the Management It documents the procedures to be followed in central activities to the agency, even though not directly present in the provision of support: accounting, administrative control, staff’s performance evaluation, innovation and development, measurement of the satisfaction rates, foresight and control of carelessness situations, abuse and discrimination and the relationship with the stakeholders.

Additional Documents This set of manuals provides the basis to the stakeholders’ action in ASSOL. There are also two additional documents that must be referred due to its importance.

Functions Manual It describes all the functions, but also the abilities needed and the several functional connections among the several functional groups.

Quality Manual This document emerges from the structure of the EQUASS referential and develops the way how ASSOL approaches each one of the fifty criteria, the way how its dissemination was made, the results achieved throughout the years in the different indicators and the evolutional possibilities indicated by the conducted benchmarking actions.

CHAPTER 1

HISTORICAL AND DEVELOPED ACTIVITIES

ASSOL was founded on the 22nd March 1987, by initiative of a group organized in ACROF (Associação Cultural e Recreativa de Oliveira de Frades). In 1986, these people, with different qualifications, inspired by other experiences and already acknowledging some serious social situations of people with disabilities, decided to make a weighing of people with disabilities and their real life conditions on the municipality. ASSOL was created to be a tool which would facilitate the answer of the community to the needs found. Being ASSOL supplied with a house with a backyard in the town of Oliveira de Frades by Mrs. Antonieta de Jesus Saraiva, in 1987, it reunited the minimal required conditions to the impulsion of its activity, which would happen on the 13th February 1989, with the beginning of the first vocational training. Ever since, a long path has been made, which led to the development of several support services: 1991 Integrated Project 1991 Occupational Activities Centre (CAO) 1992 Opening of S. Pedro do Sul’s first Centre 1993 Programme of Domiciliary Visits 1995 Shelter Home 1997 First Foster Families 1998 Vocational Training in Tondela 1999 Social Occupational Forum 2001 Vocational Training in Castro Daire 2002 New Centre in S. Pedro do Sul 2007 Early Intervention 2011 Vocational Training in Tondela

EQUASS ASSURANCE CERTIFICATION Happened in 2010 as a consequence of ASSOL’s participation in Prometheus Project, that aimed at the validation of the new EQUASS model.

1.1- DEVELOPED ACTIONS

Early Intervention It operates since 2007, supporting children under the age of three with severe mental disabilities. In the region of Lafões, Early Intervention is based on the work of local teams of intervention, being the main actors the Healthcare Centres and Education Services. ASSOL’s intervention is fairly limited because the cooperation agreement with the Social Security, foreseeing support to forty children, only allows the partial allocation of a social worker, a psychologist and a speech therapist.

Integrated Project The first Agreement with the Board Education was established in 1991. The project aims to support the school and social integration of school-age children and young people (over 16), who are subdued to special education measures. ASSOL’s team works as a supplementary resource to the school services, with special incidence in areas such as psychology, speech therapy and transition to adulthood. The project also covers the municipalities of Tondela and Castro Daire. The greatest achievement of the regional schools is the fact that all disabled students attend the regular public school system. The total population of the covered municipalities was, in 2010, of 89 628 inhabitants, being the school population of 12 216 students, framed in 17 schools and groupings. About 3% of these students are supported by the project.

Vocational Training Vocational Training was the first of ASSOL’s activities, operating since the 13th February 1989. ASSOL is an accredited training agency (by the public services, currently DGERT from MTSS). The vocational training is organized in three centres: Oliveira de Frades, Castro Daire and Tondela, being that, on the last few years, the courses of general assistant and factory worker have been operating with about 100 trainees. The greatest specificity is the fact that all technological practical training is performed in natural labour contexts and ASSOL is supported by private enterprises, local and regional authorities, other IPSS solidarity and the society in general.

Job Support ASSOL tries to support the professional integration of its ex-trainees at the end of their training. ASSOL focuses on the trainees’ placement on the work market or in sheltered employment enclaves, which assure an effective, both professional and social, integration of the trainees. The professional integration of the ex-trainees depends on the public policies of support and labour market conditions, which have been more favourable in some years. Despite those conditions, over 100 people have already obtained a job with ASSOL’s support and keep seeking for support in situations, directly or indirectly, related to their job situation.

Support to Adult People with Severe Limitations Generated by Disability or Psychiatric Disorders The support includes the Occupational Activities Centre (CAO), since 1991, and the Social Occupational Forum, since 1999, which operate in Alexandre Correia’s Centre in Oliveira de Frades and in the S. Pedro do Sul’s Centre. The cooperation protocols with the Social Security for these activities contemplate 70 people in the Occupational Activities Centre and 45 people in the Social Occupational Forum and need an urgent review because they no longer contemplate the totality of the people served.

Residential Care José Pedro’s shelter home, placed in Caveirós de Cima, Cambra, was created in 1995 and supports 8 people. The Residential Care is complemented by a network of foster families, which combined, support 10 people. The contractual relationship is between the foster families and the Social Security but ASSOL, due to its proximity and daily contact with the people served, assures an essential technical support.

Actions in Tondela and Castro Daire

ASSOL has initiated projects in these municipalities with the intention of sheltering local initiatives. As soon as the conditions for the sustainable development of those projects were assured, ASSOL would withdraw from those municipalities. That has happened, at an initial stage, with the autonomy of vocational training in Tondela, which would allow, in 1999, the foundation of Cooperativa Vários, which, in the meantime, has abandoned the activity. This fact led the community organizations to request the re-activation of ASSOL’s vocational training in Tondela, which would happen in 2011. In Castro Daire, the autonomy of vocational training was not possible and, with the reduction of the number of trainees, has no longer enough range to do so. However, the experience has motivated the local Misericórdia to create an Occupational Activities Centre. Regarding the Integrated Project, it has been the policy of the Board Education that ASSOL continues to assure this support.

CHAPTER 2

ASSOL POLICIES

2.1 - MISSION The 2nd article of Statutes of ASSOL establishes that: “The Association has the mission of contributing to the social inclusion of disabled people or people who suffer from a psychiatric disorder, who inhabit in the Lafões region. The Association may, by decision of its General Assembly, extend its action area to other municipalities in order to give specific support, if required by the community.”

2.2 - VISION ASSOL’s greatest wish is to provide the Lafões region with a support network to people with limitations generated by disability or psychiatric disorders, in order to facilitate their social and family integration, to allow them to turn to public services when necessary and to promote the conformity of those services to their needs. We wish to make possible that the support structures to adult people cease to have a limited capacity and start to work as an open door to which people can turn to at anytime. We also wish to create a wide network of foster families, who can assure residential care to all the people in need. Only a change in this direction will allow the fulfilment of the right and freedom of accessing the services. This change demands a structural modification in the funding policies of the support services to the disabled people. And that is a wish ASSOL is willing to pursue.

2.3 -AIMS The 3rd article of the Statutes of ASSOL establishes as aims of this agency, among others: 1º The enhancement of the participation of the people served in the community’s life, according to their chronological age, whether in school, vocational training, work or social and cultural activities. 2º The improvement in the quality of life of the people served. 3º To assure to the people served a personalised support, taking into account their needs, motivations, wishes and dreams. 4º To promote the accomplishment of all the rights recognized to the disabled people and of the Human Rights in general, namely, the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. 5º To use, in its activities, methodologies which may assure the people served the leading of the support processes and the exercise of self-determination.

6º To contribute to the community’s transformation so that it may become more inclusive to the disabled people - due to the fact that such support has to be viewed as a common responsibility. 7º To work in partnership with all the community’s organizations. 8º To mobilise and frame, in behalf of the people served, the support assured by the public services, families and private or collective initiatives. 9º To follow the best practices regarding this activity sector. 10º To guide our actions by ethical principles.

These aims have been materialised by the actions described above, which have to result in supports that allow each person the right to self-determination. That means that all people should make the decisions that affect their lives, in an autonomous way, in order to achieve the inclusion in the community.

2.4 – VALUES ASSOL aims to contribute to a fairer and more cohesive community. Quoting Professor Ad van Gennep: “Inclusion doesn’t change the disability but it changes the person’s status. It is a way of being which appeals to the broadening and variability of the forms of social interaction, which is a permanent and endless task, and appeals to a constant dialog with these “different” people, to whom is allowed to continue to be different. This concept assumes the diversity of the human being; we are all equal because we’re human, however, in a way that all human being differs from the others: each one of us is a unique human being.” ASSOL believes that human beings may only feel fulfilled if living in community. Therefore, it tries to give the necessary support to the disabled, so that they may be a part of the community, but it also supports other people and community structures, so that they can interact in a positive way with people with limitations. ASSOL tries to facilitate the connections between the people served and the community, and, for that reason, some of our keywords are “Connecting People”. ASSOL is not trying to create a special world for special people, instead it tries to give the necessary support to the people and the community, so that special people may have access to the “normal” world. ASSOL is a logistic platform which supports the life of the people served outside ASSOL and it will always be a goal to assure that each person has, in the community, an important person in his life, other than the best of ASSOL’s professionals. The support provided by ASSOL should help each person served to be self- determined, which implies the possibility to: - express their dreams - make choices - participate in the definition of their individual path - participate in the solution of their problems - learn in context – to learn by doing - benefit from the social network - control the events of their life

2. 5 - QUALITY POLICY The quality supports are those which widen the world of the person served. The quality of the supports is determined by its impact in the quality of life of the person served. Accepting that the quality of life is the subjective perception that each person has of his life, the supports take into account every dimensions of the quality of life including the subjective aspects. The quality of the supports is not determined only by the intrinsic quality of the services or other support activities or by the strict achievement of the procedures manuals. The quality supports help people to feel satisfied with their lives, increase the freedom of choice and assures them the control of what happens in their lives. Being the quality a very subjective variable, it becomes necessary to create mechanisms which can assure its control based on the results achieved by each person and by the agency. On an individual level, it is necessary that the negotiation procedures of the supports and the evaluation mechanisms are properly achieved because that will allow the people served to conduct the support process and to express on the effects on their quality of life. On an institutional level, there are several mechanisms of quality control: - Internally, there is a nucleus of internal audit, formed by qualified auditors, who annually implement an audit programme. - The entities with whom ASSOL maintains financial protocols dispose of attendance services and control. - The achievement and maintenance of high certification standards.

The Procedures Manuals should continuously adapt to the needs of the people served, to the methodological evolution and to the recommendations made by the internal audit or by the services from which ASSOL maintains cooperation agreements. Given the impossibility of proceeding to punctual adjustments, due to its dimension, there should be made, every three years, a global revision of all manuals, including the procedures, but also the indicators and registration instruments. Quality is only achieved when using transparent management practices, properly documented.

Quality Manual This document, based on the referential EQUASS structure, develops the way how ASSOL approaches each of the fifty criteria, the way how its dissemination was made, the results obtained over the years in the different indicators and the clues of evolution, aimed by the implemented benchmarking actions. This document will be revised whenever the EQUASS Excellence Certification is renovated.

Quality Management System - The role of technical Board The technical Board that is formed by the CEO and mangers of different services is in charge to implement and to manage the Quality Management System.

2.6 - CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT The continuous improvement is a necessity that results from the statutory commitment of: Follow the best practices of the activity sector. Having the intention to support people in a flexible way and adapted to their needs so that they might live the life they desire and to be participative citizens in their community, ASSOL can only respond to these challenges by adapting the methodologies and procedures according to the changes of the surrounding world.

2.7 – RESULTS ORIENTATION An agency that wants results orientation has to define, in the first place, the results it wishes to achieve. To clearly understand which are the results, implies to make a clear distinction between our work (what we do) and what results from this work (what we produce). In the social sector is, sometimes, difficult to make that distinction. A comparison with agriculture may facilitate it. Therefore, a farmer produces corn, milk or potatoes, but it doesn’t make neither corn nor milk nor potatoes. The farmer ploughs, fertilizes, seeds, waters and feeds the field and, without this set of activities, there won’t be production. ASSOL produces an optimization of the quality of life, social inclusion of the people served and a more inclusive, fairer and cohesive society. All services and supports offered by ASSOL are the means and instruments to achieve an ultimate end. The evaluation of the connection between the cost and the services benefit, which ASSOL provides, demands a careful measurement of the activity indicators and the results. The evaluation that the community will make of ASSOL’s work, it will always be subjective and can result in the subjective perception of the connection between the cost and the benefit of our services to the people and to the community. ASSOL has interest on transmitting to stakeholders some data which will allow people to correct objectively their perceptions, which implies a great concern in collecting data and analysing the activity indicators and results. The results should highlight the efficiency of the work but also the efficiency of the way the available means were used. The results that truly matter are those obtained by the people served, reflected on the optimization on their quality of life and the ones obtained by ASSOL as an agency, measured by the changes achieved in the community, in order to make it more welcoming to the disabled people. The annual reports made by each unit and by ASSOL must transmit data to stakeholders, which allow them to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency. For that to be possible, the ASSOL’s activity reports must grade the work performed, but also the human and financial resources used. On the chapter dedicated to the agency’s management, there will be described the procedures and instruments used in the accounts rendered, in a broad sense.

CHAPTER 3

PEOPLE SERVED AND STAFF GUIDELINES

3.1 – CHARTER OF RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE SERVED ASSOL commits itself, in its action, not only to respect but also work actively in a way that the people served will be assured and recognized, by the society, of all human rights sustained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as all the international conventions and applicable laws in Portugal, which regulate the private rights of all disabled people. The basis of the Human Rights is the dignity of the person. ASSOL assumes the compromise of, under all circumstances, respect the dignity inherent to each human being. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 6th December, 2006 and ratified by the Parliament on 7th May, 2009, is the latest document on the matter with a worldwide recognized value. We transcribe its 3rd article:

General Principles The principles of the present Convention are: a. Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one's own choices, and independence of persons; b. Non-discrimination; c. Full and effective participation and inclusion in society; d. Respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity; e. Equality of opportunity; f. Accessibility; g. Equality between men and women; h. Respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities and respect for the right of children with disabilities to preserve their identities.

ASSOL's internal regulations seek to implement in everyday practice standards and rules which protect the rights of the people served; the 11th article of ASSOL’s Rules of Procedure expressly refers that all the people served have the right to: a) – Be properly informed, before the admission decision, of all the conditions inherent to the frequency and of other alternatives, which may respond to their needs. b) Negotiate all the assistance provided by ASSOL and evaluate the obtained results. c) See their interests and abilities respected in the development of the activities. d) Be treated with respect by all staff members and users of ASSOL. e) Receive a copy of the support agreement (individual plan) or other documents of the supports’ planning. f) Contact with the technicians or coordinators of the unit. g) Present complaints, which might be registrated in the complaints book, or presented on writing, with answer assured within a period of five working days.

Charter of Rights - Easy Reading It is also available a version of the Charter of Rights, which allows its reading and comprehension by people with low reading and comprehension skills. This version will be reviewed every two years, in order to facilitate the incorporation of suggestions and criticisms of the people served and their families. a) Data protection ASSOL respects the national regulations of protection of personal data, in accordance with the Law no. 67/98 of 26th of October. All the situations of personal data diffusion will only be possible with the express consent of the people served or their representatives. The personal data, filed by paper means is under the custody of the staff that are subjected to professional secrecy, and kept in by authorised personnel. This set of rules and procedures shall be monitored at two-yearly intervals along with the supported people and their families. When wishing to process data for scientific studies or other effects, ASSOL will have in mind the content of article 7th of the referred national law, namely the exigency of previous authorization and communication to the National Committee of Data Protection, in contemplated cases.

3.2 – ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS DERIVED FROM ASSOL’S VALUES The mission, aims, values and acting philosophy impose a set of conduct regulations, which apply to the management and staff, professionals or volunteers. We emphasize the following general principles: - Negotiate the support actions with each person and his/her social and familiar network. - Work in partnership with the community. - Support and help the people to overcome their limitations. - Support the people in the insurance of their rights. The ethical obligations seek to achieve ASSOL’s statutory compromises (article 3, no. 10 – To guide the practice on ethical principles, in other words, to assure to the supported people services which respect their rights). Apart from the general and legal applicable rules and the deontological internal code, the management, employees and volunteers must adopt a behaviour consistent with the values and ASSOL’s mission. Our concern with ethics while providing a support system lead, in 2003, to the elaboration of a document called: Draft for a Practitioners’ Code of Conduct. This document is still current. The main source of inspiration was the AAIDD’s – American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities - Code of Professional Conduct. The ethical rules seek to be coherent to ASSOL’s compromise with self- determination, inclusion of the supported people and the involvement of all the community. The ethical principles and Code of Conduct constitute to the professionals, volunteers and management guidelines of the decision-making processes. Despite the existence of several internal regulations and Procedures Manuals, the ethical principles, along with the sensibility of each one of the subjects, help to differ right from wrong in every moment.

We reproduce some of the conduct rules created by the AAID - American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: 1 – The practitioner objectively honours, respects, and upholds the unique needs, values, and choices expressed by the individual being served. 2 - The practitioner communicates fully and honestly in the performance of his/her responsibilities and provides sufficient information to enable individuals being supported and others to make their own informed decisions to the best of their ability. 3 - The practitioner protects the dignity, privacy, and confidentiality of individuals being supported and makes full disclosure about any limitations on his/her ability to guarantee full confidentiality. 4 - The practitioner is alert to situations that may cause a conflict of interest or have the appearance of a conflict. When a real or potential conflict of interest arises, the practitioner not only acts in the best interest of individuals being supported, but also provides full disclosure. 5 - The practitioner seeks to prevent, and promptly responds to, signs of abuse and exploitation and will not engage in any conduct that is abusive/exploitive in a physical, mental nor sexual manner. 6 -The practitioner assumes responsibility and accountability for personal competence in evidence-based practice and professional standards of his/her respective field, continually striving to increase professional knowledge and skills and to apply them in practice. 7 -The practitioner exercises professional judgment within the limits of his/her qualifications and collaborates with others, seeks counsel, or makes referrals as appropriate. 8 - The practitioner fulfils commitments in good faith and in a timely manner. 9 - The practitioner conducts his/her practice with honesty, integrity, and fairness. 10-The practitioner provides services in a culturally competent manner and does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin, or disability.

Of this set of values and principles, some fundamental obligations emerge to ASSOL’s staff, employees and volunteers, as well as some prohibited behaviours. These values were obtained by asking all the professional staff, organized in groups of 10 elements, to indicate five fundamental obligations and five prohibited behaviours to the ASSOL staff. Consecutively the references which presented a similar formulation or situation were grouped. A debate between the staff in the 2012 intern training days had as result the proposal documented by the following table:

Fundamental Obligations of ASSOL’s Staff N To respect the people served as citizens, defend their rights, choices and 13 respect their self-determination. To act accordingly and defend ASSOL’s mission and values. 11 To care for the information’s confidentiality and secrecy. 6 To maintain up to date their knowledge and competences. 5 To actively collaborate in the development of teamwork and support the 5 colleagues. To work in partnership with the community. 4 To achieve the established compromises with commitment. 2 To be clear in the communication and treat all people with courtesy. 2 To respect ASSOL’s material goods and the goods of the people with whom 1 it relates. To keep a personal presentation which facilitates the interaction with the 1 people served, the colleagues, the community and other entities. Total 50

Prohibited behaviour to ASSOL’s Staff N To violate the duty of professional secrecy or deliberately allow the access or 11 access themselves to data not required by their functions. To physically, verbally or morally abuse the supported people, colleagues or 9 the community entities. The theft and inappropriate use of ASSOL’s goods as well as the deliberate 7 waste or damage of ASSOL’s resources and equipment. Non-compliance with the assigned and agreed responsibilities, by lack of 6 commitment. To disrespect or disregard the rights of the supported people – namely, self- 5 determination. To deliberately act against the institution’s values and principles. 3 To deliberately compromise the ambience and teamwork by lying or acting in 4 bad faith. To drink alcoholic beverages or use other substances which might put at risk 2 their professional performance or the security of the supported people or colleagues. Reiterated absence or delay. 2 The unduly use of documentation or institutional information. 1 Total 50

3.3 – PHILOSOPHY PRINCIPLES The support is decided jointly with each person and the information transmitted should be necessary and sufficient, so that the supported people may make informed choices, accomplish their projects and participate in the community’s life. The support shall help the person to gain autonomy and to be less dependent of institutional supports. In the support provision process, the professional’s intervention must potentiate and strengthen the action of the natural supports and services for general use and never decrease their responsibility and intervention. The professional who provides the support assumes the role of a cane, which helps the person to walk the path but doesn´t decide the way. In order to achieve coherence and efficiency, all the supports are framed by methodological approaches, which we describe: a) – Support Negotiation – The Person Centred Planning The support is established having in mind the dreams and necessities of each person and are always negotiated with the supported people and/or the more significant people in their lives. The support is negotiated on an annual basis. As a result of this negotiation, there is a clarification of the goals to reach, the support required to reach them and the responsibility assumed by the supported person on the process. Given the features and the ages, this negotiation gives origin to documents with different forms and contents: Intervention Plan with the Family Individual Educational Program Individual Vocational Training Plan Support Agreement (Individual Plan) These documents are assumed as real contracts, being elaborated, evaluated and signed by all the parts who assume some kind of responsibility; they also include a detailed description of all of the negotiated activities. The detailed description of the negotiation processes and evaluation is made on the Procedures Manuals Notebook of each functional unit. The methodology which guides the project is the Person Centred Planning, according to which the important is to help people to create a vision of their desired future, being the support’s function to help each person to get closer to the future they desire. Under this approach, the traditional evaluation instruments, scales, tests or standardized curriculum, while keeping their utility as a support to the professionals on the interventions planning, cannot be used to define or condition the goals of the support. The role of the professionals is to help the supported people to achieve their dreams and not to dictate or impose programmes based on the evaluation of their capacities or the diagnosis of their needs. The professionals are bridge constructors who allow the people to evolve from the place they are to the place where they want to be, being deployable to reach the fulfilment of those dreams all of the community’s resources. In order to consolidate the knowledge of this approach, ASSOL has translated and edited, with the support of Inclusion Press from Toronto, Canada:

- In 2009, the book “PATH: Planning Possible Positive Futures”, by Jack Pearpoint, John O’Brien e Marsha Forest. - In 2011, the book “All My Life’s a Circle”, by Mary A. Falvey, Marsha Forest, Jack Pearpoint e Richard L. Rosenberg. b) – Gentle Teaching This approach is based on the recognition of the equality inherent to all human beings, the disuse of violence and the search of a fairest and human rights friendly society. Its four structural pillars consist on making people to feels safe, loved, included in the community’s life and able to love others. The Interdependence Pedagogy demands the practitioners’ involvement with the supported people and the development of strong emotional links which lead to the development of human interdependence, companionship and community spirit. In order to develop the knowledge and promote the Gentle Teaching approach ASSOL has translated and edited, in 2008, three books by Professor John McGee, which is the funder and driving force and graciously assigned the copyright: The Gentle Teaching Primer An introduction to Gentle Teaching Mending Broken Hearts c) – The Reinforcement of the Power and Capacity of the Supported People The 3rd article of Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities disposes as a general principle the “Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one's own choices, and independence of persons”. This principle implies that the supported people get the power and means to decide their own support and take control over their own lives. Internationally, this idea is translated by the English word ”empowerment”, which doesn’t have a literal translation in Portuguese but means the transmittance of the power from the institutional and professional side, a feature of the traditional models, to the supported people’s side. At the 10th Gentle Teaching International Conference, organized by ASSOL in November 2009, Professor Ad van Gennep, retired professor from the University of Amsterdam, presented a definition of Empowerment, focused on intellectual disability, which, we think, may be generalized to all the other situations, with four elements: a) Self-determination: it consists in using the strength or available resources which enable people to give shape and content to their own lives. b) Learning and action process: it consists in taking control over their problems, becoming aware of their own skills, improving their self-knowledge, their capacities, by using social structures and participating in groups. c) The professionals’ practices: which may enable people with intellectual impairment or their families to be more capable of, by themselves, give shape and content to their lives and gain control over them. d) The policy perseverance: by the involvement of the people with intellectual impairment and their families in the removal of prejudicial barriers to equality of rights and social justice.

Empowerment as a movement has ended with the traditional way of organising services, which derived from the perspective of how disability was seen, that is to say, as a constricting condition of peoples’ value; instead, empowerment has replaced that

17 perspective by the belief that each person has strengths which derive not only from themselves but also from their interaction with society. Thus, a new way of providing services has overcome, one that is not dominated by a patronising attitude but tries to strengthen the disabled. d) – Quality of Life All the efforts developed by ASSOL seek to increase the quality of life of the supported people. According to Professor Ad van Gennep, quality of life has both subjective and objective sides. The subjective side establishes that quality of life is seen through the subjective experience that each person has of its own life. This personal and subjective perception of the objective side of experience becomes prominent in peoples’ satisfaction with their lives and constitutes the essential of someone life quality. A support that tries to increase the quality of life has to have in mind the objective aspects of reality and life conditions but also the respect of the subjective perspective that people do of their own lives as well as the future they desire and short term objectives and allow the mobilization of the necessary energy to achieve them. Using as reference the World Health Organization’ Quality of Life Overall Domains: the support should assure the objective conditions that allow the person to construct a life perceived as a high quality one; there are four areas that should be emphasised: -Equalization – understood as the objective of full citizenship, worries about the domains of rights and material wellbeing. - Healthcare – in the domains of physical and mental health. - Empowerment - its main objective is independence and concerns the domains of personal development and self-determination. - Inclusion - intends to assure the participation and covers the domains of relationships and inclusion.

There are several ways of organizing the domains that constitute a life with quality; because of that, ASSOL has opted for using the scheme developed by the Professor John McGee, which considers 8 domains, coherent with Interdependence Pedagogy, which was made available by Anthony McCrovitz in the website: www.globe-star.org

 Bodily Integrity - Being healthy, being decently clothed, being clean, being well fed, etc.  Feeling Safe - Wanting to be with others, not being afraid or people with whom you live, not being afraid of going outside, feeling relaxed in interactions with others, etc.  Feeling Self-Worth - Seeing oneself as good, being recognized as a person, feeling pride, expressing personal gifts and talents.  Having a Life Structure - Sensing a life-plan, having daily routines, having your own rituals and beliefs.  A Sense of Belongingness - Having a close circle of friends, valuing others and being valued by others, having a home, feeling companionship.  Social Participation - Being able to have contact with the community, living between others, partaking in community life.  Having Meaningful Daily Activities - Enjoying one’s daily activities, having activities which fit in your life-plan.  Inner Contentment - Feeling inner harmony, free from traumatic experiences.

In the process described in subparagraph a) “Support Negotiation”, there is a negotiation with each person of the activities and respective support which may contribute to the optimization of their quality of life on the objective and subjective strands, being made, at the end of the year, an evaluation of the achieved results. e) – Actions in partnership Throughout the years, ASSOL has assumed two watchwords, which clearly state the importance of all structures and people of the community: “Never Alone” and “Connecting people”. These mottos summarize an idea of work based on the interdependence of all people and structures which compose the community. In our community, ASSOL plays the part of a centripetal force, which attracts to the centre of the community’s life the disabled people, who, by their limitations and life impositions, are pushed towards the periphery of social life. Being one of the rights of the supported people to benefit from the social network, ASSOL has as guideline to mobilize all people, public services, companies and social structures to support the disabled people. These principles are included in the document “Draft for a Practitioners Code of Conduct”, elaborated in 2003, which, among the duties of the professionals, also covers duties towards partner entities, namely: 1 – It is the practitioners’ duty to actively collaborate, and loyally, with all corporate bodies which support disabled people. 2 – It is the practitioners’ duty to provide honest and exempted information to the corporate bodies interested in collaborating with disabled people. 3 – It is the practitioners’ duty not to make what other people or entities are in a better position to make.

Types of Partnerships Being a general orientation to work in partnership, there are punctual collaborations which, by their short length and low intensity do not justify their formalization through a written protocol. However, the number of protocols that ASSOL formalizes with distinct entities has become highly significant, being in 2011 evaluated and ratified 234 partnerships. By definition, a partnership is a relationship in which both parts do something that, by its nature, they wouldn’t be obliged and without the existence of a payment related to the services provided. These partnerships may be organized in four groups:

Objective of the partnership Involved Entities 1 – Partnerships, by ASSOL’s initiative, to provide support: Companies - Internships of TVA – Transition to Adulthood; Schools, Healthcare Facilities - Vocational Training Placements; Regional Authorities - Socio-professional experiences; NGO - Physiotherapy and thermal treatments. 2 – Partnerships, by ASSOL’s initiative, to facilitate the use Regional Authorities of communal equipment for the activities realization. Schools 3 – Partnerships, by ASSOL’s initiative, in order to form, Prof. John McGee innovate and develop. Prof. Adrian Van Gennep Inclusion Press Healthcare Facilities 4 – Partnerships in which ASSOL supports other entities: Institutions of Higher Learning, for

- Internships to students of several schools; instance: speech therapy - Execution of seminars and formations; Regional Schools - Fulfilment of alternative legal measures; Courts - Alternative to schools’ disciplinary measures; Employment Agencies - Concession of space and equipment. Viseu’s Vocational Training Centre Other NGOs

Management of Partnerships Book 8 of Procedures Manual documents the process used for the management of the partnerships. f) Monitoring of the Support Coherence with the philosophy In order to assure that the support respects the acting philosophy and methodology, it is evaluated and monitored at various levels. At the individual level, each support agreement or similar instrument is, on an annual basis, evaluated by the supported person and others involved in the negotiation. At the unit level, a global evaluation of the unit’s performance and degree of compliance is made, every six months, by the technical staff. Having in mind ASSOL as a whole, the Technical Council considers the reports elaborated by the coordinators or technical directors at the end of each year. These reports feature the performed actions, achieved goals, obstacles found and evaluate the relationship between objectives and available resources. It is to the Technical Council and each team to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the support and also the respect by the adopted principles and methodology.

3. 4 – HUMAN RESSOURCES POLICY The support ASSOL provides is assured by professionals hired for that purpose, taking into account their education and professional training and their personal and human qualities. Their activities may be completed by voluntary actions, chosen according to their personal and human qualities, always being clear the set of responsibilities assumed by each one of them as well and their duties.

3.4.1 – Professional staff a) - Functions Manual ASSOL’s Functions Manual considers that, apart from the required technical competences, there are others that all staff should have. Namely: - Orientation to the person served - Teamwork - Orientation to continuous improvement - Capacity to relate and to communicate internally and with the surrounding community - Capacity to work in communitarian environments and in partnership - Ethical commitment The Functions Manual has created five functional groups, describing their respective functions and responsibilities, which are:

1 – Management Group – staff with management responsibilities (executive director, technical directors, centre coordinators and unit coordinators). 2 – Technical Group – staff who perform their work independently with a distant supervision (vocational trainers, psychologists, social workers, therapists and others). 3 – Technical and Professional Training Group – staff who work internally and with close and continuous supervision (occupational activities’ monitors). 4 – Support to the Activities Group – staff without responsibility in the planning and in activities control (drivers, cooks and cleaners). 5 – Management Support – provides the Board organizational performance data executive director (CEO) and head of administrative service). b) – Staff Recruitment The objective of the recruitment policies is to acquire staffs with technical skills and other proper requirements, as well as personal qualities which allow them to have an easy adaptation to teamwork and to community environments, people who have a set of moral values which allow the adhesion to the values, principles and methodologies adopted by ASSOL. The fundamental characteristics of ASSOL’s staff, apart from specific technical knowledge inherent to the fulfilment of their tasks, are: the ability to relate to the people served and to the staff, self-criticism, the capacity to take risks and to assume their responsibility, team spirit and the respect for the dignity and freedom of people served. c) – Recruitment Procedures Although ASSOL is not obliged by legal imperatives to this practice, the principle is the publication of the job vacancies and the recourse to public tenders. The established practice is the nomination, by the Board, of a jury committee, through internal tender, which evaluates the candidates by a curricular analysis, interview and, eventually, the production of a written document that somehow evidences the knowledge and sense of the person towards the job. Another recruitment strategy is the retention of the interns or people who collaborate in the scope of job-creation programmes and stood out by their competencies and facility to adapt. The selection procedures are the ones we find appropriate to each function and it depends on the immediacy to fill in the vacancy. The vacancies of the Management Group are filled by intern recruitment among the staff considering, above all, their involvement in ASSOL’s methodology and philosophy as well as their management and leadership capacities. The Technical Group is the one which is more adequate to the execution of public tenders, because nowadays the number of adequate technical formation and motivation to work in ASSOL is very high. For the Technical and Professional Training Group and the Support to the Activities Group the retention at the end of internships, job-creation programmes or temporary substitutions may become recruitment mechanisms as there aren’t specific professional formations for those functions. On both groups the hiring of temporary substitutes is relatively frequent, due to illness situations or other unexpected events which generate short-term necessities. In order to fill theses vacancies, we often resort to personal contact with people who have already made spontaneous applications or who attended an internship or job of whom we have a favourable evaluation.

The recourse to registered people in job-creation programmes is punctual and only for the development of non-structural or complementary functions. d) –Staff Evaluation The performance evaluation system is annual and based on the Attribution of Individual Responsibilities Agreement that is negotiated with each co-worker, which has as reference ASSOL’s Plan of Action for the year in question. This process is described in detail in Book 8. The agreements are directly negotiated with the director or with the director and the unit’s coordinator. Given the variability of each co-worker’s responsibility and tasks, the Attribution of Individual Responsibilities Agreement includes only the objectives to which its actions matter, although there might be included some indicators which accomplish the content of each objective. The evaluation includes three stages: - Self-evaluation - Evaluation by the director or by the director and coordinator - Meeting between both parts At this meeting a summary sheet is made, on which some improvement suggestions on a personal level, general functioning and the lack of training activities is registered. The Attribution of Individual Responsibilities Agreement of the following year is negotiated having in mind the evaluation and work plan of the concerned year. The negotiation of these agreements allows each co-worker to know, rigorously, what to expect from himself and although the evaluation doesn’t result on a service classification, allows to each person to know the way how their work is appreciated and evaluated. The evaluation neither is a global rank, nor has effect on the career development or bonuses. Throughout the years, this process has allowed to consolidate the technical team since it strengthens staff’s commitment, whose work is highly appreciated, and allowed some people to understand that ASSOL was not the best place to give expression to their motivations and ambitions, leading them to search other professional paths. e) – Career Development Policy ASSOL tries to pay worthy salaries to its staff and to provide proper professional careers, adequate to its sector and region. ASSOL always tries to apply salaries and opportunities for career development more favourable than the private institutions of social solidarity, acknowledging that the work developed by its staff requires a high degree of technical specialization, ongoing formation and a high level of commitment. With the intention of valuing the best professionals, the practice is the filling of the coordination positions by professionals already working in ASSOL, who stood out by their commitment and capacities. f) - Internal Training The continuous training is planned by the Technical Board, through an annual Training Plan, which consolidates the suggestions transmitted by unit members, as well as the suggestions and necessities referred in the performance evaluation.

The workshops on formation, in which participate all the staff, are a fundamental instrument to assure their development and updating. Every year, since 1991, these internal training days are organized, with the particularity of involving all the staff. After 20 years of activity in the sector, ASSOL has already ensured more than 600 hours on formation accessible to its entire staff. For the last years, we already had the participation of internationally renowned experts, professors of several Portuguese universities, health specialists, regular education teachers, staff from other entities, as well as the involvement of our own staff members as trainers. The handled themes have in common a shared relationship, more or less direct with ASSOL’s global activity and with the everyday practice. One of the central topics throughout these years has been ASSOL’s history, culture and values in order to assure its deepening and full integration of recent co- workers. On those Formation Workshops, we addressed themes such as: - Gentle Teaching; - The Person Centred Planning; - Fresher attitudes and professional ethics; - Communication between the team and the supported people and involving community; - Relationship with the families; - Security and hygiene regulations on food handling; - The mental disease problem on disabled people; - Intervention in cases of profound disability and multiple disabilities; - Chores Analysis and workstation adaptation; - Alcoholism; - Neurological diseases, namely degenerative diseases and epilepsy. Apart from these internal training days, the Training Plan includes other actions and it is a document always opened to the inclusion of other actions, which the Technical Board considers pertinent, given that ASSOL encourages its staff to propose actions of their interest and to participate in other formations in order to assure their knowledge updated, which may be: - Internal short-term actions after working hours; - External short-term actions, such as congresses, conferences or short-term courses; - Long or medium duration courses or postgraduate studies. g) – Academic Qualifications Development ASSOL stimulates its entire staff to improve their academic qualifications. This incentive applies to the attainment of higher basic or secondary education studies or a university degree.

3.4.2 - Volunteer staff ASSOL actively looks to incorporate volunteers because that allows the community to get in touch to people served, directly contributing to their social inclusion and also because they may help to enrich the support provided and answer to the necessities and motivations of the volunteers, based on a social responsibility logic.

The volunteer work has as a legal definition a regular provision of services, performed under the supervision of a coordination structure and technical direction. The recruitment and management of the volunteers is documented on Book 8. It is an historic practice to request the collaboration of people in order to support us on occasional events, according to their competencies or their technical knowledge. This form of collaboration doesn’t fit in the definition of “voluntary service” but it is of great importance, being also a practice to extend, not only for their value but also because it deepens the link between ASSOL and the community. The volunteers, being accepted by ASSOL, are required to observe its norms and ethical principles. The attribution of the distinct activities to volunteers must have into account their personal and professional competencies in order to facilitate their integration and to maximize their contribution. The activities carried out by volunteers should have value to the people served and be recognised by volunteers as an activity with sense and value.

CHAPTER 4

GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Introduction

ASSOL had, over the last few years, an important action in the study and diffusion of new methodological approaches, namely the Person Centred Planning and Gentle Teaching. These methodological approaches allow ASSOL to provide services with recognized and certified quality, being the challenge to continuously adequate the management of material and human resources, in order to assure a personalized support to all people. ASSOL is an organization integrated in an ecosystem in which it maintains a varied interaction and interdependence with its involving community. Thereby, the most difficult challenges that ASSOL has to respond are in areas such as management and organizational policies as a whole. Apart from the pressure, which results from the scarcity of funds and a frail legislative framework that makes some support programmes too dependent of casuistry options made by political decision-makers, there is the development, on an international level, of a new scientific and organizational model, as illustrates Miguel Angel Verdugo and Robert L. Schalock, 2012, in their book “A Leadership Guide for Today’s Disabilities Organizations”. This book analyzes, in the light of current tendencies, the challenges that the organizations that support disabled people have to overcome nowadays and in a near future. This tendency implies movements and changes in the sense that the following board illustrates:

From To Social or public services easily Highly complex networks which recognizable as being directed to comprehend types and levels of service disabled people providers, places and very varied structures Traditional standards and methods A focus on the evaluation of the effect on associated with obedience and the person and of the results on the fulfilment of standard procedures organization and documentation External evaluation and Monitoring based on internal performance monitoring and quality improvement Services specifically located Individualized support systems, widespread throughout the community Focus on the quality of the care Emphasis on the quality of life State as a service provider State as a contracting party and as a regulator of services and individual support

The first step to face these challenges is the adoption, by all of ASSOL’s stakeholders, of aligned thoughts with shared objectives and tuned with new challenges and technological, politic and social approaches; that will demand from ASSOL a constant compromise with innovation and continuous improvement. The Procedures Manuals are an essential instrument on this tuning process in a medium and long term period. According to the same authors, the organizations more capable of successfully facing the challenges (ASSOL is concerned to be one of them), are: - Oriented to a social and ecological approach to problems; - Oriented for the promotion of inclusion; - Oriented to the reinforcement of the people served capacities, in order for them to make decisions and take control over their lives; - With a self-organized internal structure and power of initiative; - With an horizontal internal organization and reduced levels of hierarchy; - Focused on the results obtained by the people served and the community and not as much on the processes; - Where change may happens; - Where the results are a collective responsibility, not only of the Board; - Where the success depends on each one and on everyone; - Where the results may be measured.

4. 1 - MANAGEMENT VALUES AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK ASSOL’s management is guided by the pursuit of common good and excellence, which translates in an effective and efficient administration of the means that the community provides for the fulfilment of its mission and objectives. This path is made while respecting some values such as: - Honesty and integrity; - Frugality and parsimony in the resources expenditure; - Transparency while operating and strictness while rendering accounts; - Respect by the rights of all the stakeholders.

ASSOL is a PSSI – Private Social Solidarity Institution and, as consequence, it has to adapt to legal obligations in the domains of governance and accountability. The essential instruments of ASSOL’s governance are their Statutes and Internal Regulation.

4.2 - MANAGEMENT ORGANS The Statutes allude to competences, designation and composition as well as the functioning of the social organs of the agency: General Assembly, Supervisory Council and Board. In 2012 it was created a Council of Representatives in which participate representatives chosen by the people served and their families and by the staff of all units and clusters. In order to assure the functioning of the services, the Board is supported by technical management organs: executive director, centre coordinators, technical

26 directors and unit coordinators. These organs constitute the Technical Board that assures the articulation between the several services and social answers. The relationship between the Board and technical management organs is based on power delegation, as contemplated on the Statutes and it’s regulated by the Rules of Procedure. The functional organogram, concerning the social organs, respects the hierarchy established by the Statutes. Regarding the technical management, organs and teams functioning, the concern was to create a minor number of hierarchical levels. This structure with few levels requires the Statutes to establish with clarity the limits of each organ’s decision making capacity. a) Organogram The agency’s social organs (General Assembly, Supervisory Council and the Board) have their competencies and hierarchy defined by the law and its bylaws. ASSOL’s organogram tries to give an updated expression to an organisational model adopted since its foundation, which separates the representative, control and decision making organs in relation to everything that might oblige the association carried out exclusively by the Board, from the necessary executive functions to the development of day to day activities. The Board in accordance with article 30(2) of the Statutes may delegate to qualified professionals affiliated to the association the necessary competences and power to assure the current management, namely the ones envisaged by article 30(1, a to d). The executive director reports directly to the Board and, if requested, participates on their reunions, assuring the necessary information for decision-making processes and respective execution. It’s his responsibility to coordinate and enhance the activities, as well as an efficient and effective management of the human and material means. ASSOL’s services are organised in autonomous functional units, duly connected, corresponding to each unit a service or specific activity. Each unit has a coordinator or technical director, with autonomy to assure the unit’s current functioning, mainly by planning the activities and manage the human and material means assigned to the unit. The functions and competences of the coordinators and technical directors are documented on the Statutes. The interconnection is assured by the Technical Board composed by each unit’s coordinators or technical directors and backed up by the Director. The Technical Board has the competence to, under article 7 of the Statutes: assure the connection and coordination between the several unit’s activities, being the most significant in 2012: administrative services, early intervention services, integrated project, vocational training, Alexandre Correia’s Centre, S. Pedro do Sul’s Centre and residential care. A necessary and essential principle to this management system is the subsidiarity principle, according to which, each person, respecting his/hers attributions, responsibilities and competences or level in the structure, should solve the problems that arise, involving the superior levels only when it is strictly necessary. b) – Enhancement of the Support Activities The nuclear activities are the ones which assure a continuous support throughout time, set in activities which have as objective to assure a solid and consistent structure

27 which transmits to the people served, their families and the community a sense of reliance and security. This is the essential task of the functional units’ coordinators, being the director’s responsibility to articulate and coordinate. If the majority of the activities search to give consistency and solidity to the support, others try to colour the day to day life. Those are activities with a project structure and mark the days, months, stations and even the passing years. The coherence and articulation of these activities demand the teamwork’s optimization which, according to the dimension and needs of the team, may be weekly, fortnightly, monthly or bimonthly.

4.3 - FINANCING ASSOL is financed by resorting to Cooperation Agreements with the public services responsible by the execution of the several social support public policies, the contributions of the people served, income as an activity result, donations and punctual support from local authorities, corporations and private persons. a) Cooperation Protocols ASSOL maintains Cooperation Agreements with counterparts in the regular financing of the activities, with the following entities: - Ministry of Education (DREC) – measures that support social and school integration. - Social Security – Early Intervention, CAO - Occupational Activities Centre, FORUM Social Occupational (day centre for people with psychiatric disorders) and sheltered home. - IEFP - Institute of Employment and Professional Training – vocational training and job assistance. b) People Served Financial Responsibilities People served contribute to the costs of the services when the Cooperation Agreements that ASSOL establishes with the public services predicts it. These contributions are guided by charts approved by the internal regulations of the respective social answer, being the amounts established having in mind the family’s economic situation, so that payment doesn’t affect heavily the quality of life of the person served and respective family. The process of fixing the contribution value is documented on the Statutes of the activity, being this value annually revised.

4.4 – ACQUAINTANCE WITH STAKEHOLDERS ASSOL is a part of the community and, as such, is influenced and influences the entire social and human system in which it is integrated. If one of the pillars is internal, because it’s performed trough activities carried with the people served in ASSOL’s premises, the other one consists in the involvement of the community because the objective is to turn it into a more favourable environment to people served. Due to the fact the support activities have very different involvements and interests, in ASSOL there are areas to participate and to express those interests.

We may establish three categories for ASSOL’s relationships, there are areas to express those interests that are also different. There are two motives for the relationships between ASSOL and different social partners: - People and entities which resort to ASSOL to satisfy an interest or necessity; - People and entities to which ASSOL resorts to pursue its objectives. This delineation is fairly simplistic because, in reality, with time all relationships become interdependent and there is always a mutual benefit. Thereby, ASSOL pursues partnerships in which all parties can obtain gains. The relationship between ASSOL with its surroundings has an institutional component, legally regulated and a component based on reciprocal interests and good will. It’s up to ASSOL to be the engine of a relationships network, which are individually actuated and, in general, have no relation between them, in such way that this set of individual relationships gains coherence and articulation to allow people served to be socially participative. ASSOL, having a diversified activity and being a response to the needs of a lot of people and organisms, has to have in mind the interests of all the stakeholders. The relationship with the several parties documented on the Statutes, Internal Regulation, Cooperation Protocols, Support Agreements and Protocols for Partnerships. However, even under conditions properly reduced to writing, the cooperation has informal elements which go beyond the letter though not the spirit because although they give the necessary legal support to the relationship between the stakeholders, they can’t describe all of the existing cooperation. ASSOL tries to establish informal communication between the parts in the partnerships which involve people’s support. On a local level, ASSOL maintains partnerships with schools, companies, local authorities, private institutions of social solidarity, NGOs, healthcare services and employment offices. These partnerships are vital to succeed, for only through them is possible:

- To integrate all children and youngsters in the public school system; - To assure premises in which all trainees may perform a practical vocational training in a normal work environment; - To assure the places where all people from the CAO and FORUM may carry out socio-professional experiences, if they wish to do so; - To accede to common sports and cultural facilities; - To accede to the S. Pedro do Sul’s thermal centre and an easier access to physiotherapy and public healthcare services;

a) Relationship with the stakeholders We consider stakeholders in ASSOL’s life: the partners, people served and their families, public services with cooperation agreements (Social Security, the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training and the Ministry of Education), The Psychiatry and Mental Health Department of S. Teotónio Hospital in Viseu, Public Services in general, local authorities, organizations which are customers, partners and suppliers, other Private Institutions of Social Solidarity, Universities and other institutions of higher learning, staff and volunteers.

The following charts pursue to systematize these various relationships by grouping them in accordance with their objectives, bonds and responsibilities.

1 –Stakeholders with legal responsibilities in ASSOL and people who use the services or have an immediate economic interest on its functioning;

2 – Public Services which contract with ASSOL a service provision;

3 – Public Services interested in the support ASSOL provides to people because they have a responsibility towards those people, assigned by the general law;

4 – Organizations or people who collaborate with ASSOL in the provision of services to people served, based on a sense of social responsibility and without an economic interest on that relationship.

b) – Management of these Relationships Book 8 of the Procedures Manuals documents some of the management procedures regarding these relationships and for that reason we only refer to their general framing.

Group 1 –Stakeholders with legal responsibilities towards ASSOL and people who use the services or have an immediate economic interest on its functioning. The relationships with the associates are regulated by the statutes and we seek to maximize their involvement in the agency’s life. In the relationship with people served, it is a general principle that all support in negotiated individually with each person, as documented on the Procedures Manuals, from Book 2 to 6. The families of people served are, by principle, involved in the negotiation and development of the support. The relationship with the staff is an essential basis to provide a quality service. For that, we search to create the necessary conditions for their personal and professional development as well as their careers, minding the disposed in the law and collective labour agreements. The suppliers, being an essential part to the functioning of ASSOL’s services, deserve all care. Therefore, we try to defend ASSOL’s best interests but also to assure that payments are made within a period of 30 days. ASSOL, while relating to its suppliers adopts transparency mechanisms by applying the legal mechanisms of public contacts.

Group 2 – Public Services, which contract with ASSOL a provision of services. Contracts may be an ASSOL’s initiative to respond to the detected or requested necessities or an initiative from the services which requires from ASSOL a provision of services. Generally, the contracts and cooperation protocols dispose the rules for the activities and their evaluation processes development.

Group 3 - Public Services interested in the support ASSOL provides to people because they have a responsibility towards those people, assigned by the general law. The relationship is essentially informal but we try to keep a close relation in order to sensitize the services to the specific needs of some people or the creation of bridges which facilitate the access or assure people served an adequate attendance to their needs. The objective is to assure the right of access to the services. The development of these relationships has led to the becoming of these stakeholders into partners in the sense we use to distinguish group 4.

Group 4 – Organizations or people who collaborate with ASSOL in the provision of services to people served, based on a sense of social responsibility and without an economic interest on that relationship. This group covers the volunteers which presence we sought to increase. The procedures of volunteers’ management are described on Book 8. The relationship with the remaining group members are designated as partnerships and have reached such an importance to the provision of services that we no longer can imagine it without their support. The partnerships management is described on chapter 2.6 and documented on Book 8. Generally, when there is a continuance in time, we celebrate written protocols. These protocols are evaluated on an annual basis having in mind the determination of the value they add to people served.

4.5 – TRANSPARENCY POLICY The connection with the community and the involvement of people served and staff is only possible through the application of policies which generate transparent processes and decisions. In this line of thoughts, inserts the effort of editing books, leaflets, ASSOL’s journal, ASSOL’s website and all the processes of internal communication towards the exterior as documented on Book 8. The execution of constant meetings with the people served and between the technical teams is an essential element on the pursuance of transparency. The objective is to provide to all stakeholders an adequate knowledge of ASSOL’s life so that they dispose all the necessary information to manage the relationship with the agency. This principle guides the elaboration of the accounts and activities reports in order for them to be transparent and a reflection of ASSOL’s performance. The handling of complaints and suggestions is associated to transparency. Although it is described on Book 8, we describe its general guidelines. a) – Complaints Handling Each one of ASSOL’s sites has a Complaints Book – Official Portuguese Mints’ Model, which is promptly furnished whenever required. Regardless of the demanded legal procedures, the Board will respond to each complainant, by writing, within five days. b) Critiques and Improvement Suggestions Apart from the legal system, stakeholders may manifest their critiques and improvement suggestions.

The mechanisms to exert those rights are: - The technical teams reunions; - Meetings with people served; - The Council of Representatives; - The Suggestion Boxes that exist in all sites; - E-mails or letters directed to ASSOL. Concerning the critiques and improvement suggestions arisen in team and people served meetings, if considered pertinent, the units coordinators or the Technical Board will take the necessary measures for their implementation or correction, as long as competent to take such measures. If not, they may report the situation to the Executive Director, who may take them to the Board. The treatment of the suggestions addressed to us by e-mail, post and deposited on the suggestion boxes is described on Book 8, being a general principle that all will be analysed and the bidders informed of their channelling.

4.5.1 – Information and Communication ASSOL tries to make available to all stakeholders and organisms the necessary and relevant information so that they can have a full and correct vision of the work performed. Internally, it matters to assure that staff, people served and their families dispose enough information to accompany the activity and formulate critiques and improvement suggestions. The procedures to assure these objectives are documented on Book 8. Therefore, we only refer to their general principles. a) Internal Information In the placard existent in each one of the sites, there are available several informative leaflets and it is accessible for consultation the Statutes as well as other documents. b) Information for Staff In the end of each Technical Board’s meeting, the Executive Director elaborates a report, which is distributed to the entire staff, with the essential decisions that were taken as well as information about all of the activities. c) External Information ASSOL’s journal, which has already outnumbered fifty numbers, has a bimonthly periodicity and its content includes the report of happenings and information about future initiatives. ASSOL’s journal is distributed to the entire staff, people served, partners and associates. The website www.assol.pt is the way you can find ASSOL in internet, in which we try to make available relevant information and documentation. The blog devagarseencadernalonge.blogspot.com is boosted by the binding workshop and is has also a wide number of visitants. There is also the concern in resorting to the local and national media for the dissemination of events and activities, being also a practice to cooperate with the media when requested.

4.6 – PLANNING AND CONTROL Concerning planning, we intend to assure the necessary conditions so that all stakeholders may contribute, according to their interest, on a micro or macro level. Starting in a medium term plan and descending to the choice and planning of specific activities. The control should allow all stakeholders to measure the extent to which the activities results are the expected and desired. These goals demand specific procedures regarding their planning and results evaluation as well as the stakeholders’ satisfaction. Following a descendent line, from the macro to the micro level: a) Development of new services We try to assure that the creation of new services matches the necessities already felt by the community and the emerging needs detected by an analysis of the social evolution and surroundings. ASSOL has always elaborated medium term plans, being that, in 1987, the founding group, before initiating its activity, had the concern to put in writing an Intervention Project, which would determine ASSOL’s development. In 2012 the 2006-2015 Medium Term Plan was evaluated and it was decided the elaboration of a new Medium Term Plan for the period between 2012 and 2020. While elaborating the Medium Term plans, all stakeholders are heard. For that purpose we resort to inquiries or reunions depending on which is the most adequate mean to gather their necessities and expectations. b) Annual Plans of Action and Budgets Under the general law and statutes it’s up to the Board to elaborate and submit to the General Assembly, until the 15th of November, the Plan of Action and Budget of the following year. The annual Plan of Action is framed by the Medium Term Plan – prevailing the Medium Term Plan 2012-2020 – and, at the same time, the priority projects are selected having in mind the necessities of the people served and the projects viability, although attending to our economic conditions and the possibilities of funding. The Plan of Action also incorporates the proposals made by the several units. These suggestions are previously a subject of consensus between the Technical Board, the Executive director and the Board. Its elaboration is initiated by the approval of its guiding lines which is a competence of the Board, who delegates to the Executive Director the elaboration of a draft document of the proposal. This document goes through a posterior analysis, in which the units’ suggestions are already inserted. This process is initiated in October with the units consultation due to the fact that the General Assembly has as limit to the documentations approval at the end of the month of November. The Provisional Budget is elaborated according to a similar process, being a competence of the chief of the administrative staff to prepare the required documentation. c) Units Activities Plan Each unit elaborates an annual Activities Plan in which it indicates the goals to proceed and suggests the necessary activities to achieve them, in every strategic vector.

These plans interact with ASSOL’s Plan of Action in order to assure their coherence and articulation. The Integrated Project, being a unit that functions accordingly to the calendar of the school year may opt to elaborate its activities plan following such calendar. d) Rules for the Evaluation of the Activities taking into account what was planned The evaluation of ASSOL’s Plan of Action is made by the Board through the Activities Report and the budgetary execution is evaluated by the accounting documentation, to be submitted until the 31st of March of the following year to the General Assembly. This is the highest evaluation level and will integrate the evaluation of the execution level of each one of the goals made annually by the Technical Board. The units’ activities plans are revised at the end of the first semester and evaluated at the end of the year. The evaluations of the units’ activities plans will always be compared to the fulfilment of the procedures and indicators of the respective Procedures Manual. e) Evaluation of the procedures conformity There are external auditing mechanisms, starting with the certification audits but there are also the several public services with which ASSOL has cooperation agreements and have the possibility to make monitoring visits, audits or inspections. There is an internal audit nucleus which will proceed, every year, to an audit to, at least, one of the processes established by the Procedures Manual of the respective unit or service. It is up to the Executive Director to elaborate the Annual Audit Programme. f) Evaluations of the needs of the supported people and potential future users This evaluation is assured by the negotiation of the support and evaluation of the key-procedures, contemplated on Books 2 to 6 of the Procedures Manuals. g) Evaluation of the people served satisfaction The support evaluation process – documented on Books 2 to 6 – includes the documents which allow evaluating the impact of the support on the quality of life and satisfaction of the people served. h) Evaluation of the financing entities’ satisfaction Being all the cooperation agreements subjects of an annual renovation, we consider a satisfaction indicator the renewal of those agreements. i) Evaluation of other interested parties’ satisfaction The concern of knowing the evaluation that the several stakeholders make of the services provided by ASSOL and ASSOL itself has led to the execution of an Organizational Diagnose, in 2004 and 2010, with Professors Leonor Cardoso, Paulo Renato and Ricardo Caeiro from the Faculty of Psychology and Education of the University of Coimbra.

- Organizational Diagnosis In order to evaluate the quality of the services provided by ASSOL and to which point it is recognized by their addressees it was performed, in 2004, the referred Organizational Diagnosis, coordinate by Professors Leonor Cardoso, Paulo Renato and

Ricardo Caeiro from the Faculty of Psychology and Education of the University of Coimbra. The results point to a high degree of the users, respective families and staff’s satisfaction, also revealing that the majority of the people who don’t have a direct contact with ASSOL know what ASSOL is and have a positive idea of its activity. In 2010 this study was repeated allowing us to have a vision of ASSOL’s evolution and how it is reflected on people and on the community.

The objective is to apply a questionnaire, every two years, which will allow us to know the satisfaction levels of the several stakeholders, namely the families of people served, associates and partners. We intend to know the evolution of the tendencies on a mid-term period more than punctual variations.

4.7 - ONGOING IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM

It is one of ASSOL’s policies to assure the creation of an environment and procedures which could stimulate a continuous improvement. The continuous improvement actions may be carried out by: - Suggestions made by people served - Suggestions made by the staff - Suggestions made by other stakeholders - Recommendations from audits and other technical reports

The continuous improvement has two essential vectors: - The methodological and technological development - The improvement of the conditions in which the support occurs a) Methodological and technological approaches development In order to pursue them, ASSOL bets in: - Formation and development of its staff - Research and development actions - The implementation and systematic study of new methodologies - The maintenance of high standards of certification - A recruitment policy attentive to the corporate competencies necessary to ASSOL’s staff, which is documented on the Functions Manual.

ASSOL tries to maintain contact with international knowledge centres, namely the Gentle Teaching International, Inclusion Press (from Toronto, Canada), Professor Adrian van Gennep (from Amsterdam), INICO – Salamanca University and also some with Portuguese universities. Attending all this these interactions, we define, by unit, the objectives for technical improvements and for each member of the staff the objectives we see as realistic but also challenging. b) Improvement of the conditions in which the support occurs These improvements are systematized on the Continuous Improvement Plan, which is elaborated annually by the Technical Board, and has in mind the suggestions of people served, staff, other stakeholders or possible recommendations by audits or other technical reports.

This plan is revised in the end of the first semester and evaluated in the end of the year. In this Plan for Continuous Improvement fit the actions which may be performed with the current budget, not being considered the projects with a large dimension that demand a heavy financial investment, which will be considered in ASSOL’s Plan of Action or in the Mid-Term Plan. The improvement indicators may come from the satisfaction of people served, from the work developed and the community in general but also from the interest demonstrated by other entities and technicians in recognizing ASSOL’s work. It is also an improvement indicator the recognition from people and entities specially accredited and knowledgeable.

CHAPTER 5

INOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT

ASSOL continuously needs to reflect about its activity and to acquire new knowledge in order to apply flexible strategies adapted to the needs of each people and the community in general. Being that, presently, all in life rapidly changes, ASSOL also has the need to evolve and adapt itself in order to go along with the world’s evolution. This effort demands knowledge and reflection. The innovation projects may emerge from proposals from the staff, coordinators, executive director or other stakeholders. The Technical Board coordinates these projects, which may be inserted in ASSOL’s Plan of Action whenever its impact has significance in our functioning, organizational structure or costs. The control of the execution and project implantation is made by the Technical Board, where a progress report and corrective measures, if necessary, are made. The pursuit of knowledge has lead ASSOL to study and boost the introduction, in Portugal, of new approaches of the help disabled people: Gentle Teaching and Person Centred Planning (namely by the translation and editing of several books). The innovation and development efforts have an immediate reflex on the editing line, in which appear books that are a result of the work developed by people served in the scope of their activities and books that reflect about the practice and theoretical reference frameworks. a) Books that result from the work developed by people served 1995 - Christmas The history of Christmas told and illustrated by the vocational trainees 2005 – Tintim, the Bunny A children’s story written by Mónica Duarte, who we support in the Occupational Activities Centre, and illustrated by Luís Viegas, who, at the time, was a vocational trainee b) Books that reflect on the ASSOL’s theoretical models and practice 2000 – I Know a Tree of Blue Leaves It retracts ASSOL at the age of 10, its evolution and history, its activities and methodologies and includes the text “Quality of Life and Support”, written by Professor Adrian van Gennep, at the time teaching in the Universities of Amsterdam and Maastricht. 2000 – Trainers Manual It systematizes the methodologies of vocational training 2002 – Paths and Processes with Some Success It describes in a systematized way the support to children and young adults in the regions of Lafões and Tondela. 2003 – In partnership with CERCIAG, CERCIAV and VÁRIOS and supported by POEFDS: - The Dream Commands Life It presents the Person Centred Planning methodology and illustrates its application in occupational activities centres and social occupational forums.

- “Experiences in Community Environments” It relates work experiences in community environments and support experiences at home. 2004 – “ASSOL – Personalized Support” It synthesizes ASSOL’s activities, methodological approaches and applied principles. 2007 – “Manual for a Personalized Training” (electronic edition in www.assol.pt) It tries to adapt the Person Centred Planning to the specificities of Vocational Training

c) Translated Books – about the Gentle Teaching and Person Centred Planning. 2008 – Written by Professor John McGee, who conceded us the copyright: - “Gentle Teaching – A nonaversive Approach for helping People with mental retardation” - “Mending Broken Hearts – Companionship and Community “ - “The Gentle Teaching Primer “ 2009 – “PATH – Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope A Workbook for Planning Possible Positive Futures” by Jack Pearpoint, John O’Brien e Marsha Forest. 2010 – “All My Life’s a Circle” by Jack Pearpoint, Marsha Forest, Mary A. Falvey e Richard L. Rosenberg

d) – Transposition of the effort to innovate the services This effort has allowed ASSOL to be on the front line in many moments and to be a pioneer in the creation of some services and to introduce new methodologies. In the district of Viseu, ASSOL was the first entity to: - Support in a systematic way the integration of disabled children and youngsters in regular schools (1991) - Create an Occupational Activities Centre (1991) - Support the creation of a sheltered employment enclave (1991) In the Centre Region it was the first entity to: - Create, in 1999, the first Socio-occupational FORUM On a national level and in methodological terms, it was pioneer: - Supporting disabled children and young adults adapting to regular schools - Utilizing internships in companies in order to perform practices in technical vocational training courses - Placing disabled adult people in foster families - Making socio-professional experiences in natural work environments for severely disabled people and people with a chronic mental disease - Applying the Gentle Teaching and Person Centred Planning - Supports negotiation.