Animar

Animar - Portuguese Association for Local Development is constituted by 82 collective and 110 individual members, is a nongovernmental organization that represents since 1993, a Network of Local Development has been promoting through organizations, and support the inclusion of people at risk and exclusion in urban and rural areas, to improve the conditions that encourage and facilitate initiatives with economic and social impact on a local scale, carried out by individuals and entities nonprofits.

Animar Network has undertaken efforts to promote local employment initiatives, dissemination of products and experiences, for cultural and economic communities, based on the potential resources, culture, heritage and local staff. Local development sets us the challenge in how we act on the territory, since the intervention is systemic, working in partnership and promoting the exercise of active citizenship that facilitates the real governance is so much talk, but not always feed. The representative should give way to participation, functionalism to territoriality and work through sectorial networking.

Thus, the intervention of Animar is based on structuring cross-support activities conducted by each "node", which involves strategic actions linked with the qualification of the organizations (consulting), training, dissemination practices and products, information, support associative and dynamic, the processes of building partnerships and leveraging and enhancing the network while the accumulated experience and skills.

For networking is obviously necessary to share knowledge, resources and power, accept the differences of people and organizational cultures, terms common goals, communicate effectively and share a vision and language, and the network is not just a sum but the transformation of each of the organizations that comprise the face of a common goal. To this end, it is considered that the relationship between local actors, regional, national and European public private or third sector, with skills, resources and diverse perceptions, can bring an important asset in developing the most appropriate interventions, and legitimized more effectively.

The Local Development presents us with the challenge in how we intervene on the territory, since the intervention is systemic and must be based on four concepts: Local Development, Solidarity Economics, Participatory Democracy and Equal Opportunities, which therefore are the pillars of reference guide for understanding the role of animar and its mission, including:

•A baseline (Local Development) for the revitalization and for participation in the processes of local governance that should inspire us (as) his (their) associates (as), with a great diversity (and wealth) of paths and experiences , which then should be able to systematize;
•An alternative proposal and Innovative Economy (Economic Solidarity), following the economic dynamics practiced with a plurality of events, by (as) his (their) associates (as);
•A testimony illuminating the paths of Participatory Democracy, promoted and / or charged by (as) his (their) associates (as) and to open new pathways to citizenship of the XXI century;
•A practice of Equal Opportunities, covering gender issues, the territories of social groups, age levels, generations, the diversity of life.