Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, June 18 2019 – A house to help young people discriminated against for their sexual orientation gain independence, a help center and the investment of funds to spread sexual education. The Administration's commitment against all discrimination continues and in 2019 materializes through various projects.

“This year too, as has happened since 2011 – declares the councilor for Social Policies, Health and Rights Pierfrancesco Majorino – the Municipality supports the Pride people with great conviction, through patronage and physical presence. We want to take this opportunity to reiterate our concrete commitment with three projects that will launch in the next few weeks and which we believe are fundamental to taking a further step forward on the path to rights".

At the beginning of July, Casa Arcobaleno will become operational, the first of a series of apartments that will be dedicated to welcoming young people discriminated against by their families of origin due to their sexual orientation or the transition process they have started. Up to three people can be accommodated in the apartment, made available by the Spazio Aperto Servizi cooperative in the Armed Forces area, for a maximum stay of between six and eight months. During this period of time, the children will have psychological and legal support and a work and home orientation service available to accompany them towards autonomy through a personalized project.
The email address will also be active for requests for help antidiscriminazioni@comune.milano.it and a desk at the Casa dei Diritti in via De Amicis 10 which can be accessed by appointment on Fridays from 16pm to 18pm. An educator will be present on site who, after listening to the person, will define the need and evaluate the placements in apartment.

Also at the House of Rights, at the end of this month, a help center against all discrimination will be inaugurated which will work on four areas: disability and fragility, gender violence, migration and sexual orientation. The leader of the project, financed with funds from law 285 of 1997 for the promotion of rights and opportunities for children and adolescents, will be the Amici della Casa dei Diritti association which will work together with Vox Diritti, Agedo onlus, The puff, Telemaco di Jonas onlus, Accademia Pons, Jesurum Lab, Soccorso Rosa onlus. The objective is to intercept young people who are discriminated against, trying to do so through channels that are most congenial to them: an online portal, a chat and a toll-free number. During the first contact phase, the children will meet anonymously with specially trained volunteers who will evaluate their needs and direct cases in need of more in-depth help towards interviews with lawyers and psychologists by appointment. The initiative sees the collaboration between the Municipality and the LGBT associations, while the project will be supervised by Marilisa D'Amico, Massimo Recalcati and Mauro Grimoldi.

Finally, the Administration has decided to allocate 500 thousand euros of the funds of law 285/1997 for sexual information and education campaigns in schools aimed at supporting the culture of prevention to combat sexually transmitted diseases.