Novo Futuro – Association of Family Homes for Children and Young People  IPSS is a non-profit institution, nationwide. It was founded in 1996, in Portugal, and its mission is to welcome, in small family homes, children and young people at social risk, focusing on welcoming groups of siblings.

These are children and young people deprived of a safe family environment, with stories marked by involuntary exposure to situations of abuse, neglect and physical and psychological mistreatment.

The eight Novo Futuro Houses currently foster 75 children/young people, aged between 8 and 21, accompanied and guided by a specialised technical and educational team.

The average stay of children and young people in the Houses is 5 years, and reception can be extended after reaching the age of majority. Novo Futuro does not establish an age limit to support young people, given the importance of a safe exit and with real conditions to provide them with a stable and successful life.

To date, the Association has welcomed 305 children/young people at risk, of which 230 validate the positive results that have been achieved with the Novo Futuro operating model, as they follow their life projects integrated into their family of origin, into families adopted or in full autonomy.

The Novo Futuro Association was founded in Portugal, in 1996, by Maria de Jesus Barroso, at the time First Lady of Portugal, adopting the spirit of the Association Nuevo Futuro, an institution founded in Spain, in 1968, with the High Patronage of Infanta Doña Pilar de Bourbon.

Nuevo Futuro, in Spain, and Novo Futuro, in Portugal, are independent organisations with their own legal personality that are part of an International Federation also present in Colombia, Peru and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Thanks to the generosity of the Spanish association, it was possible to acquire the first House da Novo Futuro, in the Sintra area, whose launch depended entirely on the sharing of experiences between both teams.

The 37 founding members of the Novo Futuro Association were equally fundamental in making this mission possible.

In September 1997, the first children and young people were welcomed at Casa Branca, located in the Sintra area. This was followed, in 1998, by the opening of Casa Amarela and Casa Verde, in Lisbon; in 1999, in Vila Nova de Gaia; in 2000, in the Estoril area; and in 2002 another Casa was opened in Lisbon. In 2006, the home in Gaia was expanded, adding a semi-detached house. In 2011 it was possible to open another Casa in the municipality of Cascais and, in 2012, the eighth residential home was opened, in the municipality of Sintra.