“La Casa di Stefy” is a project of the social cooperative Santa Maria di Gesù di Cammarata – also supported by the Community Foundation of Agrigento and Trapani – which provides the development of a center for the support of people of any age and with different levels of disabilities, young people in conditions of social fragility and the elderly alone.
According to what is reported by the ISTAT surveys, in Italy in 2019, people with disabilities, or those who suffer due to health problems of serious limitations that prevent them from carrying out usual activities, are 3 million and 150 thousand (5.2% of the population).
For this reason, the promotion of a truly inclusive and welcoming community that helps the maintenance of the acquired autonomy and accompanies the conquest of new skills and knowledge becomes central.
The project “La Casa di Stefy” wants to give a real response to the relational and social needs expressed by those who live with disabilities, by young people in conditions of social disadvantage and by the elderly alone through moments of aggregation and the creation of socio-educational and creative activities.
The center already offers people with disabilities an environment with a positive relational and listening atmosphere that favors the maintenance and development of cognitive and social skills through specific and socialization activities.
The project stems from the almost twenty-year experience of the L’Arca Association which operates in the Agrigento area in the territory of Cammarata and San Giovanni Gemini and which bases its actions on welcoming the needs of children and adults with disabilities by promoting social initiatives and activities educational programs with the aim of soliciting an ever greater culture of autonomy and social integration.
Over the years the L’Arca Association has managed to become a valid point of reference for many young people and their families, representing for the local community the place of sociality and sharing, of true social and cultural integration: an “extended family” that it brought “diversity” outside the walls of a building.
To allow such an ambitious project to become concrete, some volunteers of the L’Arca Association decided to create a social cooperative in 2017 which, in close collaboration with it, follows the different phases of the construction and management of the center.
Infact, the center and the “La Casa di Stefy” project are built in a large building in Cammarata (AG) in which a renovation and adaptation activity is underway to make it a more welcoming and functional place for accompanying activities for people with disabilities.
The Community Foundation of Agrigento and Trapani supports, through co-financing, the activities of the “La Casa di Stefy” project.