Coffee-House – Cafés-Convívio
The Coffee-House (reception point) emerged as Teen Challenge’s first therapeutic response. It is a first contact response, developed in an informal context, of free and direct reception and attendance to drug addicts and their families.
It is in this space that the admission process starts, during which interested parties receive regular follow-up. During this period, the interested party can get to know the model of the institution, its rules of establishment, the values it communicates as well as the difficulties that we know the process will entail. At the same time, the capacity and motivation of the interested person to make an effort and respect a therapeutic contract will be evaluated.
At the moment, we have Coffee-Houses and Contact Points working all over the country, whether they are administered directly by Teen Challenge or within partnerships with local churches or associations with whom we hold cooperation agreements.
Coffee-House / Cafés Convívio • Contact Points
Street Team
The Teen Challenge Street Team intervenes within the metropolitan area of Lisbon and seeks to serve socially excluded population, such as drug addicts, alcoholics, homeless, unemployed, and people with physical or psychological vulnerabilities.
This team aims to inform/communicate about the issue of dependencies and raise awareness as to the risks and damages of abusive consumption of psychoactive substances and the spread of infectious diseases. Through its intervention, the purpose is to establish a more direct and interpersonal contact in the location of consumption, so as to provide transformation strategies, be they in consumption attitudes and risk behaviors, be they with community impact, but especially in terms of alternative life projects.
Therefore, individuals with dependency problems are encouraged to consider adopting a lifestyle without psychoactive substance consumption, resorting to the therapeutic communities as a more structured and prolonged support platform.
Hospitals
In the last 20 years, Teen Challenge has regularly monitored people with dependency problems in hospitalized settings.
As this is a context of vulnerability, aggravated by health complications, the team activity would not only follow up on the patient psychosocially, but also encourage the adoption of healthier lifestyles, with the possibility of direct admission within one of the institution’s therapeutic communities.
Currently, due to hospital policy, the intervention is implemented when requested by the patient or the hospital social services, aiming towards assessing a possible admission into a Teen Challenge therapeutic program.
Prisons
Teen Challenge’s intervention in prison settings in Portugal dates back to its origins in the beginning of the 80s. Considering the significant number of detainees within prison establishments (preventive detention centers and prisons) that were or are still, direct or indirectly, involved in psychoactive substances, Teen Challenge structured a department of regular assistance to prisoners of both sexes (drug addicts and others) in various regions of the country.
Prisoner assistance is conducted on a weekly basis, fostering groups where skills may be trained and individual monitoring and support.
Through the efforts of the team, and within legal authorization, the prisoners that manifest an interest are allowed the possibility of enrolling into one of the institution’s communities, so as to complete their therapeutic program.
Simultaneously, if requested, there is the possibility of assisting the family of the prisoner who is receiving support and follow-up.