The Querença Project will have several “children”, that is, projects that will integrate the “National Network with Querença” and has already arrived in Alto Minho. In the municipality of Viana do Castelo, the methodology used in the village of Loulé will be applied in a project that brings together the four parishes that made up the now extinct municipality of Geraz do Lima, at a time when several municipalities are almost ready to join the network.
The Geraz project is one that is at a more advanced stage and a protocol for its creation has already been signed between the benefited parish councils, the Viana do Castelo City Council, the Polytechnic of the city o and the cooperative for Sustainable Development of Geraz do Lime. But they are not the only ones who are lining up to be part of this network of territorial development projects.
Second revealed to Sul Informação António Covas, pedagogical coordinator of the Querença Project and the main driving force behind this network, in addition to Geraz do Lima, are also at a very advanced stage «projects in Campomaior, Alcoutim and the Aldeias Ribeirinhas do Alqueva». In each location, the methodology will be adapted to the local reality, with the network serving as a connection point between the different projects.
The National Network With Querença promises to get much bigger, very quickly. «Except for an error, there are already 27 or 28 municipalities interested in replicating the Querença Project», he revealed. A purpose that gained more strength with some measures taken by the Government, which made available funds to support initiatives with these characteristics.
From the outset, the Program «Valorizar – Creating Value with the Territory», announced by the Assistant Secretary of State for Economy and Regional Development António Almeida Henriques when he visited Querença, about two weeks ago, as part of the closing of the first phase of the project with the name of this village in Loulé.
“I have great hopes for this program. We were given a guarantee that it would be ready by the end of the month. His appearance came to comfort all these entities that want to belong to the network», revealed António Covas. The amount that will be allocated to this program is not yet known, but it is guaranteed that it will have a tailored axis for projects to enhance low-density territories.
"Today [Wednesday] we received another good news, with the announcement by the Government of the launch of the Impulso Jovem program," he added. This program comes to support those who employ young people, one of the premises of the Querença Project and of any initiatives carried out within the scope of the national network.
The project is based on professional internships for young graduates, who start to live and seek to create value in a low-density territory.
This new line of support announced by the Government could be particularly useful for the Querença 2 project, the second phase of the initiative that ended last month. “One of the program's measures has to do with self-employment and entrepreneurship. I have to study it well because it can be important for us», he revealed.
The Querença Project's challenge, for the near future, is to consolidate the business ideas that emerged in the first phase and ensure that companies will be born from here.
With this help from the central government, António Covas already speaks unreservedly about what he would like to see in the future in the region. «In the Algarve, they are interested in joining the Alcoutim network, Monchique, Castro Marim and Vila do Bispo. I imagine a ring that comes from Alcoutim to Vila do Bispo. Querença would be the head of the network, with the nerve center at the University of Algarve», he said.
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