Palermo, April 24 – A day of training courses, meetings, and lots of sports: these are the elements that characterized the visit of representatives from Fondazione Milan and Fondazione CDP to the 30 young people at the Palermo branch of the Play For the Future project at ASD Sant’Ernesto.
Born from the collaboration between the two Foundations and the Ministry of Justice, the initiative aims to enhance the social reintegration opportunities for over 120 young people, currently involved in the penal systems of prisons in Palermo, Naples, Catania, and Bari, through paths that support their probation period by combining sports education and professional orientation.
In particular, in the Palermo branch, also thanks to the support of the local Juvenile Social Service Office, the project, which initially involved 15 young people, experienced a rapid increase in demand, reaching 30 underage youths with criminal proceedings. In addition to sports education activities, the participants underwent a job orientation program in collaboration with the Fondazione Gi Group, which helps them explore or deepen their skills and the world of work through individual interviews and group workshops. Three of them are currently engaged in a first work experience path, identified precisely through the orientation process carried out.
Many success stories have already been recorded thanks to the project, including that of Luigi , a 14-year-old Palermo teenager from a frontier school in the Sicilian capital, who through the proposed activities discovers a world beyond the street, opening up to new experiences and actively participating in other initiatives proposed by the Juvenile Social Service Office, such as environmental and volunteer projects.
With commitment and dedication, Luigi not only managed to pass the middle school exams with excellent results but also obtained a paid internship at a local Sports Society. Today he attends a professional course and spends his afternoons busy with the internship, training, and volunteering.
