Acolhimento familiar: um estudo comparativo entre Brasil e Portugal

Abstract

The work in question highlights the theme of the Family Foster Care Service in two countries, aiming to cooperate with the reflections on the protective measures for the reception of children and adolescents in foster families, provided for in the Statute of the Child and Adolescent, focusing on Brazilian and Portuguese legislation. The question that guided this study deals with how the activities of the Family Foster Care Services are carried out, seen and understood in two countries, being an alternative for the social protection of children and adolescents. Thus, the limits and advances in the implementation of family foster care in Brazil and Portugal were analyzed, focusing on the normative, structural and administrative area, presenting as a cutout for examination, the Family Foster Care Service of the municipality of João Pessoa/PB - Brazil and the Family Service of Mundos de Vida - Association for Education and Solidarity, located in the Parish of Lousado, which is located in the city of Vila Nova de Famalicão/Portugal. Being of a qualitative nature, we carried out an analysis of academic research and articles produced in the aforementioned countries; We evaluated official documents that address the topic; and conducted a semi-structured interview with the technical team of each service, carried out in person in both, between September 2023 and June 2024. The interview technique was used to collect data, through the application of a semi-structured questionnaire, together with the coordination and technical team of the two Services mentioned. The methodology of this investigation is based on the historical and dialectical materialism method, with a qualitative approach, with reading and interpretation of the data according to the content analysis technique. The research identified that Foster Families, both in Brazil and in Portugal, act voluntarily, being essential actors in the implementation of a public policy. In the two countries analyzed, foster care is not seen as a formal work, recognized with social security rights, but as an expression of solidarity and availability to offer love, affection and care to children and adolescents who cannot temporarily be with their biological families.