Abstract

Dianova’s experience with young people has led to a new intervention proposal: a structure for minors in situations of social disease and unaccompanied foreign minors. In a sustainable society, it is important to create synergies between the profit and non-profit world to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda. Dianova has decided to do so with Hitachi Rail STS. We both turn to people, and together we created the project “A vegetable garden to cultivate passions”.

The Experience

It is estimate that in Italy there are 21.035 children living far from their family of origin and placed in residential facilities. The reasons that lead to the entry of a minor into a community are many: educational deficiencies due to complicated family situations, abuse or mistreatment, criminal offenses and criminal problems, without neglecting minors who flee from war and poverty arriving in our country without reference adults and in particularly fragile conditions. The risk of social exclusion and marginalization of these young people is very high, above all in consideration of the fact that our society tends to reason for stereotypes and labels, and in the case of adolescents, always looking for their identity, this risk can have greater negative repercussions.

Dianova’s interventions, in addition to meeting the protection needs that revolve around reception in the structure, concern above all training and accompaniment towards full autonomy.

The fact that 94% of resources come from public bodies do not allow us to meet these needs. This creates the need to build projects that can provide skills that can be used in the social reintegration phase; it is in this context that the project “A vegetable garden to cultivate passions” is placed, whose goal is professional training through the creation of a community garden in the structure of minors accessible to other local bodies that deal in particular with disabilities.

This project is part of a campaign, “And after us… A bridge to autonomy!”, which Dianova presented to various stakeholders in the profit world (companies, foundations, institutions, etc.) proposing different forms of collaboration and partnership, including the Milano Marathon Charity Program which allows non-profit organizations to take part in the Milano Marathon and raise funds for a specific project. A tool that, starting from the 2015 edition, has allowed us to build significant alliances with the private sector through the active participation of company employees in a sport and solidarity event. It is thanks to this way of networking in a participatory and inclusive way that Hitachi Rail STS (engineering company) decided to marry this cause with great enthusiasm by involving employees in the charity relay project support. What has greatly affected Hitachi Rail STS of Dianova’s mission is the fact that the recovery of children with social disease is a topic that is hardly spoken of; in fact, few know how to move and who to contact in these cases. Within its social responsibility policies, Hitachi Rail STS wants to be able to support its employees and their families, seeking, together with Dianova, to give concrete answers.

Thanks to the donation of Hitachi Rail STS, after a first phase of structural interventions aimed at making the garden accessible to people with disabilities, a training cycle of 24 meetings will start involving 10 children of the structure for minors and 10 children with disabilities, followed by two operators who will participate to facilitate the performance of the activities.

The project will be carried out in partnership with two associations and a local farm; the latter, in addition to the tools and technical skills, will also offer the possibility of taking part in training internships aimed at social and labor reintegration always in the agricultural sphere.

It is an innovative project both for its educational and rehabilitative value and for its strong integration with the local community, without forgetting the experience of joint training between people with disabilities in the area and minors with social disease.

The connection with Hitachi Rail STS is characterized by a high level of relatedness, and with this project it will be possible to create positive externalities such as the promotion of well-being (SDGs n.3) and a quality education (SDGs n.4), but also to the reduction of inequalities (SDGs n.10) and to the involvement of all the components of the society (SDGs n.17) to contribute to the development of a new more cohesive, inclusive and correct community.