Hack for Good is a development technology marathon (“hackathon") in which the main focus will be the search for innovative solutions that respond to problems related to the aging of the population.

With this challenge, the Gulbenkian Human Development Program aims to stimulate and attract the interest of young talents to develop technological solutions with social impact. During two days (the 23rd and 24th of April) around 157 engineers, programmers, designers, managers and other professionals, organized into 36 teams from all over the country, gathered at the headquarters of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

They interacted with seniors, health professionals, researchers and caregivers. The study was conducted in multidisciplinary teams and in an intensive marathon programming and prototyping to explore the potential of technology in order to face the challenge of aging, which makes Portugal one of the 28 Member States with the lowest population renewal rates of working age.

APAV participated in the event as “Mentors experts in the area of wellness and health.”

On the April 7th APAV promoted the Seminar Infovictims: Innovation in promoting victims’ rights. The seminar took place in Porto, at Atmosfera M. This Seminar was developed under Project Infovictims II (co-financed by the Criminal Justice Programme of the European Union), promoted by the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV) in partnership with Victim Support Scotland (Scotland), Subvenia Victima (Poland), Weisser Ring Germany (Germany), Weisser Ring Austria (Austria), Victim Support Europe, Public Security Police (PSP) and the Directorate-General of Justice Administration (DGAJ).

On the European Day for Victims of Crime, Victim Support Europe (VSE) launches this video on victims of crime in Europe. The video explains the problem of victimisation in the EU and describes the potential consequences of victimisation for victims of crime. It also describes the rights of all victims of crime in Europe. Furthermore, the video shows the different ways in which victim support can help victims.

This awareness raising video targets people in Europe and around the world and seeks to shed light on victimisation, victims’ rights and victim support in Europe. VSE invites you to watch, share and use this video to raise awareness on victims’ rights and victim support in the EU.

#EUvictimsday

On the 13rd of April João Lázaro, on behalf of APAV, was a speaker to a webinar organised by CEPOL - European Police College, entitled Ensuring Victims’ Rights.

In his presentation, João Lázaro spoke about the needs of victims in their contact with the police, the difficulties in the relationship police-victim, the importance of information and also about how victim support and law enforcement can and should cooperate to reduce secondary victimisation and build trust in the judicial system. João Lázaro further presented three best practices implemented by APAV: the Infovictims website, the network RAFAVH and the network CARE.

This online seminar was attended by around 80 police officers. Aside from APAV also FRA and EIGE were speakers to the seminar and engaged in clarifying participants’ doubts.