The project "Faro Active” awarded the Municipality of the Year award to the Municipality of the Year | Algarve 2021», within the scope of the competition promoted by the UM-Cidades platform, of the University of Minho.
The competition aims to highlight good practices in Portuguese municipalities, namely due to the impacts on the territory, economy and society and the promotion of inclusion and sustainability.
Among a total of eleven awards at national level (nine of them regional), Faro won in the category of Municipality of the Year Algarve 2021 with the initiative “Faro Ativo”, which, according to the municipality, “traditionally marks the start of the sporting year in the municipality, constituting a showcase, par excellence, of the public and private offer of services available in the area of sport”.
In the 2021 edition, this initiative was organized with more than 50 associative and business entities, fundamental partners for the success of the initiative, enabling the entire population to experiment with numerous activities and modalities in various sports and leisure facilities in the county.
In a context of strong social restrictions, the initiative also intended to contribute to help alleviate some of the economic difficulties felt by the associative and business fabrics of the municipality, seeking to make the existing sports offer known to a wider number of people.
This year, the Main Prize was awarded to Águeda City Council, with the project “AgitÁgueda – Art Festival”, an event that the mayor says has “completely” transformed the city and the municipality. Águeda also won in the Center Region category for municipalities with more than 20 thousand inhabitants.
The awards ceremony took place on the 2nd, in Funchal, county that won the main award in 2019, with a project in the area of mobility, called “Funchal, Destino Acessível”.
The municipality of Santa Cruz, located on the east side of the island of Madeira, won in the autonomous regions category, with an energy efficiency project in the public lighting network.
Awards were also given to Monção, in the Northern Region category with less than 20 thousand inhabitants, for the project “Programa Monção Social”; Guimarães (North Region with more than 20 thousand inhabitants), with the “Bairro C” project; and Valongo, in the Porto Metropolitan Air category, with the project “SEDL – sharing experiences and success stories in local democracy”.
Arganil (Centre less 20 thousand inhabitants) won with the project “Sewing Values – An Experience of Circular Economy”; Palmela (Aérea Metropolitana de Lisboa) won with “Healthy Life Paths — A project to support age +”; Aljustrel (category Alentejo) received the award for the project “Aljustrel Arts Center – The creative response to the pandemic”; and Faro (Algarve) won with “Faro Active".
In the inter-municipal category, the award was given to the “International Festival Vaudeville Rendez-Vous”, an initiative that involves the municipalities of Barcelos, Braga, Famalicão and Guimarães, in the North Region.
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