Secretariat of Family and Social Development: The city of Ponta Grossa as a whole by Camila Sanches

When thinking about Ponta Grossa economic growth, the look at the social could not be ignored. In order for the city to become, in fact, larger, better and more human, it was necessary to understand that development is not measured only by the expansion of the economy, by the generation of jobs, by the works carried out or by the investments won. A city also develops by the way it sees, welcomes and creates opportunities for the people who live in it. It was from this understanding that the need arose for a secretariat that had intersectorality in its essence and the human being at the center of its actions.

But how to look at people in all their complexity, considering their different realities, trajectories and needs? How to build public policies capable of recognizing that each individual carries with them different social markers and that these differences directly interfere with how each person accesses rights, opportunities and spaces in society?

It was from these questions that the Municipal Secretariat for Family and Social Development of Ponta Grossa was born, in the year 2021. Its creation began from the desire of the public power to look at the human being as a whole, while still recognizing what makes each person unique. An attentive look at differences, vulnerabilities and potentials. Rather than bringing together policies and services under the same administrative structure, it was about building a new way of thinking about social development: integrated, transversal and, above all, human.

From this conception, three major dimensions help to understand the structure and the action of the Secretariat: the right to housing, the promotion and defense of women’s rights and food and nutrition security.

The housing policy of Ponta Grossa has a long trajectory, historically led by the Housing Company of Ponta Grossa, Prolar. From 2023, the housing became part of the Secretariat structure through the Superintendence of Housing. More than an administrative change, this reorganization brought the housing policy closer to the other actions of social development of the Municipality.

The Superintendence began conducting actions related to access to housing, socioeconomic records, land regularization, social rent and the articulation of housing programs, including the Minha Casa, Minha Vida, as well as pilot programs such as the digital address and the solidarity water box. This work gained new perspective with the update of the Local Housing Plan of Social Interest in 2026, an instrument aimed at diagnosing the housing needs of the municipality and establishing guidelines, goals and strategies for the next years.

In women’s rights, with the creation of a specific public policy body for women, the Women’s Department, it is possible to implement the Women’s House, creating a space for women in situations of violence. The experience advanced and, in 2024, gained its own structure with the inauguration of the Brazilian Women’s Reference Center, which began to concentrate the services previously developed in a wider and more humanized space.

And this policy has continued to advance. In order to strengthen more and more the autonomy, self-esteem, professional qualification and economic insertion of women, the Casa da Mulher Paranaense is being built.

We are also making progress in the construction of permanent planning instruments. In 2026, Ponta Grossa published its first Policy for Women Plano Municipal, setting guidelines for the period from 2026 to 2035.

This understanding that a social policy needs to act both in the face of immediate vulnerability and in the construction of conditions to overcome it is present in the third axis: food and nutritional security. After all, talking about autonomy, dignity and human development presupposes ensuring, first of all, basic conditions for a dignified life, including access to adequate food.

With the implementation of the Superintendence of Food and Nutritional Safety, in 2025, Ponta Grossa began to articulate in an integrated way programs and actions previously developed in different areas of the municipal administration. This policy brings together initiatives such as the Popular Restaurant Guilherme Cavina, the Food Bank, the Breadmaker Tia Nastácia School and the Food Acquisition Program.

The integration of these initiatives strengthens a network that operates from production to access to food. The Food Acquisition Program, for example, brings family farming closer to social policies, purchasing products from small producers to target the population served by the network. The Popular Restaurant expands access to meals, while the other programs reach families in different situations of vulnerability.

The next step is the consolidation of the Integrated Food Security Center, designed to bring together related services, programs and structures in the same space, further strengthening intersectoral action.

Article from the book "Ponta Grossa 203 years: From the route of the tropeiros to the tracks of innovation"

Read the other articles of the book here!