Renovating Homes, Rebuilding Lives.
Just a Change is a non-profit association
that rebuilds homes of people in need in Portugal.
To this day, Just a Change has rebuilt hundreds of houses and institutions, having mobilized thousands of volunteers inside and outside the country.
our
mission
We rehabilitate houses without roofs, windows and doors. Houses where there is no hot water or electricity. We rehabilitate houses where it is cold all the time.
We rehabilitate homes because we believe that living conditions have a direct impact on reducing poverty and crime in the population. We rehabilitate homes because we know that it brings improvements to public health and energy efficiency in our country. We rehabilitate homes because we know that this could be the starting point for a new life. We rehabilitate homes so that everyone has a decent place to live.
We rebuild lives because we bring volunteers full of joy and hope to people's homes. We rebuild lives because we give hope to those who no longer have it, and because we mobilize the community to help and recover their own.
We rebuild lives because home is the most important place in the world and we all deserve to have one.
RENOVATING HOMES, REBUILDING LIVES
our
vision
We look foward to the future and dream a world where there is Joy, Hope and Charity
in all homes.
We also look at what we do and what we leave behind. We want you to see us as those who brings Joy, Hope and Charity everywhere we go. We want to take this dream of ours to every home,
every volunteer and every partner...
This vision is a real goal, for the life of each of the people involved. If we can leave Joy, Hope and Charity in each house, the world will be transformed in a better place.
our pillars
SERVICE
In everything, putting ourselves at the service of others
SAFETY
SUSTAINABLE
IMPACT
In every
rehabilitation and activity
Efficiency, Quality, Social Effectiveness and Financial Sustainability
We enhance our impact by collaborating with local organizations
We activate the local network of social partners, to map and screen families living in a state of housing poverty. From there and with Just a Change we do a prioritization of houses and families that need Just a Change's Intervention.
Once the interventions are selected, Just a Change is in charge for mobilizing the main resources needed for the project’s implementation.
Throughout the construction Just a Change focuses on creating relationships with its beneficiaries and managing the affairs with the partners to enhance the social impact. During the intervention Just a Change encourages the beneficiaries to take part in the works.
With the network of local partners Just a Change ensures the changes and impact achieved during the rehabilitation works are not lost, by guaranteeing every family is followed and helped in other social issues by social workers.
JUST A CHANGE PROGRAMMES
We have developed various interventions programmes, letting us to intervene in different contexts at the same time. These allow us to raise the social cohesion and impact in the local communities.
CAMP IN
In the summer, Just a Change camps (7 to 12 days programme), take place in the contryside of Portugal, generating social impact in the local communities.
KEEP UP
The work never stops at Just a Change! Even during the academic holidays we organize one-week-long bootcamps in the cities of Lisbon and Porto.
ALL IN
One intense day where companies can go all in with us, where their staff can have a social impact and get their hands dirty.
Help us reach out to more families.
TEAM
PARTNERS
"Effectively, change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation and consensus."
Simon Mainwaring
Eradicating housing poverty will always depend on the joint effort of various sectors. We seek to work with partners who want to help us achieve this goal, whether working on the issue of housing and energy poverty, support in kind or building material.
All partners take us further, whether they accompany us just one step or follow us all the way.
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Municipal and Regional
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Technical, Management and Resource
Do you want to be our partner and support us to change the world?
Awards and Distinctions
Over more than 10 years, Just a Change has been awarded several distinctions. Undoubtedly, all this recognition is thanks to a collective effort by all those involved.
Check out what we've achieved so far!
// Prizes Do Something
Received a prize of €1,000 in 2011.
// Youth Volunteering Awards Montepio
Received a prize of €3,000 in 2013.
// Manuel António da Mota Award (FMAM)
Recognized with an honorable distinction in 2015 and a partnership in 2016 equivalent to more than €30,000/year.
// Santander's University Volunteering Awards
Distinguished, in 2016, with the amount of €5,000 and a strategic fundraising partner, JAC's.
// Start TelAviv
In 2017, we were offered a roadshow to Israel, with a presence at the DLD Innovation Festival, thus representing Portugal.
// BPI Solidarity 2018 (BPI and Fundação "la Caixa")
Prize awarded of €40,000 in 2018.
// Social Innovation to tackle Fuel Poverty 2018 (Ashoka and Schneider Electric)
(2017) Distinguished as one of the five winning projects in the implementation of innovative solutions to combat energy poverty. We were awarded a prize of €2,000 and an acceleration program.
// INSEAD
Winners of the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Program, in 2018.
// Partnerships for Impact (Portugal Social Innovation)
Recognized, in 2017, as an innovative Social Entrepreneurship initiative, by the Investment Structure in Portuguese Social Innovation. Attribution of a subsidy of €122,500 to be implemented in social investment.
// Porticus
€150,000 allocated in 2018 and 2019 to improve revenue streams with some social business models, by implementing a strong fundraising strategy and improving financial management processes.
// Microsoft International
Recognized as one of three projects in the world to be invested in by Microsoft in 2017.
// VINCI – VINCI Citizenship Program in 2019
Turn Up Project distinguished with a grant of €25,000.
// Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD)
In 2020, CGD supported our Publicity Project with a prize of €10,000.
// Ashoka
António Bello, one of the founders of Just a Change has been nominated and Ashoka Fellow since 2018.
// World Habitat Awards
The project “Camp In” by Just a Change is recognized with the Bronze Award 2020 on practical and innovative solutions to current housing problems throughout the world.
// BPI Senior 2020
Support to implement a project focused on elderly people in Óbidos. The project lifted out of Housing Poverty 4 families in the region.
// “A Place Called Home”
IKEA Portugal supported 4 projects in the Summer of 2021.