Supporting those who need us

Lisbon's social reality concentrates problems that have lasted over time and are continually getting worse. Cities today are a meeting point for different dreams, different achievements, but also different vulnerabilities.

Before the eyes of those who suffer most, stigma, discrimination, fear and silence are still barriers to education, health, decent food and social care.

Political leadership should not only look at social solidarity as an instrument of instant gratification, but as an essential pillar of justice, freedom and progress. In a vision based on the principles of proximity and subsidiarity, it is essential for the City Council to approach the social issue as holistic, transversal and collective.

It is essential that Lisbon deepens the Local Welfare State, capable of adapting to the pressing needs of citizens and filling the gaps in executive power that often leaves the most fragile behind. It is therefore essential to break the cycle of public policy choices conditioned by extreme ideological prejudices.

Many people in Lisbon are living with a feeling of anxiety and vulnerability, aggravated by the pandemic situation. Low-paid workers face increasing difficulties in the face of the rising cost of living and, in particular, the energy crisis.

Younger people face almost insurmountable obstacles to starting a family and finding a home in Lisbon. The poor find themselves unable to counteract the poverty they inherited from their parents.

Our aim is to align public policies with the aspirations of Lisbon's families in order to help them achieve their main goals. We are committed to developing municipal programs that favor solutions that emerge from civil society. We want to create better living conditions for Lisboners and stimulate their soul and economic strength, ensuring that municipal programs benefit the people targeted by the programs' goals.

The priority of the city of solidarity is to help Lisbon's families overcome the difficulties they face, especially those who are most forgotten and disadvantaged by life's circumstances. No social support can truly fulfill its eminently human function if it creates incentives that condemn those who need us most to permanent dependency.

The municipality is challenged to assess the contribution that municipal policy can make to deepening relationships of proximity and responsibility between people. We want to develop public policies that help strengthen Lisbon's social and community life, from families to the city as a whole, including neighborhoods, schools, parishes, communities, civil and religious associations.

Giving power back to Lisbon's civil society is the best way to counteract the phenomenon of the progressive reduction of personal relationships that has come to characterize life in big cities, and to build the city of solidarity that Lisbon wants to be.

The SARS Cov-2 pandemic has brought enormous uncertainty about the future, but the municipality and its leadership have stepped forward and ensured the best and most effective healthcare. They have proven that making healthcare more accessible is within the city's reach.

In this sense, it is urgent that the elderly, over 65, can take advantage of a Health Plan to reach the most vulnerable and forgotten by the system, so that they are identified and signposted, but also contacted and referred to health centers, where they are assigned family doctors.

Lisbon today has 10.5% of its population with diabetes, and it is essential that prevention in this case, and in so many other morbidities, takes center stage. Local authorities are at the forefront of access to primary health care, and in an environment of transferring competences, it is up to the Executive to ensure that no one is left behind.