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ADD-ROME: ADDressing COVID-19 risk in hard-to-reach population in ROME

Primary GCM Objectives

Secondary GCM Objectives

    7
    17
    22

GCM Guiding Principles*

*All practices are to uphold the ten guiding principles of the GCM. This practice particularly exemplifies these listed principles.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dates

2020 - Present

Type of practice

Project/Programme

Geographic scope

Country:

Regions:

Sub Regions:

Local:

Rome

Summary

Context (key issues addressed and population served) Rome is one of the largest hub for migration and hosts a consistent homeless population, while Southern Italy Regions have been the first destination for many migrants crossing the Mediterranean, therefore the intervention was implemented for the areas which are under the biggest pressure in terms of quantitative presence. Rome has a Social Assistance Service with a call centre and an outreach equipe, working 24/7 to ensure a quick and highly mobile response to the need of the target population. Rome also hosts 1300 homeless in its centres and delivers 40.000 food support (lunch, dinner) per day. INTERSOS, previously to the pandemic, had already implemented a service called INTERSOS24, a medical centre located in the VIIth District of Rome which offers medical and health assistance to a wide range of targets, going from impoverished Italians, to undocumented and documented migrants, to Roma and homeless. The structure is open 5/7 5 hours every day, now closed for COVID-19 emergency and operational in the City with 2 mobile units, and is assisted by a multidisciplinary equipe which includes a medical referent (MD), 2 medical doctors, a nurse, a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, 2 cultural mediators. In the centre is also possible to access specialistic medical assistance for SGBV victims, mental health vulnerabilities, work and GBV and exploitation, to receive orientation to general and specialistic public medical services, communities health promotion, orientation to INTERSOS internal services (job orientation and workshops, soft-skills) orientation to social services, both institutional and grassroots (social, legal, job assistance). March 2020 was the begin of the first pandemic wave, and to design and implement a quick, standardized and accountable response was the paramount goal of this whole intervention. The baseline for Rome presented a number of 76000 (2014 ISTAT est.) undocumented migrants, and between 3500 and 5000 estimated homeless . The city hosts 15.2% of the homeless population in Italy (ISTAT, 2014). These composite population represents a particularly hard to reach target, being for the majority living either in informal dwellings or squatted buildings, while others make use of the refuge offered by City shelters. The agreement with the city of Rome begun the (19th March, MoU1 ) through a Partnership Agreement, followed by a second agreement (20th May, MoU2 ), a third (16th November, MoU3 ). A fourth (20th December, MoU4 ) had been signed the City of Rome and Local Health Authority (ASL Roma 2, MoU4), and a fifth (13th January 2021) with Local Health Authority (ASL Roma 2, MoU5).

Organizations

Main Implementing Organization(s)

INTERSOS

Partner/Donor Organizations

“Intervention for the care, support and skills development of refugee and migrant children in Italy” project in partnership with UNICEF

Benefit and Impact

Results (outcomes and impacts)
Budget allocated for this intervention on the city of Rome was 262.000 € in order to implement the programs and actions illustrated above.
The service produced the following outputs:
• 2283 assisted to health education and prevention;
• 2081 risk evaluation for COVID-19;
• 1903 medical visit performed;
• 903 with COVID-19 clinical risk monitoring (w-w/o test);
• 269 tested;
• 401 accompanied or referred to services;
• 39 critically vulnerable accompanied to services;

More details about the assisted population:
The assisted population was extremely composite and presented the main following demographic characteristics:
NATIONALITY: Countries of origin covers a very wide range, 56 nationalities were recorded as a whole.
Most represented houses are Italy (14%), Bangladesh (8.6%), Senegal (8.3%), Nigeria (7%), Perù (6.5%). Among European countries main nations represented were Romania and Polonia.
CLASS AGE: The age breakdown shows that the majority is in the class age between 42 and 59 years (25% of the population), while another 20% is composed by individuals above 60 years of age.
DOCUMENTED/UNDOCUMENTED: With regard to the documental aspect, 63,7% of the target reached were in possess of a regular permit to stay or were undergoing the procedure in order to obtain it. 33.7% is resulted were undocumented.
Among those individuals, who were in possession of a regular staying permit, 50% were homeless and 44% declared to be living in squatted buildings.

HOUSING AND ACCOMODATIONS:
• 44,4% living in squatted spaces;
• 24,3% homeless;
• 13,3% in COVID-19 centres;
• 6% in reception centres;
• 12% other;

GENDER: Gender representation sees a predominance of males: 29% female, 71% male;
It is also worth to note that a considerable number (32,8% of the total target population) refers some kind of vulnerability (elderly, psychological and psychiatric suffering, UaMs), and a percentage of 40,7% showing chronic diseases.

Between the persons monitored for COVID-19 risk, 37.7% showed at least one of the three triage criteria, while 62,3% had been monitored due to previous requests and contacts.
Outcomes were:
1. Strengthened and more efficient cooperation among LA, RA and NGOs
2. Standardization of the intervention protocol and its methodology
3. Improved cooperation between main social actor involved
4. Dissemination to other contexts: the model was successful enough to be adopted officially by the Region Apulia (Foggia’s Province), and Sicily (Trapani and Siracusa provinces) and Calabria (Crotone and Cosenza province).

Key Lessons

The intervention is still going on in the four areas (Rome, Puglia Province, Calabria and Sicily Regions through formal agreements.
Among the main lessons learned are the following crucial aspects:
1. Cooperation with local, regional and health authorities is paramount in order to increase effectiveness and avoid duplication of, or implementation of parallel services;
2. Multidisciplinary team able to address the target population in a quick and effective way;

Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)

The main way forward for this kind of intervention is that of having them transformed from the stage of “pilot” to the stage of policy. Trying to have them included in the form of a standardized, transferrable practice ready to be implemented in other geographical contexts with the same needs.

Innovation

A bottom-up strategy in a context of new health and social emergency, in strong contact with institutions, with a third sector actor working to connect the usually detached part of social marginality and institutions, is the innovative approach.

The same approach has been used in Apulia, Sicily, Calabria, showing its impact sustainability, its sustainability, and has been recall by European Commission in EWSI good practices: https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/integration-practice/intersos-covid-19-prevention-informal-settlements_en

Media

Quattro ruote contro il Covid-19 - Intersos vicino alla popolazione fragile di Roma

Quattro ruote contro il Covid-19 - Intersos vicino alla popolazione fragile di Roma

Additional Images

Date submitted:

25 January 2022

Disclaimer: The content of this practice reflects the views of the implementers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Network on Migration, and its members.

 

 

*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).