Cooking for freedom


Şahin F., Cemaloğlu N. (Executive), Sönmez E., Yenel K.

Erasmus Project, 2016 - 2018

  • Project Type: Erasmus Project
  • Begin Date: September 2016
  • End Date: August 2018

Project Abstract

From 2013 to 2015 a European project was held (in Italy promoted, among others, by the Beniamino Cooperative, in close collaboration with the Slow Food Island Elba Convivium and the Porto Azzurro House of Reclusion). The project which had the title "Taste of Freedom" also involved some foreign partners, including Lithuania, Turkey, Portugal and the island of Gran Canaria. From that experience emerged the need to open a reflection on the role of vocational training and work in the prison system and on experiences of local roots as a resource for greater effectiveness of the training system aimed at risky social categories such as that of the detainees. From these assumptions were born the Project Cooking for freedom that aims to build and promote training programs in partner countries with the aim of stimulating synergies aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the integration capacity of the prison and training system.

The project partners have identified and shared some premises without which it is difficult to think that professional training in prison can become a real opportunity for reintegration:

• given the particularity of the reference target, there is the risk that training will become a mere filling activity, with a low rehabilitation and reintegration value;

• vocational training activities require strong support of a network external to the prison institution because only in this way can they be really effective;

• often some paths may be affected by the subjective difficulties expressed by the subjects to whom they are addressed, linked to their particular condition and lack of familiarity with a structured working contexts;

• on many occasions there is a risk of corporate distrust about the potential of the recipients and the effectiveness of the courses;

• the possibility, also for young people included in the classical training courses, to integrate their collaboration with institutional realities and experiment in integration paths, can increase empowerment and investment in their training path.

Following the analysis and sharing of the main problems identified, concrete objectives of the project are:

• create and test models of pilot training courses, built with the collaboration between the prison institution, educational institutions and a wide territorial network of associations and companies that deal with catering and food;

• develop strategic skills of qualified personnel in order to achieve integration among the various organizations, to identify the needs of the labor market and achieve the final objective in relation to them;

• develop a network, also at the EU level, capable of promoting the reintegration of trained prisoners into work;

• promote the exchange of best practices between the partnership, reproducible and useful at European level, in order to promote adult learning processes in detention and a more effective collaboration between the prison institution and training institutions;

• gathering useful recommendations to support effective labour policies and the inclusion of disadvantaged adults;

• promote internships and internships that integrate the presence of subjects coming from classical training courses and adult subjects coming from specific training courses.

The project partners were chosen according to different criteria. Some of them participated in the previous Project "Taste of Freedom" and for this reason they wanted to take part in a new project that somehow was the continuation and deepening (Cooperative Beniamino, Slow Food Elba Island, Turkey, Portugal). Other partners were contacted on the basis of their experiences in prison and in training. In fact, in the context of Cooking for Freedom, Lithuania is also involved, with an association that takes care of reintegrating it to work through the management of a salad restaurant bar in Vilnius. Each partner, however, operates at various levels within the prison institutions of their country of origin.

As part of the partnership, the tasks necessary to carry out the project was well distributed according to the skills of each one:

- Skills in research and quality control

- Ability to contact international institutions to disseminate results

- Ability to carry out high-quality training for social workers

- Ability to disseminate and evaluate the results of the project.

In each partner country, dissemination and dissemination initiatives have been organized and the website that collects the experiences made is active. Furthermore, the Guide for Guidelines for the organization of professional courses in prison is being drafted, a goal of the project.