Work is the first step in realizing an independent life project. For a disabled people it is a double challenge: they must be able to do the job and break down prejudices. We want to give our special young friends the opportunity to learn a job, take care of the greenery, feel useful. The project is aimed at 20 young people with mental disabilities aged between 16 and 40. Through the care of an educational garden we want to overcome this challenge. OrtiAmo together!
Santa Teresa di Riva, (Sicily), about 8000 people lives here
In Sicily there are very few activities that allow the social integration of young people with disabilities. For example, a framework law on autism was created only in the last year. To date, there are only 10 day centers with only 200 places available for young autistic people who cover a population of about 6 million people. Efforts from civil society organizations are multiplying but it is still too little. Furthermore, there is a very strong prejudice on the working ability of the disabled person who is seen only as a person to be treated and not as an integral part of society. Thanks to this project we want to show that our special friends can be as good as we are o better.
Our project mainly involves 20 young people with autism spectrum diseases or other mental disabilities. It involves young people from our area who will accompany young people in their work activities. It involves the schools that will come to do activities together with the children. It involves families who will be by their side. It involves the elderly who will be able to teach them how to cure vegetables, tomatoes, spices and medicinal plants. Together they will give rise to the OrtiAmo project.
To carry out the project, it is necessary to create the educational garden by purchasing equipment, plants and arranging the land, also providing for the creation of parking spaces dedicated to people with disabilities. As regards job placement, we will use the same methods that we have already applied within the day center for autistic subjects with great success, alongside young special friends with specialized operators with adequate training. Participation in the project will be voluntary, and will be carried out only during the periods of the year when temperatures allow it. During the school year, schools and other local associations will be invited to participate in the project activities. The invitation will also be extended to all those who wish to participate, especially the elde
In a year's time, we expect to have an improvement in the working skills of the young people involved and, a great participation by civil society and schools in the project activities. Our greatest victory will then be to achieve a reduction in the social prejudices affecting the category of disabled people. The choice to focus on job integration is the basis of our desire to create a training program that allows these young people to carry out their independent life project.
Our idea involves the whole territory. We will make the young people of the schools, the elderly, the grandparents, the friends work together in our garden and we will make sure that each of them shares moments of fun and happiness with our special friends. we will break down prejudice barriers by working together. By involving the whole community we will spread a new sense of community, more united, more close-knit, more cohesive.
Since 2012 I have been volunteering in a center for autistic children. I have seen them grow, I have known their families, their needs. They need to be accepted and for this to happen they need to be able to prove that they are second-class citizens, like everyone else. The families themselves suffer because of the discrimination suffered by their children, which occurs in an explicit but creeping way. This project will help European democracy to grow because it will improve its people.
Total budget
Funding requested from Civic Europe
Works for landscaping 20000 eur; irrigation systems 3000 eur; plants 2000 eur; bathrooms and changing rooms 25000; staff 15000 eur
we would like to know how the inclusion of fragile subjects takes place in their country
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