Campobasso: the educational center for families and minors becomes reality

Campobasso: the educational center for families and minors becomes reality.

Ribbon cutting this morning, 20th November 2023, in via Fortunato in Campobasso where the inauguration ceremony of the Educational Center for Families and Minors was held. Born thanks to Educommunity, an experimental social innovation project of the Municipality of Campobasso, of which the Cooperativa Sociale Sirio is the implementing body, and financed by the Department of Public Function of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (from the Social Innovation Fund, established by the 2018 Budget Law – GU General Series no. 32 of 7 February 2019).

A concrete initiative, which allows the city to finally make use of a Center that offers a series of support services to families. These are services to combat youth distress, aimed at minors experiencing difficult situations and their families. A structure which, functioning as the nerve center of a new educational community, is able to pursue objectives of integration of educational fragility and solidity, also making families with hardship and support families cooperate, by virtue of prevention.

For the Municipality of Campobasso, Luca Pritano, councilor for Social Policies, the mayor Paola Felice, together with the manager Vincenzo De Marco, took part in the ribbon cutting. At their side are the president of the Sirio Cooperative, Lino Iamele and the project coordinator, Alberto Cesari, of the Isnet association for the development of the social economy who supported Sirio in the conception and development of the project.

Also present at the important ceremony were the Prefect of Campobasso, Michela Lattarula and Raffaella Petti, representing the Regional School Office.

The structure which from today becomes fully operational and in which a large team of professionals including psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, socio-educational animators and auxiliary operators will operate, can accommodate, in two rooms of three people each, six minors institutionalized in residential regime and 14 minors in semi-residential regime, i.e. guaranteeing the latter to be able to spend part of the day in this place, such as lunch time and the afternoon.

“This structure – explained councilor Luca Pritano – wants to be a real point of reference in the sector, because it not only addresses groups in difficulty and, therefore, children at risk of deviance, but also their families by implementing structured interventions for situations that are under the attention of the Policies social. A project - he explained - which however has a fundamental value especially in the preventive field, through not only the residential regime, but through all the activities that the Center offers which, together with the professionalism of the operators, will be fundamental to prevent discomfort in the city educational".

Mayor Paola Felice also held the same opinion and wanted to point out how a place like this can make minors who experience difficult situations feel safe, but who, in her speech, then wanted to take stock of the importance of prevention. “The invitation from everyone – commented the mayor Paola Felice – is that everyone can always feel responsible for our community”. The director of social policies of the Municipality of Campobasso, Vincenzo De Marco, highlighted that this is an innovative, experimental and, last but not least, "particularly ambitious" project, with co-management between public and private, which aims to prevent and reduce the discomfort of minors, which increasingly often leads to hospitalization in facilities".

“Educommunity is a project that involved various professionals, in close synergy with the Municipality of Campobasso. And, today, thanks to intense work, our city can have an Educational Center for Families and Minors in one of the most populous neighborhoods of the city", recalled the Sirio president, Lino Iamele, who, together with the designer Alberto Cesari, highlighted “the innovative aspect of a co-planning which has not only seen and will continue to see an institution and a private individual continue to operate in synergy for the same purposes, as well as for the management of the Centre, but has seen an initiative carried out which intends to involve and network families, institutions, private individuals and associations of the city in order to create a social fabric that can make positive prospects real for young people in difficulty".