Project Vesta is an initiative by the Camelot Cooperative that allows refugees and protected status-holders to be hosted by Italian families and facilitate their inclusion in Italian society.
Italian families have opened their doors to refugees and protection status holders in Italy under "Project Vesta," an initiative by the Camelot Cooperative in Bologna and Ferrara. The goals are to offer Italian citizens the opportunity to contribute to the development of a new integration model other than the ones offered in reception centre.
The project began in 2016 in Bologna. "Migrants who can participate are those who are already in possession of a stay permit for asylum," Camelot Cooperative CEO Carlo De Los Rios told Italian news agency Ansa. The Camelot Cooperative has been working with migrant reception as part of the Italian SPRAR (System of Protection to Asylum Seekers and Refugees) since 2005. That experience gave CEO De Los Rios the idea to create "a complementary model to that of the centre" with refugees being hosted by families "in the final six to nine months of their stay" in the system, after migrants have been granted a form of protection.
Families who wish to host can apply at www.progettovesta.com by filling out an online questionnaire. The Vesta staff then conducts an initial selection and interviews candidates considered eligible for participation. Those who pass the interview must attend a five-session group training. After the hosts sign a hosting agreement with the Camelot Cooperative and their respective city government, the hosting can begin.
Vesta provides 350 euros in financing per month to allow families to participate. De Los Rios said since his staff gets to know the families through interviews and knows the migrants from their period of being hosted at the centre, they are able to match the appropriate families with individual migrants.
Project presented to the European Union
In just over a year in Bologna, there have been 143 applications to participate in the project, with 40 families going through the training and 29 actively hosting a migrant. Fifteen of those families have already completed their hosting.
"Some families continue to host even after the project," De Los Rios said. Vesta also began the project a few weeks ago in the town of Ferrara. "We are accepting applications and we plan to begin hosting in the first weeks of 2018," he told Ansa.
On November 7, Project Vesta was presented in the European Parliament. "We want to build a network with other European projects who are interested in best practices," according to De Los Rios. The idea of the project is "to allow refugees the ability to make a life for themselves" and a family is "a strong grounding network and multiplier of opportunities," he added.
"While family stays can't substitute the reception centres in the initial phase, "there needs to be a comprehensive project that promotes hospitality in families, seen as an alliance between civil society, institutions, and the third sector".