Children should be at the centre of discussion on Social Europe
Eurochild Members attended the 2023 EAPN People’s Summit in Porto to prepare the agenda for Porto Social Forum 2023.
The summit was organised by the EAPN (European Anti-Poverty Network), a civil society organisation and the largest European network involving anti-poverty NGOs, grassroots groups, and European organisations actively fighting pressing issues such as poverty and social exclusion. The event was hosted by EAPN Portugal and EAPN Europe.
On March 17th, Eurochild Member Sérgio Costa Araújo attended the 2023 EAPN People’s Summit in Porto, Portugal. The People’s Summit brought together people experiencing poverty, national members, political stakeholders, and grass-roots organisations to highlight key issues, address structural barriers, explore European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) Action Plan solutions, and shape the second edition of the May 2023 Porto Social Forum’s agenda.
Portuguese member Sérgio participated in an important summit workshop which explicitly focused on child poverty and child participation to underline access barriers to essential services for those experiencing poverty and how to overcome said barriers. The participants on this workshop included civil servants of the Portuguese Social Security Institute (ISS), who work with matters directly related to children’s rights, and the National Coordinator of the Child Guarantee.
In the workshop, the specificities of the Portuguese alternative care system and the high proportion of children living in residential care were underscored: Portugal has the largest number of children in residential care compared with the number of children in foster care (three percent). Sérgio spoke out about the importance of ensuring access to quality resources, recalling the importance of encouraging child participation, and developing indicators in crucial areas such as justice, child protection system, social action, education and health.
To read more about the EAPN People’s Summit, please click here.
