Evolution of Casa Mia Home: Ten Years of Adaptation for At-Risk Minors
“De-institutionalization”: perhaps a horrible word but one capable of encapsulating the shift that over ten years has led Casa Mia Home to change its appearance and contents in such a way as to adapt to the times and continue to respond to the evolving needs of at-risk minors.
The story begins in 1922, and for the first sixty years, up until the mid-1980s, it rolled along the tracks of a consolidated and peaceful certainty: care for orphans was a commitment society had to undertake, offering a possibility to those whose lives had already been severely battered.
Orphans following the Great War were numerous in the area. The city orphanage was established in response to their needs, initiated by the municipality and some generous benefactors. On July 13, the first 18 minors, 14 boys and 4 girls, were admitted.
Educational care was entrusted to the nuns of Maria Bambina, who would be replaced in 1956 by the Filles du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus. Their first location was in the premises of Filanda Andersamer, on the eponymous street: the building, transferred to the paper mill, was demolished.
Relocations and renovations of the headquarters
In 1937, following an agreement with Providence, the girls were centralized in Riva, and the boys in Arco. In 1941, they moved to albergo Milano, at viale Dante 66, where about fifty residents felt cramped.
The headquarters on viale Trento was started in 1960 and completed two years later. Collective life and relocations, fixed schedules, large dormitories for study, and dormitory rooms for nighttime rest characterized this phase focused on care.
In the mid-1980s, the building was renovated, favoring more family-sized dimensions. The turning point, initially only outlined, would mature in 1992 with a request to reshape the internal relationships between educators and residents and to revise the goals of stay in the institute to aim for the maximum development of each individual’s potential.
Results and development of methods
This primarily meant creating operators who could clearly define the results to be achieved, choose the means to attain them, and above all, accept to question themselves day after day in order to “monitor” results on a case-by-case basis.
If people are all different from each other, the methods to achieve some results must vary from individual to individual. From this derives the family-like setting as optimal for growth and the group-apartment as an adequate logistical structure.
Since then, the project has become clearer: in September 1992, the first experiment; in January 1993, the first assessment; in 1994, the two apartments in Sant’Alessandro, initially as support for young women about to leave the institute.
In 1998, following a competitive examination, nine additional educators were hired on permanent roles and eight part-time staff: the group thus increased to 22 members. In 1999, the conference that allowed an evaluation of the ongoing experience was held.