Schools in Lazio, the focus on those in the suburbs with projects and new initiatives to help students

ROMA – Making suburban schools places of excellence. In Rome and Lazio, a whole series of initiatives dedicated to “putting suburban schools at the center” to promote the well-being of students are starting in these weeks of the beginning of the school year. Among the latest, there are the pilot projects with the Gemelli Polyclinic and the Baby Jesusdedicated to environmental education together with the Carabinieri Forestali and education in volunteering, with associations and bodies in the sector.

And give. There are almost 3 million 800 thousand young people up to 19 years of age who live in metropolitan cities and mostly in disadvantaged neighborhoods that lack spaces, stimuli and opportunities to grow. The disadvantage varies from city to city and from neighborhood to neighborhood: as a research by Save the Children published in his report on minors and urban peripherieshigh levels of hardship are found in nine out of 15 municipalities in Rome (four out of eight municipalities in Turin, seven out of 10 in Naples).

So where do we start to help our young people? From schools. Lazio was the first to move. “The suburbs of Lazio – he says to Solidarity World Republic the director of USR Lazio, Anna Paola Sabatini – are places where the creativity and resilience of young people can flourish. Our peripheral schools are centers of excellence that, with the right support, can produce aware and competent citizens, ready to contribute positively to society”.

Solidarity: 3500 minors involved with “Sant’Egidio”. In order to combat school dropout, in the year that ended in June, in the city of Rome alone, more than 60 schools and approximately 3,500 minors were involved in educational activities and support for the poor, by virtue of a memorandum of understanding between the Regional School Office of Lazio and the Community of Sant’Egidio. The collaboration will continue this year and even higher participation from young people is expected: an education in solidarity that starts in Roman schools.

For psychophysical well-being in hospitals. There are pilot projects with hospitals, but also with respect to inadequate housing conditions, which affect a significant number of minors throughout the country: two out of five, according to Save the Childrenlive in overcrowded housing, in damaged houses (9.2%), with humidity (13.7%) or poor lighting (5.4%), and it is in the suburbs that 45% of all eviction orders are recorded.

All delicate and fragile conditions. Living conditions that certainly place young people from the suburbs in a delicate and fragile position also for choices that concern their health and lifestyle. To help students from the Roman suburbs to achieve and maintain psychophysical well-being, the Usr Lazio is setting up a pilot project with the hospitals in these days “Augustine Gemelli” e “Baby Jesus”, with the aim of involving young people in education on how to protect their health to avoid risky behaviors.

The contribution of those who work in the School. Projects born from listening to those who work in suburban schools. The projects that are starting are all the result of a phase of listening to the schools that took place in the school year that ended in June and that saw the directors of the schools in the suburbs of Rome called to the USR several times, precisely to fine-tune the action plan. “We wanted to listen directly to their experiences, gather their suggestions and better understand the daily challenges they face. This continuous dialogue – explains Sabatini – has allowed us to outline concrete and targeted interventions, offering effective and timely responses. We are convinced that investing in the suburbs means investing in the future of the entire community”.

Environmental education. Among the targeted interventions, one concerns a delicate issue in the suburbs: experiencing nature is not always an accessible activity for the kids who live there. The public green spaces? usable where to spend time outdoors in the suburbs are really limited. Hence the need to educate for the present but also for the future of the kids. On this issue, the USR Lazio has therefore asked for the support of the Carabinieri Forestali to raise awareness among the new generations about the protection of the forest and naturalistic heritage, environmental pollution, forest fires and the correct behaviors to adopt.

School safety, USR protocol – Prefecture. One of the new features of the school year that is starting is the Safety Protocol with the Prefecture to guarantee safe and protected school environments, where students and staff can work peacefully.

Creativity, inclusion. Many other projects starting in schools in the Roman suburbs obviously concern teaching support activities and in-depth activities, to help students achieve learning objectives. These are cross-cutting projects built to stimulate creativity, innovation and inclusion, and to help all students achieve equal opportunities for educational success.

Peripheral schools are the protagonists. In Rome, the highest rate of disadvantage is, according to the report of Save the Childrenin the VI municipality (Roma Delle Torri): almost half of the population (46.4%) has a middle school diploma and 40% of 15-64 year olds are unemployed. And it is precisely here that the highest percentage of 0-19 year old residents live (11% of the total in the urban area of ​​the capital), including minors between 0 and 14 years old with foreign citizenship (22.2%). The lowest index of hardship in the Roman suburbs is found in the VIII (Appia Antica) and IX (EUR) Municipalities.

Demonstrations and events. “To promote the integration of peripheral schools into the cultural and social fabric of the region, we have decided to actively involve them – says the director of USR Lazio – in important demonstrations and events: the suburbs represent a treasure trove of cultural diversity, unique experiences and often untapped potential and, for this very reason, we are committed to ensuring that every student, regardless of their place of residence, has access to quality education and opportunities for personal and professional growth”.