Associação do Porto de Paralisia Cerebral

Vision
Be the reference entity in the social economy, innovation of intervention and sustainable management practices.

Values
Self-determination
We believe that the customer has the ability to freely decide their design life. Facilitate access to the resources needed for their own choices.

Passion
We are dedicated to the objectives we set ourselves, safeguarding always first and foremost, the best interests of the client, persisting and reinventing solutions.

Belonging
We have a human service, based on respect for others, teamwork and the development of our employees on an individual responsibility logic and participation.

Commitment
We favor trust relationships and based on initiative, innovation and creativity. We maintain the continuous improvement of APPC.

History of the Association of the Port of Cerebral Palsy (APPC)

The Portuguese Association of Cerebral Palsy - APPC, was founded in Lisbon on July 26, 1960, date of the approval of its statutes by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and was regarded as Collective Person of Public Utility and Administrative.
Its establishment was due to the initiative of a group of parents, supported by professionals, who felt the difficulties of responding to children and young people with cerebral palsy.
From Portuguese Association of Cerebral Palsy (APPC) and with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation dedicated to Education, Science, and the Arts Benefit was born the 1st Portuguese Rehabilitation Center for Cerebral Palsy, in Lisbon.
Since 1974, the urgent need to decentralize support services for rehabilitation and increase the efficiency of integration into mainstream education, lead to the foundation of the 2nd Rehabilitation Centre to Cerebral Palsy and other neurological conditions. Headquartered in the city of Oporto, APPC - Cerebral Palsy Oporto Association, has 42 years as private nonprofit Institution on Social Solidarity.
Its Board is equally composed of parents, professionals and people with cerebral palsy.
Being an association of regional extent, its intervention area corresponds to the territory north of the river Douro and the District of Aveiro.

Looking to find the best answers ever, both in terms of research initiatives, such as enhancing the human and technological assistive aids, the APPC's mission is to provide de excellency on services to promote human diversity. Since 1989 we provide services in the areas of rehabilitation, qualification, employment, autonomy, inclusion and quality of life for people with cerebral palsy and related neurological conditions. We always involve multidisciplinary teams ( therapists, medical staff, social workers, psychologists, social educators). Since 2013 we grew our mission providing services also for persons in vulnerable situations, in a logic of global and integrated care, throughout his life and in active cooperation with our associates.

In the first years, APPC developed various services geared to support the persons with cerebral palsy, from the first years of life to adulthood, particularly through the action of the rehabilitation center, the prescription of assistive technology team , occupational activities centers, the resource center for inclusion, the adapted transport service, the mutual-help groups, vocational training and two residential units for adults with cerebral palsy. In this frame, services support monthly about 2014 children, youth and adults with disabilities and other persons in a social disadvantage.

With the assumed concern and commitment to a greater community involvement of its services and social responses, the APPC also gives special relevance to an educational intervention, as a key contribution to the inclusion of people with disabilities or impairments.
In line with this premise, earlier this decade, APPC re-evaluated approach and diagnosed new needs. This weighting resulted in considering services that contribute to improve the living conditions of the population in general and for local development.
It also provides, currently, a bank of technical aids and assistive products, sports activities for senior citizens, an activity center for leisure for children attending the 1st and 2nd cycles of schooling, an information service for people with disabilities, a team that works the self-esteem and empowerment of young adolescents, a space of welfare for adults and caregivers, a Kindergarten and a nursery, a Social canteen, along with numerous initiatives and activities that promotes a more open and inclusive society.

Since 2009, APPC made an investment in the assessment of quality assurance services, within a logic of continuous improvement, maximizing the performance and development of employees, increasing their level of competence and satisfaction, with the ultimate goal of ensuring excellence of social responses, evidenced through informed and demanding customers, more and more involved and satisfied.
In 2013 APPC reached the Equass Excellence level and in 2017 we renew this certification.