From its earliest years, alongside its international engagement, AVSI has carried out awareness‑raising and information activities in Italy on issues related to cooperation and development. In response to the so‑called “refugee emergency” of 2015, AVSI decided to launch projects within Italy itself.

Today, in addition to continuing its work on migration, AVSI in Italy focuses on education, employment, economic development, and social cohesion, supporting the most vulnerable people, both Italian and foreign. To implement its initiatives, AVSI builds synergies with institutions, the private sector, and locally rooted associations.

As stated in its mission, AVSI considers education an absolute priority in its projects. In Italy, AVSI works to combat educational poverty, understood as a condition of educational and cultural vulnerability, regardless of the level of formal education attained.

The decision to launch projects in Italy aimed at fostering the integration of beneficiaries of international protection stems from AVSI’s long-standing experience with refugees worldwide, both in countries of origin of migration flows and in transit and destination countries across Africa, the Middle East, and South America.

Since 2016, AVSI’s approach has been based on the principle of integrating both the different phases required to support refugees’ access to the labour market and all the stakeholders involved in the process—from reception providers and civil society to public authorities, training agencies, employers’ organisations, and companies.

The projects promote autonomy and socio‑labour integration and are implemented in partnership with third‑sector organisations, with a particular focus on collaboration with private enterprises.

AVSI also promotes regular migration pathways by strengthening collaboration with AVSI offices in countries of origin.

In Italy, the very first initiative to support people fleeing the war in Ukraine was the creation of an information and coordination point to centralise support services for Ukrainian refugees and to connect those offering help with those in need. The initiative later found a permanent home in a space in Milan, which today hosts AVSI for community.

Difficulty in accessing employment represents one of the main obstacles to integration and to a dignified life for people in situations of vulnerability. At the same time, companies struggle to find staff, limiting their growth and their capacity to create jobs.

In Italy, just over 2.2 million families and nearly 5.7 million individuals live in conditions of absolute poverty (Istat, October 2024 report).

The common thread running through all AVSI projects aimed at promoting employment is to offer people the opportunity to become autonomous, building on their own capabilities and strengthening them through training and accompaniment activities that develop social, professional, and entrepreneurial skills.

AVSI promotes regeneration interventions in peripheral neighbourhoods and in the most vulnerable areas, strengthening the network of actors already operating on the field. The goal is to create synergies and alliances among third‑sector organisations, public authorities, businesses, universities, and research centres, involving each actor in a shared management model.

In this way, neighbourhoods and communities once again become spaces where people can express themselves, participate, and contribute to building social, territorial, and environmental cohesion.