Unaccompanied minors migrants

We started from the need emerged in 2016 on the territory of Monza to accommodate an increasing number of unaccompanied foreign minors aged between 16 and 18 years.
We have shared ideas and visions with the Educational Communities and Social Services of the Municipality of Monza and toghether we have built a path that supported the drive to evolution and independence, personal and economic, of these young people, and at the same time ensure support and monitoring at different levels: basic needs, school level, educational, legal, start to work.
This important work of networking has given rise to different realities of hospitality, designed and adapted in relation to the different stages of the journey of minors, from their arrival until the completion of their adulthood.
The goal of this network work is to build a system of “integrated reception” that knows how to build for each child a path of autonomy and emancipation from assistance, as well as responding to his needs for care and his educational needs.

VOLUNTEERS

Throughout the journey, the volunteers are very important: they offer their time to help in the home and in the preparation of meals, support minors in the knowledge of the territory especially during weekends and help them in tasks or in conversation activities in Italian.
Reception is, in fact, a collective process that can only be achieved through the membership and participation of a sensitive and motivated local community that supports and integrates the daily work of operators and all the actors of this great network.

The path of welcome

FIRST RECEPTION: SIRIO COMMUNITY

Upon their arrival, the minors, after a first meeting with the Social Services, are welcomed into the Sirio First Reception Community, in the district of San Rocco, managed by the Novo Millennio Cooperative. The Community can accommodate up to 9 children between the ages of 15 and 18.

The stay at the structure (between 60 and 90 days) is characterized by a calendar of activities, that allow the minor to familiarize with the Community and overcome the disorientation of the first weeks.
The reception project, in this first phase, takes in charge of several aspects:
–activation of age recognition and assessment practices;
–general health screening;
–contacts with the family of origin and/or possibly with family members present in the territory;
–request for protection from the Municipality;
–application for and issue of the first residence permit and C3;
–initial psychosocial assessment;
–registration for Italian language courses.

The educational team then deals with identifying, through individual interviews and targeted observations, a second reception structure that responds more to the needs expressed by the minor and in line with his or her life path.

SECOND RECEPTION: CENTRO MAMMA RITA AND CASA SOLEA'

Centro Mamma Rita: for many years the Community has been welcoming unaccompanied minors, families and minors, to whom it reserves 4 dedicated places within the SPRAR/SIPROIMI project.

Casa Soleà: the Community, opened in September 2019, welcomes 10 unaccompanied minors within the SPRAR/SIPROIMI project.

In both situations, the educational presence is constant and designed to supporting and developing the skills acquired by the minor during the first phase of the reception, from the linguistic, individual and socialization point of view.

The Communities offer a stable environment of care and protection that supports every child in the implementation of their project, starting from the possibility of enrollment in the media license and access to training courses. The perspective in this phase is the eventual passage to more autonomous contexts (SFA) and/or to a path of accompaniment and preparation to the family care.

In the Communities the minors can experiment and implement the principles of collaboration, participation and responsibility and begin the path of growth and openness to the adult world by acquiring new social skills, educational, housing and work.

AUTONOMY TRAINING SERVICES (SFA): CASA DEL PANE AND CASA FILIPPO

These are apartments of 3 places each, dedicated to minors who are in the last phase of their reception path and who are about to approach the age of majority. The objective of these structures is to make to experience the autonomy and the direct management of the house to the boys that soon, will have to take action in order to be independent in the best possible way.

We have noticed how this model is particularly suitable for the UAMs/SCs target in fact, these are boys already partially “adult”who have difficulty in joining community life but need to experience what it means to live every day in a house to take care of.

The case manager, the operator who accompanies the child at this stage, together with the Social Assistant of the Child Protection, the figure of the voluntary guardian and each minor agrees the Individualized Educational Plan and a daily program, with the aim of ensuring an adequate accompaniment to autonomy (house management, management of expenses and money, activities) for the period separating the boy from the age of majority.

During the night hours there is the figure of a social guardian who presides over the hours of dinner and night.

The operators of the Autonomy Training Service (SFA) continue the networking with the local communities and Social Services for the inclusion of UAMs/SCs in the community: educational institutions and training courses, Mosque, Parish, Youth Centres, voluntary activities, sports courses and tournaments, experiential workshops such as the bakery workshop activated at the apartment of Casa del Pane and open to the whole neighborhood.

Finally, through the relationship with training and job organizations, the aim is to create professional and working opportunities and to accompany children towards effective autonomy.