A double event to share the experience of the “Sarepta” Project PROG-36 with the wider community, among best practices, operational methods, future prospects, and shared reflections.

On Monday, April 20, in Cariati (CS), and Tuesday, April 21, in Cosenza, the speakers addressed the sensitive issue of the management of unaccompanied foreign minors, from initial reception to realistic prospects for integration in the local area.

“SAREPTA” PROG-36 is a project of the Italian Ministry of the Interior, active since August 2023 and funded under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund 2021–2027 (AMIF/FAMI), for the temporary first reception of 50 Unaccompanied Foreign Minors (UFMs).

The project takes place in a delicate phase of the reception process: it marks the first steps of an integration pathway aimed at meeting the minor’s most immediate needs and accompanying them toward “second reception.”

The socio-educational and recreational activities offered to the minors are carried out through two dimensions: an internal one, more focused on “cooperation” with the reference staff of the facility itself, and usually serving as a preparatory stage for the second dimension, the external one, which is instead centered on “integration” with local organizations and realities. “Sarepta” operates simultaneously in two facilities: in Cosenza, at the Istituto S.M. delle Vergini, which accommodates 20 UFMs, and in Cariati (CS), at the Archbishop’s Seminary, where up to 30 UFMs can be hosted.

Among the topics discussed over the two days were:

• the length of stay of UFMs in the first reception system, which is generally very short and can sometimes jeopardize the minor’s educational path. Doing well and doing it quickly is the challenge faced every day;

• the mutual knowledge between the minor and the reference staff, which develops through “community moments”: from high-quality Italian language learning, aimed at offering genuine opportunities for growth while promoting the right to participation and valuing their culture and traditions, to co-management of the community through shifts, daily tasks assigned according to natural aptitudes, various workshop activities, and individual leisure time;

• the “external” dimension of reception, which works through interaction with organizations belonging to consolidated territorial networks (sports associations, cultural associations, diocesan groups, etc.) and enables the UFM to acquire basic skills useful for relating to and integrating with the local environment (peer groups, adults, use of shops, knowledge and use of public offices and institutions), thus fostering greater autonomy on the path toward second reception.

Among the speakers at the two-day event were Ibrahima Diop, director of the Sarepta PROG-36 project; Professor Anna Elia of the University of Calabria; Professor Giulia Aiello, Head Teacher of the ISS of Cariati; Attorney Cataldo Minò, Mayor of Cariati; Alessandro Brullo, Vice President of the Fo.Co. Cooperative; Adelaide Capuano, director of the CAS “Cas@ Stignano” in San Marco Lamis (FG); Pino Fabiano, director of the Migrantes Office of Cosenza–Bisignano; and Alessandra De Rosa, President of the Santa Maria delle Vergini Foundation in Cosenza.