Inclusive zone

Inclusive Zone is a training, creative, and meeting place for the reception and inclusion of those children (boys and girls) who have arrived in Italy alone, and that helps them during their growth, through the enhancement of both their inclusion and progressive autonomy towards adulthood.

At the same time, this is a space for young people’s discussion, debate and training – unaccompanied children, natives and young people of all nationalities – where they can work together for a more just and open society, as well as promote peer meeting, mutual individual growth, participation and active citizenship.

The project activities are focused on the renewal and revaluation of the Ginger, a public space located in the centre of Scandicci. Ginger will function as a hub for the development and implementation of social, cultural and job placement projects, with the participation of that part of the civil and productive society already oriented towards the themes of reception and inclusion (the world of the Third Sector and the social and solidarity economy). At the same time, the project will be oriented to encourage and promote the involvement of all the local social and economic stakeholders (even those not so oriented) to ensure that the young people’s skills, talents, human and social assets  – foreign and native – and the potentialities of the territory might meet each other for their mutual development and growth.

The project is the result of the sharing of objectives of 4 local stakeholders: the Municipality of Scandicci, Cospe – leading partner of the project – Pegaso Consortium and Ethics Finance Foundation which have in common the goal of promoting an open and inclusive society in order to reduce the number of people in a condition of social marginality. Consistent with the objectives of the Never Alone initiative, the project is oriented towards the activation of job placement projects, social and relational inclusion and language and cultural inclusion.

The development of the personalized and integrated projects for the beneficiaries’ social and economic autonomy is focused on the concept of bi-directionality of the integration process and its consequential positive feedback on the host communities. From this point of view, the project, through its activities, sustains a mutual exchange between unaccompanied children, who are the direct beneficiaries of the activities, and the young and resident citizens, by promoting the development of relational networks both at social and economic level that can be a booster for the inclusion process, thanks to the participation of various local stakeholder – associations, cultural centres, companies and social cooperatives – along with the public administrations of the Florentine Metropolitan Area, primarily the Municipality of Scandicci, project partner.

Finally, a hypothesis of housing autonomy will be taken into account, through the analysis of the existing best practices and the study of ad-hoc solutions such as, for example, the refurbishing and valorisation of unused public assets. An important element of innovation will result from the use of common and public assets, unused movable and unmovable properties, as a driving force for the launch of business ventures and social cooperation within the project framework.