Workshops with young Roma prisoners & prospective teachers in Italy

In Italy the 12 workshops with young Roma prisoners and prospective teachers took place in the Prison District of Sollicciano, the main detention centre in Florence and the Tuscany region. They were preceded, in April 2019, by a contact meeting for a first mutual knowledge and understanding, and to present the objectives of the project, namely, of the workshops.

Sixteen prisoners, eight women and eight men were selected by the prison educational sector for the training activity. The twelve workshops took place from October 2019 to early March 2020. They were developed in intercultural spirit and by the use of innovative technics.

The main objectives of the workshops were:

• to nourish the dialogue between subjects from different worlds to foster processes of mutual knowledge, overcoming stereotypes and empowering the personal and collective identities of Roma;
• to activate creative processes to build a shared narrative on themes identified together, relating to the condition of being in a prison and belonging to Roma communities.
• to develop active citizenship:
  • among young educators as subjects who in their future professional roles will be able to work effectively for social inclusion;
  • between Roma prisoners so that they could capitalize on positive social relationship experiences with gagè (non-Roma), to refer to as models of possible relationships also in the re-insertion paths after the prison experience.

Attendance sheets were signed after each workshop and a report of the activity was elaborated.