Riscriviamo il futuro
The project took place in 13 Punti Luce (Spotlights), i.e. spaces offering education opportunities in the most disadvantaged suburbs of 12 cities in 11 Italian regions: Brindisi, Catania, Genova, L’Aquila, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Potenza, Prato, Rome, Turin, Udine.
Starting date
31 August 2020Duration
12 monthsRealized by:
Save The Children ItaliaObjectives
Taking care of 720 vulnerable children and teenagers at risk for social exclusion. They will be the beneficiaries of educational endowments, that will meet their specific needs and generate a virtuous mechanism.
Helping children and teenagers build confidence in their abilities, which is fundamental to freely imagine and build one’s future, beyond the intergenerational trap of poverty.
Within the program called “Riscriviamo il Futuro” (Let’s Rewrite the Future), educational endowments are one of the tools to combat poverty in education for minors. They consist in goods and/or services offered to fragile children and teenagers living in socially and economically vulnerable contexts, as certified by social services and schools.
Examples of educational endowments include:
- books and school kits (notebooks, crayons, pens, backpacks), season tickets for public transport to school and whatever else is necessary to successfully attend school;
- musical instruments, training courses in music, theater, photography, sports kits and/or sports training courses, or cameras, tablets and other technological devices that can encourage otherwise unexpressed aspirations and talents;
- summer camps, grants to participate in school trips and other activities enabling children to learn new things and widen their horizons.
More than one million children in Italy live in absolute poverty conditions. This figure is expected to increase sharply because of COVID-19, involving another million children who live in already deprived families or will have to face a rapid and unexpected impoverishment process for the first time.
Distance-learning — though fundamental — has left many children and teenagers behind. This has dramatic consequences in terms of early school leaving and increase in poverty in education. Those teenagers already in fragile and vulnerable conditions run a higher risk of taking a route that will lead to them becoming a so-called NEET or to illegal employment and crime. Their poverty not only affects their present, it also jeopardizes their future.
The COVID-19 emergency further highlighted the need to guarantee an inclusive education and free access to high-quality education opportunities. Those are key to break the cycle of poverty transmission and create the social elevator that is needed for Italy to recover.
The “spotlights” involved in the project: Brindisi, Catania, Genova, L’Aquila, Milano Giambellino, Napoli Barra, Palermo Zen, Palermo Zisa, Potenza, Prato, Roma Ponte di Nona, Turin, Udine.
Local associations active within the project: Cooperativa Santi Pietro e Paolo (Brindisi), Centro Sportivo Italiano CSI Catania, Circolo ARCI-UISP Filippo Merlino (Genoa), UISP Comitato provinciale L’Aquila, Cooperativa Sociale Comunità del Giambellino (Milan), Cooperativa Sociale Il Tappeto di Iqbal (Naples), Associazione Laboratorio Zen insieme (Palermo), Associazione Inventare Insieme Onlus (Palermo), AppStart Cooperativa Sociale Onlus (Potenza), Associazione Futuro Domani (Prato), Cooperativa Santi Pietro e Paolo (Roma), Associazione Vides Main Onlus (Turin), Associazione Giovanile Get Up (Udine).
Further reading:
Il Nuovo Rinascimento 705, 5 maggio 2021: “Riscriviamo il Futuro”
