During the second half of the 20th century, there were a number of migration flows towards the outskirts of the city of Lisbon, for which neither the social housing of the state nor the privately invested housing market was able to respond in quantity and quality to the lack of real estate. The most pronounced flows of these shortages were the arrival of emigrants and the return of returnees after the independence of the Portuguese-speaking African countries between 1975/76. These flows have led to the construction of many districts of barrels and clandestine, disorderly and unsustainable housing, such as the Bairro da Cova da Moura in the municipality of Amadora. As in other neighbourhoods of this type, a number of negative social issues have been generated, such as crime, poverty and exclusion, as well as lack of education, health, hygiene and food. This work emphasises the work of the Youth Mine Cultural Association (ACMJ) in defending and representing the community, where a number of projects aimed at the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the district have recently been implemented. We prove that it is possible to move from an isolated and marginalised space to an area valued for socio-cultural, gastronomic and medical value, making use of a specialised (coethnic) tourist market.