Social Responsability

Católica was one of the 28 founding members of the Observatory of Social Responsibility and Institutions of Higher Education, a collaborative network that aims to foster the social dimension of Higher Education Institutions and to promote the exchange of experiences on Social Responsibility policies and practices. The first major initiative was the development of a green paper on social responsibility, written in 2017, which also included the participation of a group of UCP collaborators.

Guided by the values ​​of Christian humanism, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, has been consistently promoting activities and projects related to social responsibility, with the aim of helping to create a more just and balanced society.

Examples are activities developed by academic units with their freshmen, such as painting the school of a non-governmental institution, participating in a second crop of potatoes that were not previously harvested to donate to the food bank; club initiatives and student movements to bring together the best university talent to non-profit organizations; blood and bone marrow collection campaigns and campaigns of the Food Bank against Hunger, in which teachers, students and collaborators of the UCP participate.

Praxe solidária - Apanha da batata CLSBE

Also in the Porto Regional Center, the Unit for the Integral Development of the Person (UDIP), invigorates three great activities enabling participation in volunteer actions, regular or punctual, during the school year and in different geographies.

• CASO | CAtólica SOlidária - possibility of carrying out voluntary and punctual volunteering actions during a school year in several areas. In 2017 they represented about 7,500 volunteer hours in 45 partner institutions;

• GAS'Africa - experience of volunteering in Africa during the summer, with the participation of 12 students and about 1,300 hours of mission;

• Mission Country - possibility of holding a volunteer week between the 1st and 2nd semester in a Portuguese village, with mission in 48 universities in the country;
 

Responsabilidade Social - Meninas Sorridentes, Africa

Also worthy of note is the development of a platform to disseminate the devices used and designed by patients with specific diseases: Patient Innovation (a project recognized by the United Nations), the Chair in Social Entrepreneurship created in 2017, the Chair in Bioethics, and participation through of the School of Biotechnology in the European project "TRUE" (Transition Paths for Sustainable Production Systems based on Legumes in Europe), which involves 24 partners from 10 European countries.

The Transversal Area of ​​Social Economy (ATES), in the Regional Center of Porto, has the mission to identify, prepare and implement projects in the area of ​​social economy. The activity of ATES encompasses several training programs designed to empower social economy organizations, with a special emphasis on Post-Graduation in Management of Social Economy Organizations.

The Environmental Studies Group (GEA) in Regional Center of Porto contributes to the multiple dimensions of local, regional and global sustainability through integrated initiatives for action research, training and consultancy.

In 2017, to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Católica created a Social Support Fund, called the Pope Francis Fund, aimed at supporting financially deprived students (Portuguese, migrants and refugees) and contribute to their inclusion in higher education systems.