TOUR is designed for young people aged 12 to 18 who are either experiencing acute crises, facing seemingly hopeless situations, or already living in residential care but need new impulses for their personal development.
This programme offers a temporary stay in Portugal, providing a calm environment and a structured educational approach to help stabilise behaviour.
In general, placement in an intensive socio-educational individual care setting in Portugal is particularly beneficial for children and adolescents whose family systems are deeply entangled. These entanglements often make it difficult for them to settle into nearby care systems, as they are repeatedly drawn back into their family environment. The greater physical distance makes it more challenging for impulsive actions, such as taking a bus or train home, and also prevents parents from easily retrieving their children. This distance creates a new experiential and action-oriented space for both sides. The spatial separation also helps create an internal distance, enabling young people to focus on themselves, step out of inverted family roles, and gradually rebuild their relationship with their parents in a healthier way.
Depending on the individual’s starting point and specific needs, intensive socio-pedagogical individual care can be provided either in a family-integrated setting or within a team-based setting.
PROGRESSO has developed a specialised phase-based programme for its intensive pedagogical and therapeutic residential youth groups. This structured approach provides a clear and transparent pathway for children and young people, helping them navigate their personal goals and developmental tasks within the support process. Given their frequent experiences of instability in relationships and attachment disruptions, the phased structure offers them a sense of stability and direction. Each location is tailored to address specific challenges and difficulties faced by the young people in our care.
The Transition House offers a mixed-gender shared living space with four places, located in the centre of the small town of Almodôvar. This step from the secluded environment of the initial living groups on the farms to a more vibrant community provides young people with access to all the necessary facilities and amenities within a compact area.
Quiet, historical, and rich in tradition, the town features landmarks, churches, supermarkets, small shops, a cinema, a fitness club, a library, a health centre, a sports centre with a swimming pool, and a riding arena. Surrounded by nature, there are several lakes for swimming and parks with barbecue areas.
Many children and young people in our care have developed a deep mistrust of school and academic learning. They often have significant gaps in their knowledge and are frequently older than their peers in relation to their current grade level. Their fear of embarrassment in front of a group often leads to strong resistance toward traditional educational institutions.
At our Study House, these young people receive one-on-one instruction and have the opportunity to achieve recognised German school qualifications, such as the special needs school certificate (Förderschulabschluss), lower secondary school certificate (Hauptschulabschluss), extended lower secondary certificate (erweiterter Hauptschulabschluss), or intermediate secondary school certificate (Realschulabschluss).
At PROGRESSO, therapeutic support is a fundamental component of our care approach.
We offer a range of therapeutic methods that can be integrated as needed, depending on the specific issues of the children and adolescents. A weekly individual session with one of our external therapists is included in the programme.
At PROGRESSO, we have developed a unique phase-based programme that provides youth with a structured framework in which they can feel secure. Through targeted feedback and the principle of "learning by effect," they gain an understanding of self-efficacy.
In our daily work, we integrate various behavioural therapy elements. These include individualised point systems, emotional emergency kits, reflection sheets, and other tools that help youth better understand and regulate their behaviour.
Our approach supports youth in developing within a structured environment while simultaneously taking responsibility for their actions. This enables them to make positive decisions and strengthen their emotional competence step by step.