Roma / Itália
Key-stakeholders involved:
This Action aims to improve the situation of the refugees and involve them in society through day-to-day activities.
Sport is the reason we are involved in the Project but including other day to day activities is also a way to optimize resources and encourage a secondary approach towards inclusion and integration. It is also a way to promote active citizenship of current non-citizens towards citizenship. Being part of society teaches to understand and actively collaborate towards the community.
Refugees are constantly moved to different accommodation locations, this impedes them from getting to know a community and creating a sort of stability. In order to fully integrate, a person needs stability and the constant movement is not helpful to their integration. We therefore involved them in the volunteer work with the volunteers of the Foundation where we look after Piazza della Libertà together which involves activities from picking up litter, mowing the lawn to creating events.
Taking care of a public space together made the refugees feel like they were part of a community. The indirect impact was on the residents who finally saw the refugees as contributing to bettering a public area which changed their ideologies regarding the refugees. The refugees also finally felt like they deserved the right to enjoy the piazza and were not just being taken in but contributing.
It is not useful to refugees to keep moving around like nomads, it has a negative impact on them and they will never feel fully stable if they are in constant movement. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid them moving accommodation but giving them a common place to go to give them some sort of stability.
Antonio Buccioni
fondazione@sslazio.org