Dissemination of “Educating Communities” to Reduce Youth’s Social Exclusion

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyse the role of “educating communities” in reducing social exclusion for young people. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first part we give some definition of educating communities, as a network between schools and communities, involving social workers, parents and institutions that are focused on the behaviour of young generations. The second part is dedicated to an overview of the best practices present in the US (the Greenbrook Elementary School in New Jersey), where the model of educating communities exists since more than 10 years, so that we can observe the evolution and the results too. After this analysis we will investigate an embryonal experiment of educating communities in Calabria. Particularly, we will investigate the experimental program in Calabria, because Calabria is one of the poorest regions in Europe, with very high level of educational poverty, very high risk of social exclusion and very strong presence of criminality. The program about educating communities in Calabria involves Region, local institutions, third sector (social firm, NGO), youth workers and schools. Its aim is to build a different future for young people, ameliorate the social mobility and the intergenerational transmission of poverty (material and immaterial). Finally, in the third part we will conclude showing the policy implication of the investments in educating community (social cost, time of network creation and moral hazard) and the focusing on the challenges of the dissemination of educating communities in reducing social exclusion.