What we found out

Project objectives Tweet

The project "Work-experience creation for subjects with previous or current criminal measures - social cooperative society onlus Jobel - (kr)" is part of the convergence objective of the POR Calabria, European Social Fund. The operational objective of the project, which is concluded and is part of the Structural Funds' 2007-2013 programming, was to develop the integration into employment of categories with disadvantaged employment and social marginalization, strengthening the culture of equal opportunities to prevent and fight all forms of discrimination in society and at work.
The project, which falls under Axis III, social inclusion and services for quality of life and territorial attractiveness, the overall objective of the national strategic framework was to promote an inclusive society and ensure security conditions in order to improve, on a permanent basis, the environment most directly conducive to development.
To this end, activities were planned for the integration and accessibility of social protection services, care and reconciliation of training, learning and work systems, with particular emphasis on equal opportunities and anti-discrimination actions to improve the quality and equity of social and work participation.

Foreseen activities

The start of the project, whose cost is € 195,630.00, was scheduled for 26 May 2011, ending on 31 December 2013. The programmer and beneficiary was the Region of Calabria, with the Jobel Consortium acting as implementer. Activities were planned for the integration and accessibility of social protection services, care and reconciliation of training, learning and work systems, with particular emphasis on equal opportunities and anti-discrimination actions to improve the quality and equity of social and work participation.
The ROP Calabria 2007/2013 has planned, under Axis III - Social Inclusion - Specific Objective “G”, to develop paths of integration and to improve the job placement of disadvantaged people to combat all forms of discrimination in the labor market; Operational Objective “G1” provides for the implementation of Work-experience actions; among the recipients of the actions of the ROP Calabria ESF 2007/2013 were identified prisoners and people subject to external criminal measures or in semi-release. By Decree of the Sector Manager No. 803 of 11/02/2011, a list of beneficiaries was approved, including the Cooperative Soc. Jobel , based in Crotone, which was allocated funding under Operational Objective “G1” of the POR Calabria 2007/2013 for a total amount of €. 195,630.00. On 04/07/2011, the beneficiary “Cooperative Soc. JOBEL” signed the Convention with the regional entity, No. 1075. On 18/08/2011, the sum of €. 117,378.00, corresponding to 60% of the entire amount, was allocated by D.D.G. No. 10182; upon reporting the amount advanced, a sum of €.58,689.00 was allocated, the equivalent of 30% of the allocated resources. The Regional Administration, on 18/06/2014 issued the closure report and forwarded it to the Beneficiary by note no. 101514/SIAR of 2014.

Project origin

The project Work-experience creation for subjects with previous or current criminal measures - social cooperative society onlus Jobel - (kr)falls within the scope of Axis III - Social inclusion of the POR CALABRIA FSE 2007-2013.
The Calabria Region, with a view to coordination and operational synergy, in agreement with the Department for the Penitentiary Administration and the Center for Juvenile Justice, has sought to promote a shared strategy of actions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of services for the social inclusion in working life of those involved in criminal enforcement, with a view to overcoming any form of discrimination which are often met by such subjects in the current labour market. Actions were aimed at the development of the employment integration of categories with employment disadvantage and social marginality. The Regional School Board, the Penitentiary Administration of Calabria and the Centre for Juvenile Justice were involved in the definition of the project, which was being co-designed, to reinforce the interventions already successfully tested in the 2000-2006 programming, under which training actions aimed at subjects who undergo alternative measures to detention were financed. The traineeships took place in private companies selected by the beneficiary, or in the same beneficiary of the funding as cooperatives, associations. Of these, 31 were adult women, 78 young people between the ages of 15 and 24; 245 were adult men between the ages of 25 and 65. The host companies focused on catering, construction, agriculture, local maintenance and cleaning, mechanical engineering and food industry. Project proposals were submitted by social cooperatives, voluntary associations and social promotion associations operating in Calabria. The Jobel Consortium in Crotone was one of them. The innovative aspect was to involve in this action the third sector and companies operating on the territory of Calabria, realizing a model of sustainable social inclusion and exportable, in which the target of such action, taking awareness of their skills and working attitudes, was able to face the reality of work directly and orientate itself towards informed future choices, as happened in Crotone.
In particular, the following were involved in the implementation phase: local authorities such as the Regions (Department of Labour, Training and Social Policy), the Province (Department of Labour), Employment Centres, District and Prison Houses, Social Cooperatives, Chamber of Commerce, External Criminal Enforcement Office, Guarantor of the rights of detained persons, Associations. Thanks to the joint action of the different actors, it was possible to compare the current problems of the socio-occupational reintegration of prisoners, thus identifying valid shared solutions: from the current legislation to accompany people in their search for work, the identification of funds to be allocated to work reintegration activities for prisoners such as, for example, internships and work grants, to funds to be allocated to training in order to improve the skills of prisoners and thus facilitate their integration into employment.

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries of the project were 18 former prisoners. The overall objective of the project was to strengthen the field of action of inclusion policies, to counter social and employment discrimination and to manage social integration, training and work of persons subject to measures of the judicial authority, restrictive of personal liberty, promoting in particular the integrated and "socially responsible" intervention of companies, social cooperatives, agencies and local authorities. On an operational level, the project aimed to strengthen the local governance system in order to carry out an effective inclusive action, adopting, as a priority, a preventive approach to recidivism and inclusive for subjects who have already embarked on a path of detention. To benefit from this design, however, were not only the former prisoners who managed to benefit from training and job placement courses, but all citizens of Crotone. The work of these people has, in fact, made, after years of neglect, the largest city park accessible. Today it is a theme park dedicated to the figure of the philosopher Pythagoras. A museum and a park which became a place of welcome, symbol of legality and culture in a context where, often, organized crime has tried, with acts of vandalism and retaliation, to stop a process of socially shared growth.

Context

According to the text of the Operational Programme of the Region of Calabria for the years 2007-2013, overall, in this region, the conditions of legality appear particularly critical, even if the "official" statistical indicators often fail to grasp the seriousness of the illegal phenomena affecting the Region. The Province and the city of Crotone, as reported by the report of Dia 2023, is characterized in fact, historically, by a capillary mafia presence. According to the investigations, here the 'ndrangheta was able to accumulate huge profits and completely infiltrate the social and economic fabric of the territory. That is why this project, which is integrated into the more general strategy of recovery and social reintegration through work, puts at its centre the possibility of transforming a situation of illegality into an opportunity for social growth.
In a context such as that of Crotone, with new difficulties that overlap old unresolved problems, the strong presence of organized crime, the industrial crisis, the difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises, the spectre of unemployment concerns large sectors of the world of production and the system of social buffers does not seem to be adequate for the scale and the type of expulsions from the world of work and to face the new needs of reintegration. The mechanisms of access to employment are evolving towards a strong selectivity and an increasing demand for skills, at the same time work is becoming in many areas precarious, insecure and transitory.
The guarantees are weakened, self-entrepreneurship becomes a high-risk prospect and with uncertain results, specific resistances towards those who have committed crimes are very strong. For those who end the prison path often the only way forward is to return to crime. For those who end their prison journey, the only way forward is to return to crime. And this maybe happens within the clans that operate on the territory, 'ndrine capable of regeneration and strengthening also recruiting the former inmates who, meanwhile, have had to know in the penitentiary circuit. The clans today guarantee high earnings, continuity, but also discrete possibilities to improve the position of the affiliates both in terms of power and profit. Hence the importance of a shared action of social reintegration through a work activity that can greatly reduce the exposure of the subject the resumption of criminal activity.

Progress

The project, as reported by Santo Vazzano, president of the Jobel Consortium, has been completed. One of those former inmates, who with his work allowed the reopening of this city park, is now even the custodian. The theme park dedicated to Pythagoras, built in a degraded place, has now become a driver of culture and beauty, but also a meeting point for children and families and an aggregator of sociality. All this was possible thanks to the work of those who are invisible, such as former prisoners, says Raffaele Esposito, the responsible of the Museum and gardens of Pythagoras, without whose work nothing would have been possible. The Jobel consortium was founded in 2006 and pursues a new model of social enterprise. Here disadvantaged people, former prisoners, disabled have a role of absolute centrality thanks to consolidated paths of social integration.

Results

The museum and gardens of Pythagoras is a place of rebirth. As reported by Santo Vazzano, president of the Consortium jobel that manages the park, this was the first pole in Calabria to adopt a social integration model for those frail people inserted within socio-labor inclusion paths. The world of business, civil society and volunteering meet, says Mayor Enzo Voce, to promote activities that overcome social hardship , diversity, rediscovering the beauty of partnership. The special public-private partnership, says Raffaele Esposito, responsible for the Park, is a contract that provides for co-design and co-management of public goods, as it happens between consortium Jobel and municipality of Crotone. It has been successful to promote the reintegration of people with disabilities, psychiatric patients and former prisoners who work in various capacities in the facility. Former prisoners, such as Giovanni Bifezzi, today custodian of the Park, who have become, as we were able to see in the monitoring visit, reference points for local institutions and families. «I paid, says Giovanni Bifezzi, for my mistakes, but I was lucky. I was rewarded with a job and a home. Thanks to the peace of mind that my job gives me, I was able to rebuild my relationship with my daughter. Without this possibility, without the autonomy that gives the work I could have fallen back into error. But here they helped me».

Risks

The project itself, on the basis of the results achieved, does not present any critical issues. The possibility of relapse, especially in a territory with high density of 'ndrangheta like that of Crotone, is to be taken into account, but the Jobel Consortium has succeeded in creating a virtuous system of co-design that brings together institutional world and Third Sector facilitating the path of training and social reintegration of former prisoners.

Investigation method

How was the information collected?

• Visit to the project's location, documented by pictures or videos
• Interview with people responsible for the project's planning
• Interview with the users and/or final beneficiaries of the intervention
• Interview with people responsible for the project's implementation
• Interview with political leaders

Santo Vazzano, President of the Jobel Consortium
Giovanni Bifezzi, former prisoner and custodian of the Museum and Gardens of Pythagoras

Main questions

1. Culture, but also social redemption. The park keeper is a former prisoner... involved in a training and integration process which led him from absolute marginality to real change. Where does this project come from? (Santo Vazzano, President of the Jobel Consortium)
2. How important was it for you to have a job after your detention and how much the Jobel Consortium has determined your reintegration into the community? (Giovanni Bifezzi, former prisoner and custodian of the Museum and gardens of Pythagoras).

Main answers

1. Jobel was born far away, when a group of young people decided to create a movement, "Christian Working Youth". For us the work was fundamental. We were children of Fondo Gesù, San Francesco, difficult neighborhoods of the city of Crotone. There was drug-dealing, the mafia families ruled and people turned to them. The choice was to stay or leave. We decided to stay, building our alternative. The first cooperative was founded in 1984 and began to provide jobs for people with disabilities. It was important to dream, to design. Today the consortium employs 300 people. We succeeded in a city where Pythagoras was just a hagiographic memory to build something breaking the patterns. The reintegration of prisoners is part of this perspective. Create training courses to give a new chance. A 20-year-old boy has come from Egypt to Italy. He is a Christian. He crosses the desert, then the Libyan prisons. He arrives in Italy. He is educated and manages to find a job. From a situation of death he manages to live a normal life. Jobel has a dream to change things here. Seeing the reintegration into the society of former prisoners, seeing some of them have become a reference point for the entire community is a sign that change is possible. But to do that you need to give people a real alternative. Hence the centrality of training to be able to find a job that gives dignity and autonomy, a job that allows to rebuild family ties and that allows not to repeat the same mistakes. Those who have served their sentence through social reintegration can try to build a new life by becoming an example of deterrence for those young people who may fall into the same mistakes.
2. I am a former prisoner who has completed his sentence. Keeping myself busy, feeling responsible for something allowed me to find an inner peace without which I would not have been able to stay outside. If anyone had not believed in me, maybe I would have been wrong again. And I, on the other hand, wanted a life that was mine. It’s not easy to get out of prison. One of my colleagues, after spending most of his life behind four bars, was shocked by how much the reality had changed. He did not recognize the buildings that he saw outside the prison. He did not want to leave. He died a few weeks later. He did not know how to start again. For years I have been the custodian at Parco Pitagora, a park created by those who are considered invisible in our society, such as former prisoners. For me, having the opportunity to work was crucial. Because it is from work that started to create a new life, to return to be a father. Today I am a happy grandfather. My life has started again here, in Parco Pitagora. Thanks to the Jobel Consortium.