The CPF – Centro Português das Fundações (Portuguese Foundation Center) is the representative institution of the foundational sector in Portugal.
CPF is a private association, recognized for its public benefit, which today brings together more than one hundred Portuguese foundations, from all over the country, characterized by different origins, dimensions, purposes and areas of activity.
FMAM became a member of the CPF in March 2011, a status it has been maintaining.

EPIS, Associação Empresários pela Inclusão (Entrepreneurs for Social Inclusion), is a private non-profit association whose primary mission is education, in particular the fight against school failure and dropout.
In this sense, it developed an approach, unprecedented in Portugal, to combat school dropout and failure from 5th Grade to 9th Grade that is based on a methodology for training young people and their families, worked on and developed by a national network of professional mediators.
This network is made up of local teams of technicians specialized and experienced in these matters and includes in its methodology a signalling system for young people with risk factors in terms of school success and a portfolio of specific training methods for each of these categories, which enable the construction of individual monitoring plans in proximity and continuity.

Since 2007, EPIS has followed more than 10,000 students across the country, who have recovered their academic success or resumed their education or training courses. In 2011/2012, EPIS and its partners closely monitored 2,541 students in the 7th, 8th and 9th grade of school, with 1900 of these young people in their first year of the program. The school success of these EPIS students went from 60% in 2011 to 68.2% in 2012. This improvement in school success resulted in the “creation” of 209 more good students in 2012.

Also in 2012, EPIS widened the focus of its work to professional inclusion, through the launch of a fund to support professional internships, in a business environment, aimed at facilitating the training and inclusion of young people removed from the educational system who want to choose a professional route when they complete the 9th grade and reach 18 years.
The Foundation assumed ownership of this associative relationship, succeeding Mota-Engil, which was part of the group of founders of EPIS, alongside a wide range of leading companies on the national scene.
In 2012, the Foundation, in collaboration with EPIS, organised on the premises of Mota-Engil do Porto and Linda-a-Velha, two sessions called “Family Talks” open to the participation of all employees of the Mota-Engil Group
How to encourage children to study, specifically to develop a study method, in order to recover school performance, was the motto for these sessions.
The sessions were guided by EPIS and, in an informal setting, study methods, time management, school performance and family motivation were discussed, taking advantage of the EPIS experience obtained on the field.
There was also time to debate questions raised by the participants.
The Foundation was elected to the EPIS Board and thus became part of its Board.

GRACE – Empresas Responsáveis (Responsible Companies) was formed on February 25, 2000, by a group of companies, mostly multinationals, whose common denominator was the interest in deepening the role of the business sector in social development. GRACE was a pioneer as a Portuguese non-profit association dedicated to the issue of Corporate Social Responsibility.
GRACE’s mission is to reflect, promote and develop Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, seeking to encourage the participation of companies in the social context in which they operate, through the establishment of partnerships that enhance visible and concrete impacts of the Association’s activity, in articulation with other Civil Society entities, such as Universities, Non-Governmental Organizations, Business Associations, Municipalities, among others.

In 2013, the Foundation became a member of GRACE, actively collaborating in the pursuit of the association’s objectives and currently integrating its Directorate.

Europe is experiencing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
PAR – Plataforma de Apoio aos Refugiados (Refugee Support Platform) is a platform of Portuguese civil society organizations, that support refugees who in the present humanitarian crisis seek Europe as a space of protection and refuge.

In approximately 59.5 million displaced people in the world, 19.5 million are refugees, 38.2 million internally displaced persons and 1.8 million asylum seekers.
Syria is the country that generated the largest number of both internally displaced persons (7.6 million people) and refugees (3.88 million). Next are Afghanistan (2.59 million refugees) and Somalia (1.1 million refugees).

Developing countries and regions host 86% of refugees in the world, this being the highest number in more than two decades.
Most refugees are in countries that, much more than us, have difficulties in receiving them and still do so, as are the cases of Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon, given the situation in Syria.

Through the PAR – Families and PAR – Front Line initiatives, the Platform, which already integrates dozens of civil society organizations and countless citizens and volunteers, will organize the reception of refugee families all over the country, counting with the involvement of local institutions (IPSSs, municipalities and other entities) that will take responsibility for a specific family, supporting them in all aspects, such as accommodation, food, health, education, learning the Portuguese language, social integration and work for adults with work capacity, with the support being available for up to 2 years (PAR – Families).

In addition, the Platform will launch a fundraising campaign to help Caritas and the Jesuit Refugee Service that support refugees and displaced persons in the Middle East, including Syria, Lebanon and Jordan (PAR – Front Line).

The Foundation joined PAR, thus associating itself with concerted efforts in support of refugees, which is expected to materialize soon under the coordination of the Government and with the support of citizens and civil society organizations that are mobilizing around this cause.