The Termini Social Corner provides aid to the homeless and refugees. Facilities include orientation, assistance and social inclusion services.
The Termini Social Corner of the main train station in the Italian capital has facilities and services provided by the social cooperative Europe. The group provides consulting, orientation, assistance and social inclusion services. Through partnership with the state railways, Ferrovie dello Stato, there is a help center, a mobile unit, a reception center called Binario 95 and a collection spot for donations of clothes and essential products.
Orientation and reception for 15 years
The Termini Social Center, inaugurated on June 20, is the latest in a "journey that began in 2002," ANSA was told by Europe Consulting chief Alessandro Radicchi. The new space has been built on the basis of a project underway for the past 15 years that has involved private and public companies.
The help center offers orientation for services offered by the Rome municipality, job orientation, personal assistance projects and acts as a listening post for the needs of those living on the margins of society. The Binario 95 center offers daytime reception for 43 people and 12 beds for the night. Apart from providing for basic needs - such as food, showers and clothes - the hub holds educational and artistic workshops, provides internet access and serves as a meeting point between people in difficult situations and Rome institutions, associations and useful services.
Support for migrants "to restore their dignity"
During 2016, the social hub of the train station carried out over 30,000 social orientation sessions, taking 2,602 people under its care. "Some 70 percent of the people who have come to the social hub in recent years are migrants," Radicchi said.
On February 21, the mobile help center began work at the Tiburtina train station, serving as an information point for orientation on migrant reception facilities across the country. " [Railway] stations are a landing place for young migrants," Radicchi said, adding that in the social hub in Termini, the migrants "ask for support for housing. We inform them about the services in the city and job opportunities, we help them to write up a CV, we create support plans or we give them the possibility to use the internet."
Through these services, "they can recover that dignity that they are at risk of losing in the street. Every one of us has a support network: families, healthcare, and friends. The role of the help centers with migrants is to rebuild pieces of a lost social life," he added.