Fondazione L’Albero della Vita collaborates in Reggio Calabria with Centro Reggino di Solidarietà (CE.RE.SO) to carry out a series of experimental measures aimed at preventing early school leaving in the neighbourhood of Pellaro, on the southern outskirts of Reggio Calabria.

Fondazione L’Albero della Vita Onlus has been working since 2013 in the Italian region Calabria with the project “Early school leaving will fail” (Promossi sul campo), with the goal in mind of making young people aware of their own skills and giving them hope back.

The aim is to fight against early school leaving, which has reached worrisome levels in the region:

  • 3-4 times higher than the national average;
  • out of 100 young people enrolled, more than 3% has not been evaluated during the first year of second-grade secondary school due to early school leaving.

The project involves 50 third-year students attending first-grade secondary school “Don Bosco”, 6 teachers and 10 families.

A very dramatic reality

The project aims at allowing young people to recognise their own skills and nourishing their hopes, while supporting their families and raising local authorities’ awareness. Fondazione L’Albero della Vita has been fighting this battle in a hostile environment:

  • widespread environmental degradation, linked to an intense overbuilding
  • poor services and facilities and lack of spaces for socialisation
  • precarious and disadvantaged family conditions
  • poor housing conditions
  • occasional and inconsistent approach to the world of work

All this implies a cross-cutting weakness of civil society, leading to a social and environmental context that is subject to illegal activities.

A phenomenon to stop

The project “Early school leaving will fail” (Promossi sul campo) aims at providing students with the necessary tools to make more informed and mature choices. We have designed educational models tailored to their needs, trying to fostering self-awareness in their learning and training journey and informing institutions about early school leaving, an ongoing widespread phenomenon requiring structural measures according to common models.

The objectives are the following:

  • informative sessions on early school leaving for teachers working at the school;
  • personalised reception and mentoring activities for students at risk of early school leaving;
  • promotion and development of students’ skills through extra-curricular activities and cooperative learning;
  • creation of a self-help group for the families of the children involved in the project;
  • advocacy campaign to raise institutions’ awareness on the topic;