Vision e mission

CIDIS (Documentation Information Center and Development Initiative) Onlus operates at national and European level to guarantee equal rights and opportunities to the migrant population and with migration background, to refugees and asylum seekers and to raise public awareness on the promotion of an inclusive society.
CIDIS acts in the belief that the integration of migrant citizens is an essential condition for promoting social cohesion in modern, plural and multi-ethnic societies. A policy that respects the rights of migrants and the diversity of individuals is the foundation of more cohesive, resilient and prosperous communities. With this aim, CIDIS carries out activities in four Italian regions: Umbria, Lazio, Campania and Calabria.

CIDIS is at the forefront

Works every day in contact with immigrants, service operators and citizens, knows their needs and transforms them into proposals, projects and system actions to achieve true integration.

CIDIS has different points of view

It has collaborators who have diversified skills and professionalism, but also origins, histories, languages and paths that make the association mestizo and multicultural.

CIDIS works in synergy

orks in close synergy with immigrant associations, local authorities, national and international agencies, NGOs, public and private entities active in the sector, research institutes and universities with which it carries out local and European projects.

Pillars of intervention

Intercepting the needs of the increasingly diverse and heterogeneous migrant population, to develop and structure effective and flexible responses, with particular attention to vulnerable groups (such as political refugees and asylum seekers, unaccompanied foreign minors, vulnerable women, etc.).
Supporting the process of empowerment of migrant citizens by promoting their understanding of the welfare system and the organization of the host society.
Activating reception and support paths to guarantee rights, dignity and inclusion for migrants from their arrival in Italy to the conquest of full autonomy.
Supporting public services in the application of an intercultural approach through specific actions of support, training and updating of personnel to make services more capable of responding to all types of users, in a universalistic perspective.
Promoting participation and a sense of belonging to the local community through constant intercultural dialogue that helps to negotiate meanings and build shared values.
Activating the potential of the host community to solicit a proactive attitude of building positive bonds and relationships.
Fighting all forms of discrimination and implement anti-racist campaigns to promote equality, diversity and the direct protagonism of migrants or people with a migrant background.

CIDIS adopts and applies

Employee and Collaborator Policy
Network and Territory Policy
Child Protection Policy
Code of Ethics of the Cultural Mediator

Access to services

The Social Secretariat of Cidis supports the migrant population in completing the citizenship process, informs and guides migrants in a context characterized by different rules, procedures, methods of access to services and functioning of the host society. CIDIS operates through a network of branches offering legal advice on immigration; support in the fulfilment of bureaucratic procedures; orientation and accompaniment to services; job orientation; counseling to facilitate women's empowerment; accompaniment to the housing search. The info points are rooted in the territories in which CIDIS operates and are often created in collaboration with local authorities in areas of service to citizens. These services represent focal points able to collect needs and allow CIDIS to get to know the immigrant population closely. The info points inform and guide public and private services and promote autonomy and a proactive relationship of the individual with the reality in which he lives.

Migrants’ reception

CIDIS creates a reception that conceives the migrant as an actor and active subject in the integration process. Active participation in the process of regaining autonomy is a common goal for taking care of all the people welcomed: adults and unaccompanied minors, families and individuals, men and women. CIDIS confirms its commitment in the sector of first and second reception of Asylum Seekers and holders of International Protection with reception facilities for unaccompanied minors and facilities for the reception of adults. CIDIS supports and promotes social housing initiatives and direct involvement of local communities that are able to give life to forms of solidarity in living.

Intercultural mediation

CIDIS works to stimulate an internal change in Organizations and Institutions, so that a re-orientation of services in an intercultural sense is effective and an ability to respond is also guaranteed to the needs of a user of different origins. CIDIS carries out important capacity building interventions for organizations and institutions through training and orientation actions for public and private operators, offers consultancy for the reorganization of services in an intercultural key, supports public services with linguistic-cultural mediation interventions. Over the years, CIDIS has consolidated an on-call mediation service aimed at public and private entities, through regional linguistic and cultural mediation agencies, which coordinate a team of specialized mediators trained for intervention in numerous sectors. In the context of mediation, CIDIS develops multilingual kits to support the activities and carries out awareness campaigns for local bodies and services.

Intercultural mediation

CIDIS interventions in the penitentiary sector are aimed at guaranteeing equal opportunities for foreign prisoners and improving their condition, by contrasting situations of exclusion, isolation and discrimination. CIDIS activities also aim to support prison operators in their daily work with foreign prisoners. The activities include orientation and social secretariat and cultural mediation interventions, training on intercultural issues for operators who operate in the context, workshops and cultural events. CIDIS also works online with the reference offices to support job reintegration, as an important element to reduce the risk of recidivism.

Job orientation

CIDIS works to promote orientation, job placement and access to active labor policies for the migrant population. It carries out formal and informal connection activities between migrants, for whom it elaborates individualized plans for socio-labor integration, businesses and public bodies. CIDIS work and training activities are numerous and diversified, including: Counseling desks for guidance and job placement; training meetings to facilitate access to the services of the Employment Centres, training agencies and active policy opportunities; computer labs; individualized work placement paths; linguistic-cultural mediation; awareness-raising and consultancy meetings aimed at companies, associations and public bodies on the subject of interculture, anti-discrimination and hospitality; activities against labor exploitation; advocacy activities; micro-language courses for work and driving licenses; planning and implementation of professional training courses.

Italian as a second language

CIDIS has always been aware of the profound connection between linguistic knowledge and social, economic and civic skills in the perspective of full social integration and the construction of an intercultural and cohesive citizenship. For this he has acquired a long experience of teaching the language in the context of migration. In order to act in a broad sense and facilitate the learning of the language, CIDIS offers, in the territories in which it operates, on a continuous basis as much as possible, L2 Italian courses on several levels of the CEFR, microlanguage courses, proximity Italian courses. CIDIS also deals with L2 teacher training and updating, publishes educational and recreational-educational material and provides CELI exam sessions.

School

The qualification of the school system in an intercultural key is a major challenge. CIDIS places a team of experts at the school's disposal to assist and support the school in relational, didactic and inter-institutional matters. CIDIS offers training courses on intercultural dialogue to school staff; prevention of early school leaving; active citizenship and legality; continuous updates on teaching and methodologies. CIDIS offers foreign students literacy and linguistic enhancement courses, extra-curricular laboratories aimed at socialisation, the acquisition of skills, the fight against child educational poverty, but also courses that involve the entire class group to educate about differences, develop critical thinking in order to deconstruct stereotypes and prejudices. For families, CIDIS provides: orientation desk for the Italian school system and local services; linguistic-cultural mediation to encourage their participation in the school life of their children.

Community

CIDIS spreads an idea of open and responsible sociality: it promotes inclusive aggregation initiatives; contrasts the propaganda and exploitation of the migratory phenomenon through an alternative narrative; proposes new forms of participation and social commitment to the citizen to strengthen the community ties of the territories in which it operates in an intercultural sense. CIDIS carries out awareness-raising initiatives focused on "social communication" and promotes events of social gathering, active listening and constructive interaction. CIDIS encourages the spontaneous commitment of private citizens to enhance and give structure to the individual and collective desire to be a community.