A new development for the “Family and Work” project

“Family and Work” is one of the socio-work inclusion projects active since the beginning of the Valter Baldaccini Foundation. Created in collaboration with the Caritas offices of Umbria, over time it has evolved and changed shape, but its objective has remained unchanged: tocreate job opportunities for those who have lost their job or for those who have difficulty finding one.

For the first time, in 2025, thanks to the collaboration with Caritas Perugia, the beneficiary of the work reintegration will be a prisoner who is serving his sentence through an alternative measure to prison.

The context in which the project is developed

In Article 27 of the Italian Constitution, it states "Punishments cannot consist of treatments contrary to the sense of humanity and must aim at the re-education of the convicted person". It is therefore necessary to create the conditions to help the convicted person reintegrate into the community, eliminating or reducing the danger that, once free, he may commit new crimes.

The law reforming the penitentiary system n.354/75, and subsequent amendments, have implemented this constitutional principle, identifying, and regulating rules, tools and methods to guarantee the effective social and work reintegration of convicted persons. The current situation in Italian prisons is however still far from guaranteeing convicted persons an adequate and effective path of social and work integration.

For this reason, the Valter Baldaccini Foundation has committed itself, alongside Caritas Perugia and the San Lorenzo Charity Foundation, to set a good example and to carry out a small concrete and helpful action that has a double value: to give a chance for redemption to a person who has committed a crime and to be the bearer of a message aimed at breaking down barriers and prejudices, trying to shift the focus from punishment to rehabilitation.

The new collaboration between Caritas Perugia and the Valter Baldaccini Foundation

Since last year, within the macro project “Semi di carità” of Caritas Perugia, “City Farm – Laboratorio di Ecologia Integrale” has been active, an initiative created to promote processes and paths of rehabilitation and social inclusion for detainees.
Among the various actions envisaged by the project is the creation of a job placement for a prisoner in prison custody, who benefits from the alternative measures to prison provided for by law.

In particular, the project includes the activation of a work grant for the maintenance of the greenery and care of the animals of the small social farm that is being created in the area adjacent to the Villaggio della Carità that Caritas manages in Perugia.

The Foundation's commitment: a work grant for Jalil

Thanks to the support of donors, the Valter Baldaccini Foundation will support Jalil's work grant throughout 2025. Every week, Jalil will work in the green area of the Village, taking care of plants and flowers, but also of the chicken coop, goats and sheep that are part of the social farm. This is in fact a space intended for the creation of various activities that also involve schools and the Perugian community.

Furthermore, Jalil will be accompanied in his path of social reintegration by a social worker who will support him and guide him towards autonomy. Other volunteers are working alongside him to overcome language barriers. All activities that will allow Jalil to fully reintegrate into the social fabric once he has served his sentence, and perhaps even realize his dream: to reunite with his family, who remained in his country of origin.

This is also a small seed that will surely become a large plant.