Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

2008 Category 1: Brazil
ized labour for the restoration of the buildings and the small offer of cultural activities
and work for the impoverished youths.
Santana do Parnaíba is a town of 85,000 inhabitants with twenty five slums and 14
luxury condominiums. It is located within Great São Paulo, 40 km from Congonhas
Airport. It is a 427-year-old Historic Centre with 209 listed buildings and protected
surroundings with over 200 buildings, in addition to alleys, streets and squares. The
governmental body responsible for listing the whole complex is CONDEPHAAT-SP
(Council for the Defense of the Historic, Artistic, Archeological and Tourist Heritage
of the State of São Paulo), but some listings are also provided by IPHAN (Institute of
National Historic and Artistic Heritage).
The Solution
A group of citizens residing in the Historic Centre, together with members of the
Town Council and the Town Hall were responsible for proposing and contributing to
the establishment of the POEAO in Santana do Parnaiba. Their main fear was total
loss of the town’s memory and identity. At the same time, they were aware of the fact
that, without an identity between the people and the city, there would never be a
sense of shared ownership and responsibility in dealing with local problems, and thus
with development issues at the local level. To solve the problem, this group of dedicated
citizens brainstormed on the major steps to be taken. First, it was necessary to
find ways of including the youth affected by psycho-social difficulties into the town
and society’s fabric. Second, it was necessary to recover the Historic Centre and its
importance for the general population, to strengthen the “parnaibano” pride as well.
So the idea of establishing courses of Restoration and Conservation of Furniture and
Properties for the aforementioned youths was promoted by the Arts and Crafts School
Project and the Heritage Maintenance.
The main strategy was to make the population trust the socially disadvantaged youth
so as to integrate them in the life of the city and to employ them to restore the beauty
of the old mansions of the Historic Centre. To do that, a regional and national media
campaign was launched to highlight the positive role of this school in social and
conservationist projects. At first, the school’s focus was to elaborate a quality project
to be approved by the listing organs and the Council of Culture. Some difficulties
were to be expected in the approval of a project of this kind: the restoration of cultural
assets by youth with psycho-social difficulties.
Once this step was over, the school had to select the youth who would be part of this
initiative, and this was not an easy task given the large numbers of impoverished
people. The criteria were based on the views of the town’s Social Assistance Service,
the Tutelage Council, the judicial system, Neighborhood Associations and Service
Clubs.
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