Our team is made up of a dozen activists and professionals with a range of skills and backgrounds, including social workers, lawyers, community organizers and translators.

Over the years, the team has included people from almost as many countries as those who turn to us for help, including from Egypt, France, Germany, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Italy, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, the United Kingdom and the USA!

We put special attention on listening closely to athe people who come to the drop-in centre, to try and get the best picture of their real needs. Drawing on the skills of linguistic interpretaion and cultural mediation in our team, we seek to build relationships of trust with the people who come by, assisting people in understanding their rights and freedoms – regardless of their legal status or what documents they have. When necessary, we accompany people to services and offices, including homeless shelters, law studios and health clinics. Our have a community-centered approach which relies on the creation of strong, mutually-supportive networks – both in Palermo and across Italy.

All of our advise and expertise is offered for free, and relates to a very broad spectrum of problems, including legal advice, accessing social services and support in finding housing solutions, as well as bureaucratic and administrative guidance for obtaining documents. We also provide information about the right to access health care and education, as well as about what opportunities exist for finding work and building professional skills.

Over the years, the members of our team have gained a nuanced understanding about these areas of legal and social support. What makes our approach special, however, is the emphasis we put on the importance of reaching out to people in the community, including those who otherwise fall through the cracks, and don’t receive adequate official support. For this reason, we find strength in forming transcultural and intercultural forms of communication, making use of linguistic and cultural mediation, as well as recognizing the importance of non-verbal and para-verbal communication. We always aim to construct a rapport with people who come by, within the relatively informal setting of our space. Building trust is paramount.

After an initial chat, we gradually try and uncover the situation of someone who turns to us for advise – and very often our support branches out far beyond the initial problem that someone presents us with. More often than not, we find that marginalized people find themselves in very complex situations which only become clear over time. Their needs are multi-layered and derive from a range of causes. At roots, these causes are connected to systematic problems arising fro the very structure of our society – a society in which the juridical status of someone with a migratory background has a huge impact on every area of their life.

We consequently dedicate significant time and energy to different forms of legal support. Our team currently includes four lawyers, two of whom are also part of the CLEDU, the University of Palermo’s free legal clinic. Furthermore, we coordinate regularly with lawyers from ASGI, Italy’s national network of lawyers specialized in civil and human rights.

Our small community is always open to new people. We are nurtured by the stories and spirit of all the people we work with, who pass through our doors, both those who move on to other places and those who come back. We have met supported thousands of people over the years. Often these relationships move beyond simply responding to immediate needs, transforming into real bonds of friendship and deep mutual exchange. We’ve met musicians, poets and artists, experts in ataya and the ‘best’ mint tea, engneers and mechanics, teachers and farmers, and people who choose to live outside any pre-ordained life paths. Each and every encounter is a source of personal and collective enrichment.

Most of the people who come by our drop-in are young adults with experiences of migration. Some have only just arrived in Italy, others are asylum-seekers living in government hostels, others again perhaps have no stable housing, or are agricultural labourers at risk of work exploitation, or people who have just come out of prison. A considerable portion of people come to us looking for alternative housing solutions, or are without documents and consequently find themselves in different situations of instability and vulnerability. The women who come to us are mostly asylum-seekers; often they are also victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Many are engaged in care work, and many of them are mothers, including single mothers.

To give an idea of the numbers of people who come to the center: in the first six months of 2021, we recorded 477 one-to-one meetings. Of these, a third were women. Most peolple who came by were between the ages of 20 and 30. The most prevalent country of origin was Nigeria representing one-fifth of everyone who came by. This was followed by Gambia, Ghana, and Guinea among the West African countires of origin, and Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya among the Nort African ones. And these numbers don’t even include all of the people we encounter outside of the Wednesday drop-in!

For a more complete overview, take a look at our report, which covers the first six months of 2021.