C.I.R.P.E. (Centre for Research Initiatives and Economic Planning), C.I.R.P.E. since August 1st of 1979, is a non-profit association which works in the field of professional education and inthe social assistance area, focusing both on subjects who live a social, cultural and economic disadvantage condition and on weaker subjects in the employment market.
It is accredited by the Regional Department of Education and Professional Training of the Sicilian Region for
professional education and guidance – C.I.R.: ABLl43 DDG n. 485 of 10/08/2020, its training centres are mainly in the provinces of Palermo, Catania and Caltanissetta.
It has been working for sixteen years in the field of training young people in the age of compulsory
education, proposing and realizing many courses, and , lasting three or four years, in the area of personal services, craft, trade and telecommunications aimed at obtaining a in professional qualification.
The courses, promoted and managed by Cirpe, for the achievement of compulsory education and professional training, allow getting the Vocational Education and Training Qualificationat the end of the three-year – formula, and the Vocational Education and Training Degree at the end of four year – formula.
For the purpose of making its intervention more incisive and worthwhile in favour of minors at the Social Services of Juvenile Justice, Cirpe is one of the founders of a network, created on 03/15/2018, between the Social Service Office for Minors s (U.S.S.M.) of Palermo, Penal Institute for Minors (IPM) of Palermo, Regional School Office for Sicily (USR), Permanent Adult Education Centre (CPIA) Palermo 1, Permanent Adult Education Centre (CPIA) Palermo 2, City of Palermo– Department of Youth Policies,, School, Work, Health, “La linea della Palma””-Employment Agency, “Inventare Insieme" (onlus)”, and Opera Don Calabria Study Centre, Al Azis Social Cooperative Onlus, UISP (Italian Union Sport).
Cirpe is also a partner of the Observatories of Area “District 13” and “District 14” for the prevention of early school leaving and the promotion of educational success. It shares with them strategies useful for preventing the phenomenon of abandonment and the planning of vocational training courses adjusted on the real needs of young people and that of the socio-economic territory.
Every year, thanks to the funds of the Ministry of Education, of the University and Research and of the Sicily Region, Cirpe carries out vocational education and training interventions by welcoming young people whom each benefit from more than 1,000 hours of training per year.
In the specific, it is committed to to the recovery of dispersion and dropouts in districts at greater social risk, in fact for many years it has been managing Training Centres in the San Cristoforo and Picanello districts in Catania and in BrancaccioSperone-Roccella, Zen and Borgo Vecchio districts in Palermo.
Thus far, the guidance work done by Cirpe, which allowed improving the local net involving teaching and
social institutions, families and social services of Palermo. It afforded to put on the net the academic Observatories and the social services with the educational institution, realizing an on-going dialogue whose result was that of facing with irmness cases of adolescents leaving school early, reinserting them in leFP
courses by Cirpe or other educational facilities
Furthermore, Cirpe participated in SCATTI , a research project that set up the Territorial Guidelines for the school dropouts that early school leaving lead schools to have an equal relationship with subjects with educational
responsibilities in order to build relationships with other schools of the territory in a taking charge work
with minors. The main goal is to encourage the leading role of young people though targeted activities for
making practical proposal for a real change in territories they live in and to support schools
Another deed to strengthen the Educational Centres of Cirpe is that of managing two“listen desks”” since
the acad.yrs. 2017/2018. Today the association decided to pursue its action thanks to the positive results
obtained listening students and their families, i.e. recovering many students at risk of abandonment
Another important Cirpe's project is ODISSEOa research project funded by Social Enterprise with Children. It is an ongoing project; it has been taking place for a year, with difficulties due to the pandemic, one of the most
important deed for the didactical guidance for the experimentation of new guidance tools to be
administered to elementary schools’ students who will be helped in their school career choices when they
will finish middle school.
“Cirpe is constantly involved to increase its institutional net involving institutions and associations of the
territory as a field of educational and professional experiences for young people inside and outside Cirpe, in
order to promote their active role in society and to ease their educational success. In order to do this, it
started from an educational and didactic research that has made possible to identify the good practice of
the territorial and social context in which it operates.”
The President of Cirpe
