Inclusion for kids on the autism spectrum is making huge progress. Both in school and at work. And this new project by ENGIM (a training body for young people founded on the initiative of the religious congregation of the Josephites of Murialdo) combines both dimensions and makes people fly to Seville Andrea, Giorgia, Lucian, Rocco, Valerio. Classmates and friends, they follow the professional paths of the training center in ENGIM Turin, and today 14 October they are left for Seville thanks to the mobilities financed by the European Erasmus+ program.
Their two-week stay in the Spanish city will serve as an internship abroad for them, but above all it will be a fundamental experience for their personal growth.
In Seville, Andrea and Valerio will both be working in two bookshops, Giorgia will be in the back office in a scooter rental agency, Lucian in a shipping and logistics courier and Rocco in a tourist information office. «They will be intense days of living together, of training in the company, of discovering Andalusia, but above all of discovering one’s own autonomy», says Mariarosaria Zunno, coordinator of the Pre-work course at the Artigianelli headquarters in Turin of the ENGIM Piemonte Ets Foundation, and companion of the five students for the next two weeks. «It is now a close-knit group, but we must take into account that among them there are those who have never been away from home and those who already have experience on the Camino de Santiago for autistic people», continues Zunno.
«Offering travel, work and discovery opportunities to vocational training students is a priority for our institution, but involving young autistic people is a challenge that we are ready to take on thanks to the skills we have developed over the years in taking care of people with disabilities and thanks to the Erasmus program which invites all organizations to adopt an inclusive approach,” he says Roberta Richierocontact person for KA1 Erasmus mobility projects for the ENGIM Foundation. This experience, in fact, is made possible thanks to Let’s Go ENGIM, a mobility project which from this year is also extended to students with disabilities on dedicated courses, organized by the various offices with training programs and guided job placement.
The experimentation in terms of inclusion and mobility began in ENGIM already last spring when a group of girls with disabilities from the ENGIM headquarters in Chieri (TO) left, again for Seville, thanks to Make It Happen!, European project funded by Erasmus key action 2aimed at promoting and encouraging mobility opportunities for people with disabilities, of which ENGIM is a partner. Make it Happen! it allowed staff to be trained on the dimension of inclusiveness, and it is precisely thanks to this training course that the experience was capitalized and became part of ENGIM’s annual mobility plan.
The departure of the five boys coincides with the first day of the Erasmus Days 2024, from 14 to 19 October, theannual event which since 2017 has involved the entire Erasmus+ community to celebrate the successes of the Program by highlighting the opportunities and results of European mobility and cooperation projects, in terms of the growth of European citizenship and the construction of the European Education Area.
