One of the organisations that the Foundation supports and with whom it has been collaborating for a while now is the Associazione Ticinese Famiglie Affidatarie (ATFA). Founded in Locarno in 1981 as an informal group of families united by the experience of fostering, ATFA was recognised, and supported to a large extent, by the Canton in 1991. However, there is still a constant need for funds to cover all the costs associated with the various projects concerning the topic of foster care, which the association has been pursuing with passion and tenacity for over 40 years.
We have mentioned several times the action called Box Solidali, which takes place in the pre-Christmas period. Here we would like to present two important projects that the Foundation has strongly advocated and initiated in cooperation with ATFA and that have the characteristics of a systemic type of philanthropy, where private institutions, public bodies and all the stakeholders in a specific area and work together to solve problems in a sustainable and creative way, generating resonance to the effectiveness of the actions in the field.
The Professional Foster Family (FAP) project, which aims to be the first step towards the reality of foster homes, has been operating since 2020. A different and professional way of supporting the insufficient number of foster families in Ticino, the FAP has so far accommodated 13 minors, being able to take in up to 4 minors at the same time. A prerequisite for the family is that one of the two parents has socio-educational training and that they are already foster families. In recognition of its worth, the project obtained financial support from the Canton following the experimental phase supported by us in collaboration with other private individuals, a path we hope will also be realised for the Punto di Incontro, the other interesting project created with ATFA.
The first Punto di Incontro opened its doors in January 2022; it is physically a place, a safe and neutral space for parents and children in difficult family situations to meet. Here one benefits from mediation by qualified operators, who provide the child with protection and support and the adult with educational support.
In both cases, these are valuable projects that we believe should be replicable so that they become accessible to all in need, first and foremost the many minors living in precarious family situations in Ticino. For us, cooperating with other organisations and with the public, means implementing effective, targeted, measurable, continuous actions. In short: systemic actions.