The UNESCO Chair on “Education for Human Development and Solidarity Among Peoples” participates in the realization of the project “Take my hand: school in action, inclusive society on the rise”. Lead partner of the project is CBM Italia Onlus, an NGO member of CBM (Christian Blind Mission), a non-profit organization active since 1908 to assist, care for, include and give a better quality of life to people with disabilities living in the poorest countries.

The project aims at strengthening a culture of inclusion sensitive to the issues of disability and diversity through the involvement of 1,980 primary and secondary school students (8-13 years) and 180 teachers in an educational and experiential path that stimulates their activation on the territory as agents of change. which involves 15 Comprehensive Institutes (for a total of 90 classes) in 5 Italian regions (Lombardy, Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Apulia), includes the following activities:

• an educational path led by teachers in and out the school year;
• experiential workshops led by educators during and out of school;
• call-to-action initiatives designed by the students for the community they belong to.

In addition, awareness-raising activities will be carried out with the aim of reinforcing the knowledge and stimulating the national debate on the issues of disability and cultural diversity through territorial events and a communication campaign.

The UNESCO Chair on “Education for Human Development and Solidarity Among Peoples” is involved, in particular, in activities regarding the impact measurement and the external evaluation of the project.

The project ended in December 2020. On the occasion of the final event held online, the publication "Take my hand even at a distance: empathy and solidarity in the days of COVID-19" (available here) was presented. The publication is based on the report of evaluation of the activities, conducted by the UNESCO Chair of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

The report of the UNESCO Chair aims at understanding the impact of the Global Citizenship Education project on students and teachers and on the importance of promoting awareness-raising projects. The report highlighted some interesting results: the activities proposed had the 'aim to make pupils understand that inclusive attitudes are not only in favor of excluded people, but of everyone; 90% of students showed an increased ability to "read" situations of real inclusion; at the end of the course, the majority of students showed an increase in the ability to recognize the emotions of others in episodes and cases of discrimination; diversity is recognized as a resourceand no longer as a problem.

You can watch the video story of the project here.