Academia Cidadã|Citizenship Academy

The Citizenship Academy’s main goal is to boost active citizenship and the constuction of development roots with principles of social, economic and environmental sustainability. Our ambition is to empower people and organizations in the exercise of deepening democracy.

The motto of Citizenship Academy was launched by the people who organized the “Geração à rasca” (“distressed generation”) protest, which happened on the 12th of March 2011. This initiative opened a new way of citizen participation in Europe by being convened solely through social networks without any political party or union supports. In that day, hundreds of thousands of people went out in the streets in Portugal and around the World, protesting pacifically, irreverently and creatively. This inspired a series of protests and national and international movements under the name of "Indignados" (15-M / Real Democracy Now) that inspired the “Occupy” worldwide protest.

After this, a lot of people have joined the Citizenship Academy, sharing their wish to act beyond the protest. Cooperating, we aspire to capacitate as many people as possible by giving them the tools to create their own specific alternatives.

We believe that politics concerns each one of us and that to all must be given the means to intervene. We believe that democracy and citizenship aren’t finished in the act of voting. They are a whole construction of politics, tones, gestures, talks, pens, projects and acts. Everyday in our lives!

The Citizenship Academy promotes the human person dignity in its own diversity, multiculturality and interculturality, the deepening of democracy and the construction of an universally free, fair, conscientious, critical thinking, solidary and fraternal society.

Principles

The Citizenship Academy is not and it will not be connected to any political party or religion nor will receive any support from armament industries. This is one of our biggest strenghts but it also implies some restraints, namely financelly and logistically speaking, that we assume as pilars of our own independence as an organization.

The non-profit association was registered on the 15th of May 2012, it has organized accountancy and social organs. Nonetheless, the work inside the organization is based on horizontal hierarchy and in sharing responsabilities among participants.