This recognition, made official after the decree was published in Portugal’s government gazette Diário da República at the end of May, is the culmination of a lengthy and complex two-year application procedure.
David Thomas, founder of the national crime prevention and awareness association, said “It is a big step forward for our association being recognized at the highest level in Portugal.”
To be eligible, an association has to be formed for at least three years, and should generally fit into existing categories, such as sports clubs and other associations, which Safe Communities, a foreign-language website, did not; a factor which may have had a part n the lengthy approval proceedings.
“We also were rather ambitious in applying as a national organisation, where many apply as a municipal or district association”, David Thomas explained.
Safe Communities Portugal, which was founded in 2011 as regional service Safe Communities Algarve, and later expanded to become national in 2015, last month signed a major protocol with the Portuguese Ministry for Home Affairs to boost safety for foreigners in the Algarve.
“I think the fact that we had the protocols with the GNR, PSP, SEF and ANPC helped a great deal” in achieving this latest acknowledgement, David Thomas reflected.
Indeed in the decree it refers to the fact Safe Communities has, since its founding, been carrying out “activities of general interest in the promotion of citizenship and the protection of persons and property, in particular by supporting public security authorities” as well as its various protocols with national authorities, which are reasons for it being declared of Public Utility, by the Minister for the Presidency and Administrative Modernisation, Maria Manuel de Lemos Leitão Marques.
So far this year only 12 organisations have been recognised as a Public Utility, and in the last five years just over 100 have donned the designation.
Figures indicate the numbers have been decreasing sharply from the highs of 2010 and 2011 when there were over 100 per year.
The change came about following the deletion in 2011 of civil governors and the centralisation of the process.