Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, November 1 2019 – Activate specific support interventions in favor of newly adult girls and boys who live in educational communities following a decision to remove them from their family of origin by the judicial authority. The Municipality of Milan, through a resolution approved by the Council, adheres with this objective to a national experimentation for the completion of the path to autonomy of those newly eighteen-year-olds who, being deprived of a physiological supportive family environment, may have difficulties in adapting to adult life.

The experimental project will initially involve between 15 and 20 so-called "Care leavers" between the ages of 17 and 20 who can then be followed for a period ranging from one to three years with the activation of an individual path that takes into account the their specific needs and which accompanies them towards autonomy. The project, which is expected to start in December, provides in particular for the provision of grants for autonomy of an amount not exceeding 780 euros per month while waiting for or as an alternative to obtaining the Citizenship Income, the activation of at least four educational tutors who will support local social services in the management and monitoring of the individual's path, the support of a group of peers for the development of skills and activities for autonomy, the identification of an autonomous or semi-autonomous housing solution .

The resources dedicated to the project amount to 300 thousand euros, provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies (240 thousand euros) and the Lombardy Region (60 thousand euros).

“Coming of age – declares the councilor for social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti – does not always coincide with the ability, both practical and economic, to be autonomous. Especially when we think that these girls and boys have not been able to count on the support of their family for many years. Here then is the importance of this project which takes note of a difficulty present in large cities and characteristic of our time. The experimentation puts to work, in a spirit of collaboration, central and local public institutions and third sector organizations that have been working on these issues in Milan for years. We therefore hope that the effort of the next few months will provide us with useful indications to correct the aim and refine tools and methods of intervention to be extended in the future to all those who are called to face a path of autonomy once they leave the community".

As of 31 December 2018, there were 500 minors removed from their families and placed in residential communities, in addition to 142 particularly fragile young people between 18 and 21 for whom the Municipality continued the reception process.