PROJECTS
AREA OF Minors, families and the territory

Youth Centre Tandereig

SUMMARY

The meeting centre "Tandereig" is a recreational meeting space moving constantly towards an educational intent based on relationship as the main instrument of growth and construction of identity. The daily relationship with the adolescents and the territory allows the identification of appropriate responses to the needs of children and allows the team to immediately approach teens' questions, with the aim of strengthening and improving behaviours and attitudes and of preventing any pathological evolution of the anxiety. To this end, the centre also promotes the growth of opportunities for socialization and intra- and inter-generational discussion in the territories; educational and preventive interventions for school organizations; dissemination of knowledge and information on the problems of adolescence; facilitation of relationships among families, operators, services and existing territorial resources.

NAME OF THE PROJECT
Youth Meeting Centre "Tandereig"

RECIPIENTS

Teenagers from 12 to 18 years old

METHOD OF FINANCING
National Fund for Childhood and Youth L.285/97

AREA OF INTERVENTION

Centocelle District, V Municipality, City of Rome

BRIEF HISTORY

The project has been operational since 2003 and is part of a regional network of services for children and adolescents foreseen by Law 285/97.

The planning of activities has changed a lot over the years, with a succession of teenager groups different from each other and, at the urging of the territory, which in this period has undergone major changes.

The centre has, for a long time, been one of the venues of the Roman breakers, with an ad-hoc gymnasium and a large group of dancers who were self-managing that space. The important presence of young people from other countries has faced us with the themes of inclusion and inter-culture. The different educational agencies of the territory have finally been motivated and helped us to review the needs and wishes of the adolescents and to programme specific interventions both in schools and in the streets of the neighbourhood.

OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of the project is to help both individuals and groups to develop the necessary skills for an adequate social life and the essentials for the harmonious development of the individual's personality. That task is exercised through three essential functions: socialization; information and guidance; support and accompaniment.

METHODOLOGY OF INTERVENTION

A Youth Meeting centre (CAG) moves constantly toward an educational intent, as we understand our task as to promote the development, both for the individual and the group, of the necessary skills for a proper social life and the essentials for the harmonious development of the personality of an individual.

This responsibility is carried out through three essential functions:

• socialization, i.e. have the teenagers experience meaningful relationships with peers and adults, and share space and time in order to learn how to better define themselves and their relationship with others;
• information and guidance, i.e. providing adolescents with the information and tools they need to develop individual skills for the retrieval and interpretation of this information, through the support of operators that assist in individual choices and represent a possible intermediary with other agencies (school, workplace, etc...);
• support and guidance, i.e. promoting pathways of maturation for individuals and groups, improving welfare, developing self-esteem and adequate self-perception.

TOOLS AND ACTIVITIES

Project activities are carried out in three distinct areas: the meeting centre, the local schools, and the street.

The planning of the centre includes activities, structured and unstructured, which shall be construed as instruments that promote a different and more active use of the territory by the adolescents: meeting-socializing actions; animation-educational actions; advocacy and counselling; submissions to local services; information.

The Street Unit (SU) meets informal groups of young people who live the street as a spontaneous meeting place, in their usual meeting places, such as squares, bars, gardens, benches, walls. The SU regularly intervenes on the territory two afternoons a week for three hours, at flexible hours depending on the season. This approach aims at strengthening the resources that each group possesses, promoting activities designed each time for a specific group. The SU also promotes local initiatives, organizing events that connect the different realities of the area, such as schools, cultural associations and all those actors who are interested in spreading youth cultures. Over the last years the project has cooperated with local schools; interventions are co-designed with teachers and each year focus on different themes.

NETWORK AND TERRITORY

Assuming that networking in a meeting centre is as fundamental as the direct work with adolescents, in recent years we have always maintained relationships with the educational agencies of the territory and expanded our cooperation to other areas involving teenagers.

The CAG has thus become a territorial hub of networking around adolescents: it accompanies and supports them in relating to the resources of the territory and acts as motivation of social parenthood and responsibility-taking by adults about the needs of the adolescents. Moreover, we believe that the territorial network should not only be seen  in terms of public and private services addressed to teenagers, but also to adults and their idea on adolescents, with which the CAG is always ready to deal.

During the last years, the work of the CAG is occasionally accompanied by other micro territorial projects commissioned by the VII Municipality of the City of Rome and managed with other implementing agencies under Law 285 of the VII Municipality.

CONTACTS AND PROCEDURES FOR ACCESS

Address: via dei Sesami 20, Roma, c/o Istituto Comprensivo "Via dei Sesami". Mobile phone: (0039) 3407721724, E-mail: info@tandereig.it , Internet website www.tandereig.it

Access is free for the adolescents of the area following completion of a registration form.

Winter opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 15:00 to 18:00 hours

Summer opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 16:00 to 19:00 hours

On Tuesday and Thursday the Street Unit is operational from 16:00 to 19:00 hours.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The team consists of: one psychologist-manager, one sociologist-coordinator, five operators (psychologists, sociologists, educators). The work of the team is based on the logic of shared responsibility, a model which aims to promote and stimulate to the utmost individual contribution in the decision-making and operational process.

EVALUATION

The evaluation is made by the client through a system of quantitative and qualitative monitoring (bimonthly progress card). Internal periodic checks are also carried out to monitor expected-reached objectives during team meetings.