STEP IN Italy

The project took place in Milan, in a camp where a group of about 200 hundred Roma people lived, who had migrated from Kosovo and Macedonia. They had lived in Italy since the nineties and they had settled in a designated camp in the suburbs of Milan (Northern Italy).
Caritas met the Roma groups in 1999, when they were evicted from the area where they had lived. From 1999 onwards, Caritas has been carrying out projects targeted for this group of people, with the aim to promote an active citizenship.
In 2002, Caritas started a partnership with the Municipality of Milan for the coordination of the camp where the groups live. Since then, Caritas also maintained contacts with school and other services active in the camp.

Target group
The project was directly targeting young Roma between 13 and 18 years old and involved 26 youngsters (11 boys and 15 girls). Moreover, 8 boys and girls born in 1993-94 (11 and 12 years old) also participated in the project.
Even though work with families had not been planned from the beginning, the project would not have been possible without a good relationship with the parents. We also worked with some other indirect beneficiaries, such as schools, parishes, voluntary organisations and the Municipality of Milan.

The local project
The objectives of the project were to prevent early school leaving and supporting pathways for social integration.
During these two years, the project developed the following activities for the first objective of the project: support for school, sports and recreational activities and artistic and creative workshops. For the second objective it developed activities around: teaching literacy skills, professional training coupled with completing work-apprenticeships and using services in the camp.

Positive points / strengths
- The vocational training and the work apprenticeship (planned alongside the activities for supporting pathways for social integration) turned out to be a great opportunity for young Roma as they got in touch with the world of work and learned a job.
- The network of partners participating in the project (church, cooperatives and associations) helped young Roma to meet other boys and girls and socialize with them.
- The young Roma involved in the project, as well as the staff working with them, were quite satisfied with the results obtained and had enjoyed the activities carried out. They had appreciated the didactic input as well as the social relational aspects of the project. In particular the members of staff, reported an improvement of their relationship with young Roma as time went on.
- One of the aims of the project was to improve the quality of the relationship between the two groups living in the camp, those from Kosovo and those from Macedonia. In the past fights had broken out between them. At the end of the project this aim had partially been reached.
- Another aim regarded respect of roles and the learning of a collaborative behaviour. This aim was also partially reached, in particular through sports and recreational activities.

Negative points / difficulties:
- Members of staff reported some difficulties linked to the behaviour of young Roma, due on the one hand to their age (adolescence is a critical period), and to cultural tension. These teenagers were sons and daughters of immigrants and form the so called second generation, meaning they do not completely belong to the culture of their parents, nor are they integrated into the Italian one.

- Sometimes difficulties were faced during the project relating to different perceptions of when adulthood begins in life. In Roma culture, people from about 12-14 years onwards are considered to be adults already and as such are expected to start their own family. Following on from this, it was sometimes hard to convince parents of what the sense was in attending school.