Rato ADCC

**Rato - ADCC**

Founded:	February 29 in 2000
Type:	Non-profit Organization
Direction Board	Nuno Carvalho, Bruno Lucindo, Tiago Esteves, Justyna Kukla, Inês Galvão
Website	http://www.rato-adcc.pt
Logo

Founded in 2000, Rato Association for the promotion of culture and science (Rato - Associação para a Divulgação Cultural e Científica in Portuguese) is a youth association, registered in the national register of youth associations to develop projects and initiatives to enforce the public access to information.

Rato - ADCC

Nowadays, the association develops mainly:

workshops in Informatics and Information Technologies
multimedia and online projects for non profit organizations and initiatives

In 2004, Rato - ADCC signs with Town Hall of Seixal a formal agreement and creates in the Youth Center of Miratejo R@to - ADCC's Center, a space dedicated to the development of training and volunteering activities in the field of Information and Communication Techonlogies [TIC].

In the same year, Rato - ADCC becomes an hosting organization for European Voluntary Service and, since then, has developed a work of promotion of different projects related to Youth Volunteering, hosting youngsters in volunteering activities, practical learning periods or freetime occupation activities combined with the methodologies and resources provided by Informatics and Information and Communiation Technologies.

Mission

Rato - Association for Cultural and Scientific Promotion is a Portuguese organisation without profit intentions whose mission is centred on the stating of the society of information and emerging information and communication technologies.

The modernisation of the methods and techniques of recollection, processing and dissemination of Information and Culture are a mean of democratisation of Knowledge. And it is this democratisation which will sustain the integral development of the societies of information towards the societies of knowledge.

Another strategic core element of Rato - ADCC is based on the global placement of contents associated with the Portuguese Speaking cultures, as an opposite to the prevalent anglo-saxonic media industry. Rato - ADCC is willing to be a spreader of information in Portuguese.

This way, the primordial paths of activity are based on training, promotion and implementation of projects which are recurrent of the utilisation of the Computer and New Information Technologies' techniques and methodologies, being the creation of partnerships, with several agents and institutions of different regional levels, as the preferred vector of action.

The fundamental factor for the achievement of this vision is Youth, as an engine of development of activities in this domain, but it must promote multilateral mechanisms of generational interactivity. Rato - ADCC is an open project, dynamic to new wills and ideas, in a democratic enrichment perspective of the organisation.

The biggest asset of the Rato - ADCC are people and their ideas.

Training

The work developed by Rato - ADCC in the field of Informatics is based on non formal education methodologies with emphasis on the discovery process aiming the goal of Life long learning - the end of a workshop is always a beginning.

The global training activity is structured in the following project areas:

Login – Workshops for initiation in Informatics and information technologies
ComOn – Workshops for the promotion of Information Society
OPen Code! – Workshops for the Promotion of the Information Society

All training activities are supported by an e-learning platform of Rato - ADCC, where is available for all participants in the workshops of Rato - ADCC several resources and activities.

Another aspect that should be underlined is the fact the trainers/facilitators are in the great majority young volunteers of the association that are integrated and supported in the strategies, methodologies and techniques of the association.

Volunteering

Rato - ADCC is a youth organization that wants to be a vehicle to youth volunteering where youngsters can participate, organize or promote different projects related to themes such as Information Technologies and Youth Participation.

In this field, the association hosts young people that want develop their activity of volunteering, their project of training placement or have their vacation and freetime occupied, giving to them some basic conditions. Besides the national volunteering, Rato - ADCC is a volunteers and sending in the framework of EVS (European Voluntary Service).

European Voluntary Service EVS

This is a project accredited in the framework of EVS - Youth in Action Programme; Rato - ADCC is a hosting and sending organization and can host youngsters (if they are resident in EU or in other country in the scope of YiA Programme) or sending youngsters (if they are a legal resident in Portugal and want to accept the challenge of EVS).

V3M - Volunteering for the III Millenium

V3M is an initiative of Rato - ADCC where youngsters with ages 17 and 25 years old can participate and develop activities with the association.

OTL - Freetime Volunteering Activities

This is a public programme and it is an opportunity for youngsters to do some activities in their freetime with Rato - ADCC, collaborating in different activities

Curricular and Professional Training Placements

The association hosts curricular and professional training placements in the fields of cultural dynamics (in the development of youth activities) and Information and Communication Technologies (Webdesign and development of multimedia projects).