Independent living for young people with intellectual and relational disabilities and inclusion at school are at the centre of the projects presently supported by Enel Cuore.
The no-profit organisation that supports the third sector regarding projects of social interest starts 2017 with two call for ideas.
According to the latest statistics issued by Istat (National Institute of Statistics), in Italy more than 90% of people with disabilities have to live with their family, and start living on their own only when the original nucleus is no longer there or is no longer able to take care of its relatives.
The need for action on the educational front is equally important: the Italian Ministry of Education has registered nearly 250.0000 students with disabilities in public and private schools. Two fields that require constant investment, and Enel Cuore has therefore decided to allocate a total fund of 1,5 million euros.
I am going to live alone
"Mettiamo su casa!" (Let’s set up house!) is the project related to the first call for ideas conceived by Enel Cuore with the collaboration of the Italian Federation for the Overcoming of Handicaps (FISH) and the National Council of landscape planning and conservation architects. The aim is to support, in partnership with public authorities, the third sector through new organisational models of independent living for young people of 20 to 40 years of age. A segment of the population that often lacks other reference points and therefore prefers to remain with the family of origin.
For this reason, also following field interviews, the call was aimed at promoting innovative housing ways of life, based on sharing economy principles, therefore allowing to share the essential services: from flexible residences to co-housing and supportive condos, focusing in particular on the benefits of home automation and cutting-edge design and, naturally, on the social context of reference. Proposals should also enable integration with employment opportunities, providing operators trained to plan individually tailored living paths with the beneficiaries of the project.
Collaboration with schools
The other call, "Inclusion at school of students with special educational needs”, regards lower secondary schools and is designed to promote inclusion projects enabling the third sector to cooperate with educational institutions throughout Italy. The types of action that can be taken in this case are highly complex, since special educational needs address children with both mental and physical disabilities, which account for 95,8% of the total. Of these, 65,3% have intellectual disabilities, 3,5% mobility issues, and 27% early psychiatric disorders or learning incapacity. Other children have visual issues (1.7%) or auditory impairments (2.7%), as well as socio-economic, language-related and cultural disadvantages.
Faced with such a complex scenario, the objectives of the call are aimed at improving the facilities, for instance by turning the special needs classroom into a resource room or by implementing digital labs and common areas, and encouraging sports, cultural, artistic and recreational activities. In fact, schools can be equipped with computers or teaching tools, precisely aimed to facilitate the diversification of programs.
One month left to participate
There is still time until February 15 to submit projects and funding requests: the only requirement is that the documentation should be sent to enelcuore.onlus@enel.com after having read the regulations published on the website, specifying the name of the call for ideas that the application is related to.
