SERVICES FOR MINORS AND RESIDENT FAMILIES IN THE VIA DEL PODERACCIO VILLAGES
CAT has been working with Roma families in Florence since 1999, first in the camps and then in the villages on Via del Poderaccio, with educational interventions on site, facilitating schooling, the promotion of health and social mediation between the inhabitants and local bodies. The activities are currently carried out in A.T.I. by C.A.T. and the Social Cooperative CEPISS. Within the A.T.I. Organisation, CAT’s role is that of management and coordination.
The main objectives of the advocated activities are to: promote full schooling through didactic non-exclusive and educational support action for the purposes of reaching equal opportunity status; prevent irregularity in school attendance and any eventual drop-outs in order to interrupt the onset of difficult situations; facilitate school-family relations; encourage, in line with European Union strategies, the overrunning of Roma camps; promote the social integration of Roma minors and their families into the local community; monitor life in the villages to prevent any possible difficult social or living conditions from arising. Each and every activity proposed is done so together with the families in question and local bodies.
Contact: Gilberto Scali
Commissioned by: Comune di Firenze
Located in: Florentine Area
NATIONAL PROJECT FOR THE INCLUSION AND INTEGRATION OF ROMA, SINTI AND CAMINANTI CHILDREN
The CAT Cooperative has been involved in the activities run by the “National Project for the Inclusion and Integration of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti Children” since the 2013-2014 academic year. It is financed by the Ministry for Employment and Social Policy in collaboration with MIUR. The National Project, from the 2017-2018 academic year, has been financed through structural European funding, under the continued supervision of the Ministry for Employment and Social Policy. From that same year, the activities have been carried out in A.T.I. by CAT and the Social Cooperative Cenacolo.
Within A.T.I., CAT’s role is that of activity management and coordination. Activities that are carried out with the Pirandello and Gandhi comprehensive schools facilitate the schooling of Roma and Sinti students, through cooperative didactic techniques and non-exclusive spaces for socialisation and homework support.
Contact: Gilberto Scali
Commissioned by: Comune di Firenze
Located in: Florence area
RomAPP PROJECT
Through this project, the CAT Cooperative, in collaboration with the Cepiss Cooperative and the Centro Zen in Florence and with a small financial contribution from the Buddhist Union of Italy (UBI), intends to increase school attendance and training for young Roma students, paying particular attention to the inherent difficulties relating to living in a marginal context of the “city landscape”, such as the stereotypes that are often a strong element of contrast in the academic journeys of the Roma and Sinti youth. Using the “peer to peer” methodology, which had already been developed within the P.E.E.R. Project (Participation, Empowerment and Experience for Roma Youth – European Commission, Justice 2013) between 2015 and 2017, this project is carried out in collaboration with Istituto degli Innocenti in Florence. The RomApp project aims to render Roma youth active protagonists and bearers of awareness to their Roma and non-Roma peers, triggering positive dynamics for academic and training inclusion. The backbone of the activity is the establishment of a creative group made up of trainers, social workers and Roma and non-Roma youths, who work on the creation and sharing, through social media, of information relating to how to access schools, professional training courses and the inherent possibilities that lie in education and professional training from a sustainable perspective.
Contact: Sara Bacherini
Commissioned by: UBI (Unione Buddisti Italiani)
Located in: Florence Area
