In Italy, minors are increasingly poor. In the last ten years, the percentage of minors in absolute poverty - over 1,1 million - has almost tripled, going from 3,9% of the reference population in 2005 to 10,9% in 2015 (source: Istat) and that of minors in relative poverty – more than 2 million children and adolescents – has doubled from 12,6% to 20,2% in 2015, with a surge of almost 8 percentage points since 2011. Economic disadvantage is often accompanied by a educational disadvantage, in a perverse spiral that must be interrupted, in order not to leave children and young people deprived of the possibility of developing their talents, abilities and aspirations to the fullest.
Removing the economic and social obstacles that effectively limit the freedom to grow up and the equality of all children is a challenge to which civil society cannot consider itself extraneous. In particular, the Foundations of banking origin and the other Foundations and Organizations of institutional philanthropy, represented respectively by Acri and Assifero, do not feel extraneous. For this reason, the two associations, which organize an event together in Rome every year to launch the European Day of Foundations, organized in the territories by the single Foundations on 1 October, have chosen to dedicate the 2017 edition of the event to the analysis of the role that a multiplicity of subjects, together with the school and the family, has in contributing to the formation and growth of minors, constituting a true and proper educating community.
The event took place in recent days with the title: “It's a question of education. Community and growth of the new generations”. Speakers included: Giuseppe Guzzetti, president of Acri; Felice Scalvini, president of Assifero; Marco Rossi Doria, teacher and former State Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, University and Research; Massimo Ammaniti, full professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the La Sapienza University of Rome; Raffaela Milano, director of Save the Children's Italy-Europe programmes; Carlo Borgomeo, president of Con i Bambini, an instrumental social enterprise of the Con il Sud Foundation, implementer of the Fund for the fight against child educational poverty created by foundations of banking origin with the support of the government and the collaboration of the third sector; Alberto Contri, president of Pubblicità Progresso – Foundation for Social Communication; Don Fabrizio Valletti, director of the Hurtado Center; Barbara Riccardi, teacher finalist at the Global Teacher Prize 2016; Matteo De Liguori, member of the Regional Parliament of Students of Tuscany.
“The education of minors is a theme that is particularly close to the heart of foundations of banking origin which, in their role as philanthropic subjects capable of activating and multiplying the resources involved in this field, carry out multiple projects in synergy with the other protagonists of the non-profit, with local administrations and with the same schools – said Giuseppe Guzzetti, president of Acri, the association of foundations of banking origin -. Our philanthropic donations since 2000 in the entire education and training sector are close to 2 billion euros (2.492,3 million euros) excluding the 120 million allocated in 2016 to the Fund for the Fight against Child Poverty. This is a truly important initiative, funded by the Foundations with 120 million euros a year, for three years, until 2018. It is certainly a partial initiative to definitively solve the problem of educational poverty in Italy, but without Altro is the largest in this sense ever designed. It provides for a direct, circumscribed and punctual commitment of the Foundations; and is implemented with a view to maximum transparency and reporting, as well as impact assessment: a real novelty on the national scene. The present and future of minors is close to our hearts – concluded the president of Acri -. They are the promise of tomorrow. But it's a tomorrow that starts from today, from the ability we have to give them not only tools and knowledge, but also courage, strength and hope to face a difficult daily life which - amidst bad news from the world of adults, and unfortunately not only that, exasperated expectations of performance that sometimes compress them since childhood, a love-hate relationship with social media that keep them connected with the outside world, but also trapped – it risks lowering their gaze into an insecurity that it can make them unable to look, see and build new horizons. We don't want this to happen, for them and also for ourselves."
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