Work training as an educational and redemption tool for young people in fragile situations. The cornerstone of the teaching of San Lodovico Pavoni, a Brescian religious founder of the Congregation of the Sons of Mary Immaculate at the beginning of the nineteenth century, has been reliving in the Work training group (Gfl) of the Pavoniana Foundationa service that since 1994 has helped over 500 boys and girls from Brescia and its province with social, family or personal difficulties to enter the professional world.
The lab
A birthday that will be celebrated on June 4th, with a party in the Gfl premises at 6.30 pm, where the Gfl laboratory will be named after one of its founders, the Pavonian lay brother Gigi Paris. «It is a unique service in Lombardy – explains Gianni Tranfa, director of educational activities of the Brescia branch of the Pavoniana Foundation -. For an educational service, thirty years is a significant date: it seemed appropriate to celebrate it because the Pavonian Opera and the Work Training Group are a fundamental distinctive element for us.”
A journey in the footsteps of the holy founder: «It is a service born within the Youth Aggregation Center – explains Father Lorenzo Agosti, superior of the Pavonians of Brescia -, for minors after the age of 16 or those who have just turned 18 and are no longer able to attend the school or to face the world of work. We have taken up something that was characteristic of San Lodovico Pavoni, creating an educational reality that would make the kids able to face life and find a job.” The service takes place in the laboratory in via Lodovico Pavoni 9 in Brescia, where children try their hand at papermaking and bookbinding activities and learn to approach work from a 360° angle: in fact, they are helped to learn about their rights, duties and safety regulations, to draw up a CV and read pay slips, to respect timetables . «These things seem obvious – explains Tranfa -, but they are not for many of them».
The Gfl collaborates with the social services of Brescia and the province and with the work integration service of the Municipality of Brescia, but many children also come from the city Cfp, welcomed by the Gfl for curricular internships, or from situations of testing by the Juvenile Court. “The social services – adds Tranfa – probably see the Gfl as a service that in its specialty responds to the need to place a minor who would not be anywhere else”.
The companies
The relationship with the territory is not lacking: «In recent years the relationship with companies has grown a lot – explains the coordinator of the service Fabio Scalvinoni -. Today we have about twenty of them who collaborate with us. We have had good placement results, many kids come back to thank us because they were hired. The network of relationships with companies and schools has been the strength that has kept us going over these thirty years, we always try to look for new collaborations.” Today there are 12 kids in the project, which depending on the case can last one or two years: «Each has an individual path with specific objectives – adds Scalvinoni -. The important thing for us is not just finding a job but keeping it: training kids who can also withstand difficulties.”
