Peripatos

Funded by the Regional Department for the social affairs of Sicily - has been designed to promote social reinsertion of people with problems related to drugs or alcool use, through a wide range of training, consulting and mentoring activities plus an advanced work experiences system.

As a part of a broader commitment in activities to support financial autonomy and self-employment of fragile people at risk of marginalization, Next has been partner of the project Peripatos, in co-operation with Opera Don Calabria and the Businees Incubator (University of Palermo "Arca").

Peripatos - funded by the Regional Department for the social affairs of Sicily - has been designed to promote social reinsertion of people with problems related to drugs or alcool use, through a wide range of training, consulting and mentoring activities plus an advanced work experiences system. The Peripatos Model is based on the adoption - in the field of social work with disadvantaged people – of methods and tools developed within the domain of social and technological innovation. The innovative idea behind this model assumes that the same approach that has affected the ways of conceiving work, co-creativity and enterprise in specific areas related to ICT, can be positively adopted to support social inclusion initiatives, instead of replicating traditional models of interventions. Also the nature of the network of partners working together within Peripatos is to be presented as an innovation. Peripatos is promoted not only by third sector organizations active in the field of social inclusion and drug abuse prevention but also by organizations focusing on social innovation and by the Palermo University Incubator. Thanks to its diverse partnership, Peripatos delivers innovative training modules that give the participants both basic and advanced skills to create their own job and micro-enterprises, to practice the use of ICT in different kinds of work environments (collaborative platforms, clouds, etc.), to meet testimonials coming from social and technological innovation firms. A very important role has been played by a 3 months long action-research activity which has prepared the ground for the project activities and supported the involvement of a wide range of institutional and entrepreneurial stakeholders (including the promoters and the beneficiaries of the project itself) through a set of qualitative/ethnographic research tools (interviews, focus groups) aiming to get information, build up shared knowledge, make the project goals be known ad supported. Besides, through inclusive approaches and co-creation sessions, the participants have been involved in co-design activities (from the content production to the concept definition and graphic design) aiming to deliver a “tool kit for problem drug users, social workers and entrepreneurs”. The tool kit is intended as a practical device for those who are invoved in (back to) work experiences, no matter of which role they might have (hosting entrepreneurs, social workers, collegues, problem drug users) in the process. The tool kit as well as the other methods and outputs developed will be presented and discussed during the exchange activities.