Harraga Guys: Social inclusion paths for unaccompanied and separated children and youth in the City of Palermo

CIAI – Centro Italiano Aiuti all’Infanzia (Italian Centre for Aid to Children) is active in Sicily together with a network of eight partners, to enhance and improve the child protection system and to make available to 400 young migrants the services and tools needed to be an integral and resourceful part of the Italian society. The project has been set up in Palermo, a safe landing for many children who arrive in Italy alone after months of fleeing from their countries of origin: girls and boys “who burn the borders” – in Arabic, harraga means “the one who burns” – ready to risk everything to migrate.

With an approach based on both reception and listening, the project runs intercultural workshops, and offers counselling and internship programmes to help children develop their new life project in Italy and put back together the fragments of their lives, starting from their own skills and inclinations. In support of the migrants’ autonomy in Palermo, the cooperation also involves local private companies who are committed to sustain young people’s education and their inclusion in the labour market.

A model of social housing that combines housing and working solutions has been carried out in the Ballarò area:  thanks to the partial refurbishing of a historical building, “Casa Santa Chiara” is expected to open where young people might live and work together.

At the centre there is the willingness to work together with young people for their welfare and autonomy, with an approach based on integration and interaction.

Project partners: Associazione Culturale Nottedoro Onlus, Associazione Santa Chiara, Centro Provinciale per l’Istruzione degli Adulti Palermo 1, CESIE, Comune di Palermo – Assessorato alla Cittadinanza Sociale, Libera Palermo, Libera…Mente – Società Cooperativa Sociale, SEND – Agenzia per il lavoro e la mobilità internazionale