Projects in progress

Involved faculty: Psychology
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professor Livia Cadei

The Service Learning project is offered within the course “Pedagogy of social processes” and builds on the collaboration, already initiated in the 2024/2025 academic year, with the volunteer association Perlar, which supports homeless individuals in Brescia. The mission of this organization is to promote and strengthen the creation of authentic relationships and inclusive communities by offering social and recreational activities, including:

• The daytime center “Riparo”
• The second-hand market “Poco conto”, managed by volunteers and by people experiencing homelessness

Students participating in the project support Perlar’s operators and volunteers in carrying out the various initiatives, gaining experience in strengthening relational networks and facilitating the encounter between homeless individuals and volunteers. In parallel, they engage in a process of reflection on their formative experience by writing a thematic reflective diary and participating in discussion meetings both at the University and with the association’s staff.

Service Learning Objectives

The experiential learning process focuses on the following themes:

• Pedagogical themes and concepts: relationship, educational distance, symmetry/asymmetry, emancipation, tradition/innovation, autonomy/dependence, education/formation/animation.
• Elements of reflective thinking: observation, doubt, questioning, experimentation, comparison and language, hypotheses, concrete/abstract, play/work.
• Training methodologies: context analysis, planning, facilitation, communication, teamwork, evaluation.
• Meaning-making processes: values, gift, utopia, universalism, volunteering, inclusion, social participation.

Duration and Organization

The activities take place from November to December 2025. University students, organized in pairs, are involved in the association’s services during opening hours and on public holidays throughout the Christmas period.

Faculty involved: Education
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professor Monica Amadini

The project involves students from the course “Social and Intercultural Pedagogy” in an applied research activity on the condition of people experiencing homelessness, integrating theoretical training, participatory planning, and fieldwork.

The experience is part of the European homelessness census, aimed at producing reliable data for the development of effective public policies. It is carried out through a structured collaboration with fio.PSD ETS and the University of Catania and, in the Brescia area, with the Social Cooperative La Rete.

Phase I – Co-Planning

Students participate in the needs assessment of the homeless population and in the shared definition of the project objectives, through guided activities during lessons and preliminary training.

Phase II – Specialized Training

A targeted methodological and ethical preparation is provided, including practical exercises on interaction techniques and on the administration of research tools.

Phase III – Fieldwork

Working within multidisciplinary teams, students:

• take part in daily coordination meetings,
• visit services and urban areas frequented by people experiencing homelessness,
• participate in data collection,
• use ethnographic tools co-designed during the course.

Activities begin at the daytime center “L’Angolo” in Brescia and take place across the various data collection sites in the city.

Phase IV – Analysis and Dissemination

The project concludes with structured debriefing sessions, sharing of results in class, and the co-design of a public seminar on homelessness (12 December 2025), organized as an interactive workshop.

Service Learning Objectives

• Develop critical analysis skills regarding social needs through participatory community assessment methods.
• Acquire operational skills in applied social research and data collection with vulnerable populations.
• Experiment with professional interaction techniques with people experiencing severe social marginalization.
• Develop skills in multidisciplinary teamwork and in coordinating socio-educational projects.
• Actively contribute to the production of scientific knowledge through data collection for the European comparative research project.
• Build civic awareness of fundamental human rights and social inclusion policies.

Duration and Organization

The project takes place from September to December 2025, for a total of 20 hours.
Preparatory training, scheduled at the beginning of October, is followed by three fieldwork days during which students engage in data collection and observation activities in the designated services and urban spaces.
The final phase, dedicated to data analysis and dissemination, takes place in November and December 2025.

Involved faculty: Economics and Law
Campus: Piacenza
Project coordinators: Professor Roberta Casiraghi; Professor Francesco Centonze; Professor Priscilla Bertelloni

This project is the result of a collaboration between the University and the Piacenza Correctional Facility. It is structured into two main phases:

1. Front office activities: University students, adequately trained and accompanied by a faculty supervisor, enter the correctional facility to collect requests from inmates.
2. Analysis and research activities: At the University, participating students examine the legal issues raised, identify best practices, and, where possible, draft legal petitions. They work in groups, sharing their experiences and conducting legal and jurisprudential research.

The project also includes opportunities for discussion with the Interuniversity Center "L'altro diritto" and other legal clinics operating in various Italian prisons. These meetings allow for an analysis of the results achieved, reflection on the objectives met and challenges encountered, and improvements to the educational path offered to students.

Service Learning objectives

• The project provides students with an experiential learning opportunity aimed at:
• Deepening their theoretical and practical knowledge of criminal law.
• Developing practical skills in criminal procedure law.
• Gaining direct exposure to the prison system.
• Acquiring expertise in drafting legal documents.
• Experiencing a formative journey on both a human and social level.
• Applying their skills to support a vulnerable group, offering listening and assistance to inmates.
• Overcoming prejudices and stereotypes associated with individuals deprived of their liberty.

Duration and organization

The project spans an entire academic year, starting in late September 2025 and concluding in late July 2025. Students, organized into rotating shifts, alternate between a two-hour session in prison and a one-and-a-half-hour session in the classroom.