In the Sebino and Bergamasca area, continuous spaces dedicated to young people with disabilities after they finish school remain genuinely limited. Families consistently point to the same need: services that actually support autonomy, socialisation and inclusion over time, not just for a season or a single course.
Once young people with disabilities reach adulthood, opportunities for socialising, training and building autonomy tend to shrink sharply. Existing services are often not enough, and families are left facing real loneliness and everyday difficulty without much support. Cascina Donkey exists to offer a concrete, stable and ongoing answer to that gap.
The project
The project renovates a farmhouse into a permanent inclusion centre, increasing opportunities for socialisation and autonomy for young people with disabilities, supporting their families, building educational and employment pathways, and strengthening the existing local network between volunteers, schools, businesses and institutions.
Inclusion, autonomy, participation, wellbeing, relationships, solidarity and the value of each person guide every activity at Cascina Donkey, which aims to be a genuinely open community, one that turns fragility into opportunity through shared experience, training, work and everyday life in nature.
Who the project is for
The project's direct beneficiaries are over 130 young people with disabilities already involved in Sci Club Sarnico's activities, joined by new participants from across the local area.
Its impact reaches further, to their families, volunteers, schools, partner businesses and the wider local community, who gain an open, inclusive space to make use of together.
Project name: Cascina Donkey L'asinello di Maria
Proposing organisation: Sci Club Sarnico 2001 Fabrizio Pedrocchi
Area of intervention: Inclusion & Social Development
Country: Italy