Occupational therapy and social education: a four-decade follow-up of the institutional trajectory of adolescents and young people

Abstract The Adolescent Guidance Center of Campinas (COMEC), a civil society organization, has adopted, as pillars of assistance since its foundation in 1980, the guarantee of the fundamental principles of human rights and the promotion of social education as a tool of intervention and transformation. Its history of providing open-setting follow-up for adolescent and young offenders and their families precedes the assumptions and guidelines of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA) of the Unified Social Assistance System and the National Socio-Educational Assistance System. COMEC has become a reference in the municipality of Campinas, state of São Paulo, Brazil in the execution of socio-educational measures of Assisted Liberty (AL) and Provision of Services to the Community (PSC) through the development of solid work in the field of social assistance. This study aims to present the trajectory of occupational therapy at COMEC from 1984 to 2022 through a university teaching-extension partnership conducted by the Occupational Therapy Course of the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas. Since then, occupational therapists have composed the technical teams of AL and PSC as essential reference professionals to develop this work, as well as assumed management activities. Occupational therapy has contributed, in a powerful and diversified way, to offer a follow-up to adolescents, young people, and their families, and has accumulated experiences in the execution of socio-educational measures that can contribute to its repertoires of action.