Mentoring
What we are announcing today – an Agenda for global action for the next fifteen years – is a charter for people and planet in the twenty-first century. Children and young women and men are critical agents of change and will find in the new Goals a platform to channel their infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world.
The Mentoring program works to promote, disseminate and facilitate all those tools instrumental to the successful integration of young migrants, former UASC (Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children).
In particular, we consider the Mentorship model an effective strategy able to assist in the coming of age transition of young migrants and guarantee their successful integration.
The “mentor”, in our vision, is an actor capable of facilitating the active search for work, the consolidation of existing job positions and ultimately a guidance towards complete ownership as well as a resource that can actively respond to the specific relational needs of this transition age.
The Mentoring program is committed to supporting and promoting research aimed at defining methodologies, reference models on organization and training, to support former UASCs integration. In particular, this kind of research focuses on defining the possible profiles of Mentors, their range of activities and the desirable training model.
The Mentoring program is committed to supporting and promoting research aimed at defining methodologies, reference models on organization and training, to support former UASCs integration. In particular, this kind of research focuses on defining the possible profiles of Mentors, their range of activities and the desirable training model.
Consistent with the mission of the Hapax Foundation, the Mentoring program offers courses, workshops and conferences to train the Mentors of the future.
Consistent with the mission of the Hapax Foundation, the Mentoring program offers courses, workshops and conferences to train the Mentors of the future.
Mentoring is committed to follow young former UASCs migrants in their path towards global empowerment, through projects, partnerships and activities that can facilitate their social, employment and housing integration – such as scholarships, work grants, as well as funding for housing inclusion.
Mentoring is committed to follow young former UASCs migrants in their path towards global empowerment, through projects, partnerships and activities that can facilitate their social, employment and housing integration – such as scholarships, work grants, as well as funding for housing inclusion.
Mentoring is a program aimed at young migrants (former UASC) and stems from the desire to offer them tools to fulfill their lives in contemporary society, activating their individual potential.
We want to offer them the necessary means to participate in social life and allow the new generations of migrants to fulfil their role as critical agents of change.
We believe in the empowerment of new generations and minorities as a driving force for future transformations.
Our aim: define effective models and methodologies to support the integration process of former UASCs.
Our primary focus:
– promote the Mentorship model, aimed at creating figures who can accompany young migrants towards a process of empowerment and integration in society;
– carry out projects and activities that can support former UASC in their life path.
Our mission: to generate value in society by facilitating integration processes.
Over 80% of unaccompanied minors arriving in Italy are aged between 16 and 17. We are talking about adolescents who, even after reaching the age of majority, need real support in their path towards social inclusion.
Often they struggle to realize their potential and to put their skills into practice: the lack of a structured support in this process poses a number of problems, many time difficult to solve.
Many young people, on the one hand, are dependent on reception facilities for the search and the choice of a job, on the other they are not adequately equipped to orient themselves in the labor market.
The obstacles include the absence of an information system, both for operators and guardians as well as for UASCs and new adults, the lack of guidance on existing opportunities, the complex bureaucratic process, the difficulty in obtaining the required qualifications as well as the absence of a support network.
Unaccompanied minors and neo-adults rarely have the opportunity to choose their career path following their own attitudes and aspirations, so that the choice is often random and oriented by needs.
Among the most problematic aspects of this transition, of particular note is the abrupt transfer to centers for adults and the disruption in the support provided in centers for minors. Added to all of this is the uprooting from their territory and the lack of housing autonomy.
Social protection – viewed as the access to basic services (such as hospitality, education and health) as well as interventions aimed at promoting self-sufficiency and their integration into the host economy – is a fundamental human right enshrined in international laws and recently reaffirmed in the New York Declaration (2016). It is essential, not only for the survival and well-being of young migrants but, given the length of their stay in the host country, also for their inclusion in the host society and economy.
The Mentoring program intends to initiate projects aimed at young migrants of 18 years of age and up to facilitate and support their integrative path.
In recent years Europe has seen the practice of mentorship aimed at supporting the empowerment of young migrants emerging in various forms and ways.
The Guardian for Unaccompanied Foreign Minors (UASC) is an existing and recognized figure in Italy, which, in addition to the function of paving the way to integration, covers substantially the role of legal guardian for unaccompanied minors. Upon reaching the age of majority, this figure disappears, together with all those legal and social welfare devices linked to minor age and the status of refugee.
In Italy as a response to this institutional vacuum is emerging the need to introduce a new model that involves the mobilization of groups of citizens, as well as formal and informal organizations, that can work towards the definition of a community approach to inclusion through the mentorship practice.
The Mentor is a citizen who chooses to accompany a young migrant on his or her integration path, offering his own resources – social, relational, professional – and building a relationship of mutual trust. The Mentor is a person who listens, guides, encourages, creates new connections, shares knowledge and skills, activates resources and opportunities, dedicates their time and offers their help in solving everyday problems.
For these reasons, the Mentoring program intends to promote the mentorship model as a tool for young migrants empowerment, at national and European level, supporting research projects, training courses and activities to encourage the development of this practice.
The Mentoring program stems from the awareness that the migration process, a distinctive feature of the 21st century, contributes significantly to all aspects of economic and social development everywhere and as such will be the key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030). In this sense, migration must be considered as the engine of an inclusive economic, social and environmental development.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes how “sustainable, lasting and inclusive economic growth is essential for prosperity” and identifies young people as critical agents of change. In this sense, the potential of young people is considered an essential tool for achieving the goals of the Agenda.
In particular, among the SDGs, young people and disadvantaged groups along with the support towards their empowerment are considered central. In particular all those activities and initiatives aimed at reducing youth unemployment are encouraged, namely those activities that help young people to build the skills and resources necessary for employment, for the realization of decent work and for the development of their entrepreneurial capacity.
Furthermore, the Agenda promotes and encourages the definition of strategies aimed at acquiring the tools and the knowledge necessary to allow them to participate fully in social life, regardless of sex, age, race or ethnicity.
Mentoring adopts sustainable development as a cultural reference, with the belief that the values indicated in the 2030 Agenda represent the framework within which the training and development process of young migrants in the community to which they belong can adequately respond to the needs of an increasingly complex and plural society, and can allow the new generations to actively participate in the construction of a global citizenship.
The Mentoring program is the expression of a deep-rooted belief in the potential of young people, in their ability to express themselves by drawing on fresh, dynamic and innovative resources, not only for themselves, but also for society as a whole.
In this scenario, young migrants represent an invaluable resource towards the realization of a sustainable society.
In the course of 2021, the HAPAX Foundation will launch the Mentoring program, working on the development of three specific lines of activity.
