REPORT 2
In June 20, 2011 to June 22 2011 Professor Brian Maguire and Colm Laighneach came to Sciacca and Contessa Entellina, Sicily, Italy. They visited the C.O.F.H.U.R. offices and got a fuller understanding about the methods of reaching young people who are neither in education or work.
Centro Orientamento e Formazione Human Resources was set up by young, newly qualified psychologists, who came together to provide training for the young people of the town who were unemployed,under educated and unlikely to improve their situation without intervention.
They employed trainers in IT and also individual counseling methods. Their classroom hold at the most 20 at a time. They are funded through government grants.
Their primary reason for attending this workshop with Irene Rita Persia and her staff was to tease out the quality and quantity of intervention as the prisoners are objectively in the same economic condition as those C.O.F.U.R. The conclusion is that the prison system in the different countries do attempt to match this kind of intervention but the numbers of staff are well below that of the 10 :1 ratio at a time in this organisation. Norway seems to be closest to the investment needed for takling unemployment in ex prisoners. Some countries with a different GDPs have adopted different models for example the Romania partner has an equal number of psychologists as teachers (although both disciplines were few in number) and Ireland where there are very few psychologists in the system but the prisonshave a good number of teachers.
Professor Brian Maguire was accompanied by NCAD graduate Colm Laighneach a graduate also of the special Art Course NCAD runs in Portlaoise Prison. The pair held a meeting with Anna Fucarino, head of the “Associazionie Agenti ed Operatori Dello Sviluppo Socioculturae” in the Albanian Village of Contessa Entellina and discussed the relevence of the program in Sciacca which is a large urban sea side resort. While the objectives are the same, it was felt that community action in attracting and creating specific employment was the best way for the village community to proceed to hold some of its young people. When the mobility to Ireland took place a special meeting was arranges for Irene Rita Persia and her staff to meet local activists and public representitives in a similar local area of Dublin City - the out come of that meeting given by Irene in the NCAD workshop was that the best way was that the trainers worked closely with Local and Representive Government. This is what is happening in Contessa Entellina.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
