The Salvation Army
João Barros grew up in France. The son of Portuguese emigrants, he studied Social Economy in Lyon. When moving to Portugal in 1993, João spoke French better than Portuguese.
But it’s a good thing he came back: for the past 16 years he’s been heading The Salvation Army Social Center in Beato, which can only be described as a labor of love.
The Salvation Army was founded in the XIX century by an English Methodist preacher. Today it operates in 133 countries offering social and spiritual assistance, while tending to other basic necessities of life. In different social centers, it provides shelter, food and health services for homeless people, rehabilitation and therapy for those struggling with addiction, day care for the elderly and practical assistance for children and families.
In Portugal, it started operating in 1971. Beato’s chapter, located in the same street as the Hub Criativo do Beato, is strictly dedicated to providing shelter, food, health and social reintegration for people temporarily without a home.
Beato house rules
With a team of 23 on the staff, Beato’s center is always open, providing food, shelter, clothes and medicine. But, most of all, promoting change in people’s lives.
Most of the folks arriving here come recommended by other Lisbon social institutions, all part of a network supporting homeless people. Beato’s center has 75 beds. Residents can check in at 5.30pm and choose to check out everyday at 9.00am or not.
If they are looking for a meaningful change in their lives, then they spend the day at the center and get involved in all sorts of activities: cooking, wood work, cleaning, laundry, group therapy or attending the programs offered on site by the government Training and Employment Agency (IEFP). Currently, there are around 30 people engaged in this daily regime, and some of them stay “just for the food”, João says. But none of the daily activities are an option for those who stay and not everyone is ready to deal with that kind of commitment.
Of course basic needs must be looked after. But The Salvation Army’s main challenge is to inspire a change in mentality, in how people think and talk and believe in themselves and others, and how they build relationships.
It’s no easy job, though. People often come here looking for a refuge away from society and The Salvation Army desperately tries to reintegrate them. “Imagine the shock! The kind of deep transformation we’re talking about is very challenging for anyone”, says João. Sometimes, he says, people try and fail several times, and come back to try again.
If someone stays for 2 or 3 years but is unable to transition into a life outside with his own source of income and a place to live, the center ends up having to refer that person to other institutions. “We don't turn our back to emergency situations, but our mission is to promote reintegration and we need room for people who are seriously looking for that. Also, we should be avoiding a more permanent institutionalization of people”, João states.
The Salvation Army’s team in Beato is trained to do just that. According to João, they constantly have to get together as a team to process all that they deal with and make sure they don’t lose focus on the person, as much as the technical know-how and regulations.
“This institution has an internal regulation as required by law. But everyone who works here knows there are exceptions to accommodate. Every single day.”
The center also welcomes people who don’t spend the night but come only in daytime to benefit from the services and opportunities available. They attend training programs, have access to food and basic medical care.
A people person
João is no stranger to social work. After moving to Portugal he acted as the manager of a home for the elderly and worked for an humanitarian NGO with activities in different Portuguese-speaking countries around the world. He also worked in micro finance, in an organization inspired by the Grameen Bank of Muhammad Yunus, which provided support and micro-credit to entrepreneurs in contexts of poverty.
“Working in the Social Economy, as much as I love project management, partnership development, value creation and all that… sometimes we start managing projects worth millions and we fall out of touch with the people we serve, losing perspective and sense of reality”, João explains.
“I discovered I prefer human contact and that’s when I decided to work full time in Beato’s Salvation Army. I think the word to describe how I feel about this work is vocation. For me, that means trying to inspire change through the way I live my own life. It’s now been 16 years and I feel like I know everyone around here.”
Innovation in the Social Economy before startups
In 2007 João arrived in The Salvation Army, bringing a mindset of innovation developed in his several working experiences in the third sector. “My approach was always to create strong connections with the Beato community. No matter the reasons that bring people to a situation of homelessness, there is no social reintegration without building new relationships. Isolation is not an option here”.
This meant transitioning from a traditional shelter for the homeless into a place where people come to change their lives. “It was a radical change”, João claims. It implied creating an environment of friendship, trust, and faith, in the sense of believing in yourself and in others, improving self esteem and self worth.
Traditional institutional models have their limitations and are not always efficient at promoting transformation.
If we think of Beato’s center as a shelter for the homeless, then success would be measured by how many people find a temporary home here. That’s not success - not according to João. “We would just be transferring a social phenomenon from one place to another”.
How do you promote real change?
“We change mindsets. We start inside our house, but then we need to do it outside as well”, as João puts it.
The built environment plays a role. The emergency doors facing the main street of Xabregas, once shut to passers-by, are now the main entry for visitors. Anyone can come in for a cup of coffee in the cafeteria, often not realizing that those who serve, clean and maintain the space come from a homeless background.
“These are people like us, and we need to find new ways to work against imposed labels”, João says.
“Today, we see ourselves as a meeting point for the community of Beato. We work to promote positive interactions and contribute to the wellbeing of the local community. First time I went to the Parish Council of Beato, I think I surprised everyone when I started by offering our help, instead of asking for anything. This changes everything.”
The people who stay at this center provide small services, such as woodwork, painting jobs, window fixing, among others. They often assist the elderly population of Beato, certainly improving their lives, proving that "the greatest asset of any place is its people", as João puts it.
Another key element to make the change has been the programs of training, therapy and counseling. The daily program is called Academy. “A center for the homeless is a lousy name, it invokes pity. But an academy is a place anyone can go at a stage in their lives to improve themselves, with rules and discipline.”
As for psychological therapy, the main goal is to help the residents build trusting relationships. “Most of our residents are down because of broken ties with their families, especially their former spouses. When we start to dig, we see a lot of relationship issues, sometimes dating back to their childhood, which lock people into an emotional state they can’t seem to shake. Therapy helps in making peace with failure and finding purpose to try again.”
Inclusion through the arts
There was an artist who once came to Beato’s Salvation Army looking for a place to stay. He was in his sixties and had been an internationally acclaimed painter, befriended by the writer Vergílio Ferreira, a key figure in Portuguese literature.
The reason João tells us about him is because things have not been the same ever since he arrived. Picking on his talent, gradually the sleeping rooms were transformed, either by painting the walls or by introducing other decorative details.
The institution provided financial support to his art projects, helping him organize exhibitions with fellow notorious artists, showing on the center’s walls a collection of works of art valued in thousands of euros. There’s no record of anyone having stolen anything. The residents just enjoyed looking at them.
“People tend to think of the homeless as dirty, drunk, addict, even dangerous. That’s just a cliché fed by the media. It was incredible to witness how the presence of art in the environment sensitized people and contributed to a change in how they saw themselves. For us, this was an awakening to the power of culture as a means to inclusion. It stayed with us, even after the artist left”, says João.
Help wanted!
Beato’s Salvation Army’s Social Center is sponsored by the city of Lisbon and Social Security. The building they’re in is on lend by the central government.
There’s a wood workshop inside the building. Some occupants enjoy building furniture from recycled wood as a part of their program and are allowed to sell it for some income. On Thursdays, anyone can come and have lunch at the center’s cafeteria and leave a small donation.
When we ask João what they need back from the community, the answer comes quickly:
"We have lots of dreams, but right now we would like to create a coworking space on our lovely top floor. We need resources to do that. From architecture to fundraising, we take all the help we can get!"
A lot of people from Beato already come to the center for lunch or coffee and end up staying and working from there. "We would like to increase that daily interaction with the community. It’s proven very efficient in breaking barriers and changing perceptions, which is key for social reintegration. That would have a great impact in our community."
