The Gonçalo da Silveira Foundation, in consortium with the Research Center for Human Development of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, is the Non-Governmental Organisation chosen to implement over the next three years the “Citizenship Education” project, an initiative of the Active Citizens Fund in Portugal.

Chosen among 14 applications, the Gonçalo da Silveira Foundation will materialise this project aligned with the Portuguese National Strategy of Citizenship Education. The overall objective of the project is to foster a systemic change in citizenship education and to strengthen the role of civil society organisations in public policies and in promoting a more tolerant and engaged society.

The Research Center for Human Development of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (CEDH-UCP) will be responsible for the creation of a metric to evaluate the students’ “citizenship level”, thus contributing to the design of programmes that respond to students’ needs and supporting the measurement of impact of education actions on citizenship.

With a duration of 36 months, the project “Citizenship Education” is scheduled to start in March this year and be completed in February 2022.

Since 2007, Gonçalo da Silveira Foundation has been developing a continuing work in ​​formal education, in the field of Citizenship Education, focusing specifically on Education for Development and Education for Global Citizenship, and has been invited to join the team responsible for the construction of the “Education for Development Referential – Pre-School Education, Basic Education and Secondary Education”, approved by the Portuguese Government in August 2016 and published in January 2017.

The Gonçalo da Silveira Foundation’s proposal was selected by a jury composed of representatives of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Bissaya Barreto Foundation and an expert external to both institutions.