The project took starts from a previous experience of a European project just finished "Taste of Freedom" that involved some of partners of this project "Cooking for freedom". The other partners in this project are institution with a lot of experience in field of research and work with prison and inmates. The school are very important partners to achieve the objectives of this project.The idea of the project, in fact, was born during the two years spent in Taste of Freedom that have not only consolidated the relationship between Slow Food convivium and the different countries of the project and the prisons but they especially pointed out the interest of a lot of inmates to nutrition, food and all the training to them connected.The years spent in the adventure of the project Taste of Freedom also made us understand how important it is for inmates the contact with the outside world, especially when this contact can become opportunity to learn skills they can use in the job market. For the inmates who are finishing their sentences and also for the inmates who still have many years to spend between those walls, the work is still the only way to win for themselves the autonomy and independence that have lost, the dignity that less often, building better relationships than those who have had prior to their entry into prison.The objectives of the project, is "transform" the cooking, nutrition and feeding education in resource and opportunity to build a professional manner that can support the reintegration to work of the inmates. In this training course to the kitchen and management of a restaurant, we want to assist the inmates with some boys and girls who frequented professional school, where, in a conventional training course, were formed professional kitchen.This course, therefore, supports the inmates and high school students, two different worlds and always divided, that on this occasion training approach, since both aim to integrate their own professionalism in the workplace. In the project will be involved about 150 participants, both inmates and youg students from vocational school.The objectives of the project will be carry out by the partners in some different ways:- partners will organize a professional course in the different territory, in according to the manual written after the learning training for the workers;- making a strong network in their territory with the companies to make stages for the inmates and for the students;- disseminate the results of the project in the different territories and evaluate the process before, during The metodology used in the project is base on "making with" the inmates and the young students. During the meetings the partners will decide the activities to do in each country partner and they will evaluate the process of the project. In this way the processo of the project is always under control.The most important expected results of the project are:1. the construction of professional courses for inmates to promote their work inclusion;2. a closer cooperation between training agencies, educational services and companies, that will consolidate the territorial network and that will promote future local projects;3. a comparison at EU level between representatives of different institutions aimed at achieve comparable languages and criteria in relation to training and work insertion systems for the target;4. to train expert operators in the construction of training courses and projects involving inmates;5. development and updating of the competencies of the educationalist involved, promoing their empowerment;6. realization of a permanent transversal network between EU partners that promotes exchange of information, good practices, and future collaborations;10. implementation of actions in order to EU Council guidelines and recommendations, The expected impact of the project is to build innovative educational and inclusion training for inmates and also consolidate and promote territorial networks to job placement of disadvantages adults but also for young students of vocational school. We expected also to share good practice and experiences in partners countries and create an EU network to promote this educational method. For the individual level we expected to promote the social skills for inmates and the development of participation opportunities and work inclusion opportunities in line with ET 2020 objectives. We also expect a strong impact on public and private institutions involved in the training/learning/inclusion sectors, organisations dealing with human right protection in penal and penitentiary system, the organisations that promote the social re-inclusion of inmates, enterprises in the catering and tourism industry, that will be involved during the project, using dissemination activities through the project website and already established networks.
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 was 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 the 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 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 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 labor 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 were 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.