The P.I.P.P.I. program supporting families in the local area

P.I.P.P.I., acronym for Intervention Program for the Prevention of Institutionalization, is an intervention program aimed at families with sons and daughters up to 11 years of age who are facing challenging situations in which it may be difficult to guarantee children the conditions suitable for their growth.

The acronym P.I.P.P.I. is inspired by Pippi Longstocking as a metaphor for the strength of girls and boys in dealing with life’s adverse situations.
The program is based on some fundamental principles: the centrality of the boy and the girl, the active participation of the family, integrated work among institutions and the enhancement of community resources.

Supporting the entire project and research framework was the Research and Intervention Laboratory in Family Education of the University of Padua, contributing to scientific supervision, training, and the consolidation of the intervention methodology.

Since 2021, P.I.P.P.I. has been recognized as an Essential Level of Social Services (LEPS), confirming its strategic relevance in national policies for children and families.

The program was supported both by resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and by the National Fund for Social Policies. For ATS VEN16, it involved the participation of the Municipalities of Cadoneghe, Correzzola, Padova, Piove di Sacco, Teolo and Torreglia, which worked in synergy to build family support pathways, with the involvement of their respective local networks.
During the implementation of the program, with PNRR funding, 30 families were involved for a total of 61 girls/boys and young people.

The work was carried out by a network of professionals who operated in a coordinated and multidisciplinary way. For ATS VEN 16, 2 local coordinators and 4 coaches were involved, roles that ensured activities to promote the program, including training interventions and operational support for multidisciplinary teams. Social workers, educators, teachers, professional staff from social and healthcare services, and operators from the third sector and volunteering were therefore involved, ensuring comprehensive and integrated support in response to the needs of girls and boys and their families.

The P.I.P.P.I. program provides for the implementation of four measures aimed at overcoming situations of vulnerability.
These measures are: the home educational service, supportive proximity, the school-services partnership and the parent-child groups. The latter represented an innovative challenge. The parent-child group involves organizing opportunities for discussion and mutual support among parents and among children who meet periodically. The purpose of group activities, thanks to the resource represented by the collective setting, is to strengthen and broaden participants’ relational and social skills and, in particular, parents’ ability to respond positively to their children’s developmental needs.

Thanks to PNRR funding, 11 group meetings were activated in the Municipality of Padova for a total of 15 families involved and 25 group meetings in the Municipalities of the Area with 6 families involved. Attendance at the groups also became an opportunity for another 20 families followed by the services, not included in the Pippi program.

In recent years, thanks to the PIPPI program, two training courses were also delivered within the Municipality of Padova, addressed to all fourteen Comprehensive Institutes of Padova, involving 130 teachers. At the conclusion of these training meetings, it was possible to set up working groups between schools and social services to share collaboration agreements, which are still ongoing today.