The Regional Secretary for Social Solidarity revealed today that coverage rates of all services provided through agreements with hundreds of Private Social Solidarity Institutions and "Santas Casa da Misericórdia" "have reached and even surpassed 90% in the Region."
 
Speaking at the Legislative Assembly during the presentation of the Report on the Analysis and Evaluation of Regional Child Protection Public Polices, Andreia Cardoso restated the investment in measures promoting the welfare of children and youth as one of the priority axes of the Regional Government's programme.
 
"Our priority has been the investment made in the development of infrastructures, the qualification and reinforcement of human resources in the Region and in the promotion of innovative and transdisciplinary projects aimed at youngsters as well as their families and caregivers," said the government official.
 
In her speech, Andreia Cardoso, in addition to mentioning the Regional Network of Social Infrastructures, listed the wide range of child policies that have been jointly prepared with the Regional Secretariats for Health, Education and Culture, namely with regard to early intervention, prevention and fight against risk behaviours.
 
"The interdepartmental cooperation has been the motto of all policies aimed at this age group," stressed the Regional Secretary.
 
Ensuring that the Government has not finished its efforts in this area, Andreia Cardoso emphasised "the Regional Government's irrefutable recognition of this matter as top priority." In this regard, the government official stressed that "the efforts undertaken already yields tangible and concrete results, the overwhelming majority being cases of success."
 
"The recognition of children's rights and the need to protect their rights as the responsibility of a community is still a relatively recent concept. In the Autonomous Region of the Azores, as well as in the rest of the world, this is a task that is quickly fulfilled as it is quickly renewed," said Andreia Cardoso.