António Pedro has a clear goal in his mind. He is the Lifedreamer of a Portuguese association called Associação Surf Social Wave.
With a specific program based on individual and group coaching, he and its team are targeting unemployed people in Cascais to let them grow personally and professionally.
Bom Dia Antonio! What is the mission of the Associação Surf Social Wave?
The mission of the Associação Surf Social Wave is to empower unemployed people through the learnings of surfing, for that we set up a program called Surf para a Empregabilidade.
Together with some partners such as NOVA SBE, Randstad, Cascais City Hall, Sushi at Home, Way Beyond, Billabong, Surfrider Foundation Europe, among others.
How did you get the idea?
My professional life has been in the surfing industry. I had a company called Alfarroba that used to organise some of the leading surf events in Portugal.
We also had the first and only free surf magazine in Portugal, and we manage for more than 12 years a Surf Academy where we gave surf lessons to more than 15.000 people.
When in mid-2016, I decided to close my business it was time for giving back. I explored, at that time, what social projects connected with surfing existed, and there was only one project that was working with handicap people.
For me, as a surf coach, I have seen the power of surfing to promote change in people's mindset and this fact was the beginning of this project. From there to April 2017, I set up a team of people in different areas and design the plan.
Despite now, we are working for three years; we keep on improving our project each day.
One of your goals is to incentivize unemployed Portugueses to start a business in the surf industry. For achieving this, you have launched a specific program in Cascais. Can you tell us more about it?
The program in question is Surf para a Empregabilidade, and it has a four-step process (DCTM). It can receive only ten up to twelve people for six weeks and runs inside Nova SBE.
D is for Deconstruction - it is one week where we invite our participants to break the barriers that stop them from achieving their goals - in this week they have surf and yoga, individual coaching sessions, group coaching sessions and also two inspirational speakers. The goal is to let go of all the “no’s” that stop us from going forward with our life.
C is for Construction, and it is a week where we invite the participants to develop an idea for their project. This idea, most of the time, needs to be questioned to make sure that the participants realise what it is exactly and not only a colourful projection of it. We have this week surf and yoga, individual coaching, the first session with a NOVA SBE teacher dedicated to the subject “From Problem to Business Case”, two sessions with an entrepreneur and also two inspirational speakers.
T that means Tools; in the next four weeks we give training in the economy, management, planning, law, accounting, marketing, communication, entrepreneurship and active job search. We keep the surf and yoga twice a week and also have some CrossFit sessions, a walk around Monsanto Forest, and we finish with a three-day retirement called Deep Into the Ocean where we close the training and kick-off for the next steps. On this stage, we have both teachers from Nova SBE and professionals in different areas that bring us their expertise and knowledge.
M stands for Mentorship that we provide for 16 weeks. Our success rate so far is 70%, meaning that 70% of the people find a job or develop their project.
To be part of this program one needs to apply on our website, and then will have two interviews, the first one held by Randstad and the second one a surf lesson.
This is a program for over 18-year-old people that are unemployed. In the future years, we are considering to spin off this program for those who just want to have a life-changing experience.
Who did help you to promote the Suf Social Wave initiative?
When we started, we were lucky to find an agency that developed a publicity campaign that we were able to put on TV.
Today we produce our contents (video/photo/PR) daily and put them on our platforms on FB, Insta, Linkedin, Youtube and our website.
How do you find donors and new members? And, How can I become a member?
We have a hybrid form of financing our association. We closed a partnership with Cascais for their citizens, but we also have sponsors. We are currently trying to create partnerships with other Camaras Municipais in the Lisbon area.
On top of that, we organize the national bodysurf competition in Portugal and we also give paid surf lessons, both the revenues from these projects help us to fulfil our social mission.
Finally, we have an annual membership revenue that comes from our members - you can do it here.
What are the goals for 2020?
In 2020 we aim to do four programs - we already started the first one on the 27th of January, and it will end in March - the next one will be running on the end of April.
We applied to Portugal Inovação Social for an EU fund to support us for the next three years. And we are preparing an international program to receive unemployed people around Europe in Cascais at Nova SBE.
Follow Associação Surf Social Wave on FB: @surfsocialwave
Interviewed by Irene Vannucci
Human rights enthusiastic, wipe-out lover, and chocolate addict, Irene is collaborating with Surfpreneurs Club as an intern to inspire you with the most exciting ventures in the surf community.
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