Inclusion Insights from the Santa Marta Festival: a Call for Systemic Change and Continuous Support

The recent discussions at the Santa Marta Festival have shed a crucial light on a profound societal challenge and opportunity: fostering meaningful employment for people with disabilities.

The vibrant dialogue, featuring insights from figures like Maruska Palazzi (Municipal Councilor for Social Services), Cinzia Ciabotti (CPI - Mirrored Placement, Law 68), Luca Pazzaglia (Labirinto Coop.), and Andrea Mancini (TIS - Social Territorial Area), alongside Assessor Pandolfi (Social Policies), underscored a collective commitment to moving beyond assistance towards genuine empowerment and emancipation.

The core message? It's not just about providing jobs; it's about building a culture of inclusion, continuous support, and recognizing the immense potential within every individual.

The Problem: Bridging the "After School" Gap and Fostering Autonomy.

A significant concern raised was the "after-school problem" for young people with disabilities. Families frequently ask: "How can my child approach work with a long-term perspective?"

This question highlights a fundamental challenge: the need to cultivate autonomy and enable individuals to become active participants in the workforce.

As Assessor Pandolfi emphasized, the goal is to create emancipation. Work, in its broadest sense, is about having a role, contributing, and fostering personal evolution. This journey requires not just good intentions but preparation, professionalism, diverse perspectives, and a shared pool of knowledge across various services.

The Vision: From Fragmentation to a "Life Project"

The Italian system has grappled with fragmentation in services. The discussion highlighted the importance of inter-service collaboration to reconstruct individuals' life stories and ensure continuity of support. The concept of a "Life Project" (DL62) emerged as a pivotal framework to overcome this fragmentation, allowing for a personalized budget of support tailored to an individual's journey.

This isn't solely a request for more funds, but also a call to "change the posture of people", shifting mindsets towards greater self-reliance and active participation.

Key Tools & Initiatives and How to Enhance Them:

The speakers pointed to several existing initiatives that, with strategic enhancement, can drive greater integration:

-Law 68/99: This law mandates companies to hire a certain percentage of disabled workers. While crucial, Cinzia Ciabotti from CPI (Centro per l'Impiego) highlighted that employers sometimes feel isolated in managing the complexities (e.g., managing crises). There's a need for better support structures around this obligation. CPI plays a vital role in "mirrored placement," providing career guidance, accompaniment, and candidate selection for companies.

-TIS (Territorial Social Integration Projects): Andrea Mancini explained that TIS offers work experience in organized contexts for fragile individuals (including those with certified disabilities). Funded by the European Social Fund (and potentially host companies), these typically last up to 24 months, providing €400 monthly. As Mancini noted, "fragility has its own time," requiring longer periods to build transversal competencies. The challenge is ensuring continuity beyond current funding cycles like PNRR.

-DL 276, Art. 14 & Law 381/91: These legislative tools facilitate agreements with social cooperatives and allow companies to fulfill their obligations through collaboration with specialized entities. This valorizes organizations dedicated to inclusive work placement.

-Orientabile & Regional Initiatives: Programs like "Orientabile" and regional calls for proposals (e.g., "Bando Disabilità e Orientamento Regione") are vital for vocational guidance.

-Gol (Garanzia Occupabilità Lavoratori): This program, a connection point between public and private sectors, is being explored to secure resources for initiatives like TIS, ensuring greater stability.

-The role of the tutor is paramount – a blend of educator and someone who understands the demands of the working world, capable of navigating potential crises.

The Path Forward: Trust, Continuity, and Measuring Impact

The overarching themes for future success are trust and continuity. The current reliance on time-limited funding (like PNRR) severely impacts project continuity. There's a strong call to address this structural challenge.

A crucial point, echoed by Cinzia Ciabotti, is the need to recognize the disabled person as a resource, not just a recipient of aid. This involves matching demand and offer, with companies actively seeking candidates and CPI assisting in selection. Furthermore, it's essential to evaluate the impact of inclusive employment. As emphasized, successfully integrating a person with a disability often leads to economic savings in long-term care costs. This "prevention" aspect, while hard to quantify initially, must be understood and demonstrated through data on its positive effects.

The festival also touched upon the critical role of career guidance in schools, helping young people understand their own capacities, and the challenge of bridging the gap between an individual's lived experience and the formal language of a CV ("writing a CV is too far from who we are").

In conclusion, the Santa Marta Festival highlighted that advancing job opportunities for people with disabilities is a complex but deeply rewarding endeavor. It requires persistent collaboration between services, a commitment to personalized "life projects," stable funding, and a cultural shift towards embracing everyone's potential. As Director Benedetti (Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Pesaro) and all participants underscored, it's about recognizing inherent value and building a system of continuous support, allowing individuals to truly thrive and contribute to the community.