Participants at the NetWorks summit of the Human Safety Net global movement in Venice | Photo: The Human Safety Net
Participants at the NetWorks summit of the Human Safety Net global movement in Venice | Photo: The Human Safety Net

The annual NetWorks summit has kicked off in Venice, organized by The Human Safety Net, a global movement with a mission of helping the most vulnerable of the population and fostering refugee integration.

Until November 7, the Italian city of Venice will be hosting the NetWorks 2025 summit of The Human Safety Net, the global movement of "people helping people". The mission of the initiative is to support vulnerable families with children between the ages of newborn and six years old, and to foster refugee integration through professional training courses and assistance in starting businesses.

Over 80 NGOs are meeting to exchange views and build synergies.

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Active fatherhood, mentoring for refugee employment

The event is being held inside Venice's historic Procuratie in St Mark's Square, restored by Generali, where the Casa of The Human Safety Net is located.

The event brings together over 80 NGOs of a program called 'For Families and For Refugees' with over 200 participants from 25 countries from Europe, South America, and Asia.

Among the main themes of this edition is a new program for fathers' involvement in parenthood developed alongside Equimundo, an international organization promoting active fatherhood to strengthen family cohesion.

Part of the summit will be dedicated to initiatives to promote refugee integration.

Also on the schedule is a speech by Michelle Richey, Senior Lecturer in Technology and Entrepreneurship at Loughborough University, who will be talking about how to improve the outcomes of programs for assisting refugees in finding work, with a focus on how mentoring can increase the success rate of programs for employment and entrepreneurship for refugees.