The project “Il Filo d’Arianna” is based on the need of the Province of Forlì-Cesena, more exactly of the Employment Centers of Forlì-Cesena and Savignano, to think about more specialised and useful services that could support the working autonomy of foreign citizens living in the territory of the province.

1) CALL AND CONTACT SERVICE

The CALL and CONTACT CENTER service aims at spreading information on the job market, on training opportunities, on the laws ruling the access to courses, the description of the services offered by the employments centers and by other entities concerning immigration among foreign and Italian citizens, companies, families, and operators of the services and entities of the Province of Forlì-Cesena using the NATIONAL SINGLE TELEPHONE NUMBER 199.151.128 and other means such as fax, e-mail and the web site.

THE CALL AND CONTACT CENTER gives information and orientation:
• To the immigrant people on labour policy services provided by Employment Centers and on the local job and training market;
• To the immigrant people using the web site of the Employment Center were job offers in different foreign languages are published,
• To employers (COMPANIES/FAMILIES), giving details on the job market of foreign citizens and giving support for specific needs relating to immigration laws;
• To the operators if employment services and of other entities;

Furthermore, the following services will be implemented:
• A call-back service for specific problems. This service can be activated by a phone call from the call center or by the devices of the contact center. An operator can solve specific problems of the user carefully studying the situation.
• A language mediation service within the call and contact service. During certain opening hours of the call center there will be cultural and language mediators coming from the countries representing the highest percentage of foreign citizens in the territory of the province, i.e. Chinese, Arabic/French, English, Romanian and Serbian/Albanian-speaking mediators.

The service includes the presence of two operators at fixed hours who will give information (job opportunities, training course, etc.), by phone to the users (non-EU citizens, companies, families, etc.) who will contact the service.

The timetable shows that 1 of the 2 operators present for 5 hours per week will be a cultural and language mediator of the most represented groups in the territory of the province (Chinese, Arabic/French, Romanian, Serbian, Croatian, Albanian, and English).

2) CULTURAL MEDIATION SERVICE FOR EMPLOYMENT CENTERS

The staffs of the Employment Centers of Forlì, Civitella, Cesena, Cesenatico, and Savignano work with one or more cultural mediators of Chinese, Arabic/French, Romanian, Russian/Ukrainian/Byelorussian, Bulgarian/Serbian/English origin/language. The mediators will make the access to the services of the Employment Centers easier to foreign users, and in particular they will:

1. Help the staff in understanding correctly the needs and the behaviours of foreign citizens;
2. Facilitate the overcoming of linguistic and cultural problems that hamper the autonomous job search within the new context of integration;
3. Support the effort for the “valorisation” of professional skills of foreign citizens;
4. Work for the prevention of “social conflicts” due to cultural differences and favour the overcoming of prejudices and stereotypes between communities.

3) MEDIATION SERVICE FOR COMPANIES AND FAMILIES FOR HEALTHCARE SERVICES

This service offers the ‘know-how’ from the legal, social, cultural, training and management point of view thanks to the counselling of a team of expert mediators, integrating the organizational skills of the company and the need for an advice to families dealing with foreign workers in healthcare services.

The hiring of foreign workers can give rise to problems that are new for companies and families:

• Communication problems (due to the level of knowledge of Italian, to the different working habits and to the lack of awareness on the generally ‘accepted’ behaviours in a working environment);
• Internal labour management problems (such as the fear of granting different conditions according to the different needs for holidays and/or special feasts, to the higher or lower availability to accept specific working conditions compared to Italian workers, problems of social cohesion among different cultures that coexist within the same working environment);
• Problems deriving from the differences in bureaucracy in hiring an Italian and a foreign citizen (such as the problem of stay contracts). The corporate cultural mediation and the one with families is a key factor in such a framework, because it favours the process of integration, an integration that is changing from secondary and inconsistent to full and constructive.

a. Traduzione di:
• Leaflets on the Italian 626 law
• Leaflets and other material about the company;
• Safety signs used in the production area.
b. Creation of a Newsletter that will be sent regularly to a mailing list of companies (that will be created according to the suggestions of the Employment Centers), aiming at informing the companies about special holidays and/or feasts belonging to the culture of the foreign worker and specific needs (even those that the foreign worker has not expressed);

c. Creation of a Newsletter on the Italian legal framework, focusing on the regulations on the hiring of foreign citizens (rules, required documents, time and deadlines...) and on the local network of resources for the social and cultural integration of foreign citizens;

d. Accompanying service for foreign workers within companies (on the job training, new contracts, ...);

e. Counselling
• Information and orientation about the regulations for the regularization of foreign citizens, the call for subordinate and seasonal jobs, types of job exceeding the regular annual quotas, different kinds of permits of stay, their duration, admissibility for employment and renewal methods.
• Corporate organization analysis for the insertion of foreign workers aiming at highlighting their professional skills (considered as ‘good practices’) and solving possible problems;
• Support in solving emerging problems (linked to the organization of the canteen, to the management of the Ramadan period, of permits and holidays for special feasts and to periodic travels to the country of origin...). The cultural mediation service will highlight possible alternative solutions even using case studies taken from the good practices of other companies;
• Organization of training activities for human resources managers on ‘cross cultural management’: the specific aim is to provide indications and suggest a different perspective in the constantly evolving field of human resources management in a multiethnic and multicultural context.
• Training-information activity projects addressed to executives on the management of the presence of foreign workers (modules on the main features of the ‘different cultures’).

a. accompanying service for foreign workers within families for the definition of all aspects concerning the job and the relationship

b. counselling activity
• Information and orientation about the regulations for the regularization of foreign citizens, the call for subordinate jobs and renewal methods.
• Information and orientation about the contract procedures and about rights and duties of foreign citizens;
• Information and orientation about training opportunities in the healthcare sector.