At the outset Cesvi in Italy was committed to awareness campaigns and global citizenship education.

In 2011 the first co-development projects started: initiatives aimed at enhancing and boosting migrant communities, for them to transfer their know how to native countries.

In 2011, following the events of the Arab Spring and the Northern Africa’s crisis, Cesvi launched migrant hospitality and protection projects in Italy. These would be integration paths or support for return to native countries.

The progressively worsening of social and economic conditions in our country, since 2012, led Cesvi to reinforce its commitment to vulnerable individuals and those at risk of exclusion. More and more attention was then paid to the category of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors (UFM), to which in 2014 the focus of projects regarding migratory phenomena was moved.

Since then, reception, integration and protection of UFM has been one of the main streams of Cesvi’s work on national territory. In particular, two issues have been taken into consideration for project implementation: the voluntary legal protection and the accompanying through majority age with support paths for social, economic and housing independence.

In 2012 the earthquake in Emilia called on Cesvi to exploit its experience to respond to emergencies – acquired in the most tragic settings on the planet – in Italy too. “Emiliani più forti della scossa” (“People from Emilia: stronger than the earthquake”) was set up, a project for giving support to the economic recovery of three enterprises in the territory of Modena and for providing psychological assistance to minors and families.

This was a robust and effective effort that Cesvi put in place again in the centre of Italy, hit by a magnitude six earthquake on the 24th of August 2016. Some 4.000 children, parents and teachers of 12 schools of Fermo, Macerata and Ascoli Piceno benefited from Cesvi’s relief action, along with 12 agricultural enterprises of Amatrice and Leonessa.

In 2017 Cesvi opened a new project model, aimed at preventing and fighting child maltreatment. In a partnership with cooperatives and associations of the involved territories, Cesvi is helping abused and neglected children and their families at various levels.