Description of organisation

The association was born thanks to the voluntary commitment of a group built around don Giancarlo Bertagnolli; in 1978 they supported him in his first activities dedicated to help people in deep difficulties. At the beginning they especially took care of drugs addicted whose number was growing faster and faster. They chose the name “La Strada – Der Weg” (meaning “the street”), because they did not have a seat, but used to work in the streets among the underprivileged. At the end of that year they opened the first community, led by volunteers, for people with very different histories, all living in poor conditions.
In a couple of years the original group came to the decision to better identify its target and to include in its staff also professionals.
In 40 years of activity the association has grown in terms of fields of intervention, projects and number of professional operators employed. Rapid changes in society ask the operators and the coordinators of services a strong capability of catching new needs and adapt their work with new solutions.
Today La Strada - Der Weg counts on 120 employees and around the same number of volunteers distributed in 5 areas:

1. Culture, Territory and Family
Incentive measures in the youth cultures field, sport & education, streetworking projects, prevention measures in schools, advice, service to families. 2 youth centres in Bolzano and 1 in Merano work daily with school-aged children to give them a homely place to spend their free time in a safe and proactive atmosphere. Big importance is given indeed to incentivize and support personal initiatives proposed and organized by the kids themself.

2. Addictions
Help for people with addictions and psichiatric illnesses related to addictions, communities, social re-integration projects and mutual self help groups. A team with big experience, composed by a coordinator, educators, pedagogy experts, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors and nurses works to create a sheltered place to reach a physical and mental stabilization. Inside the community there are different activities (sporty, artistic, cultural...) aimed to develop social skills and emotion managing; they also run rehabilitation workshops such as musical and art therapy.

3. Women and Equal opportunities
Projects for trafficking and exploitation's victims, support to young mothers, individual projects

4 Prevention and Advice
Mediators expert in the fields of youth problems, education and legal matters provide mediation between the parts

5. Kids and Youth
Support and boost youth in difficulties through residential communities, educational activities and mediation in penal matters
Especially in the Kids and Youth Area we are working to support the educational skills and capabilities of families, but there are still a lot of situations which need intervention, projects and services to give children adequate conditions to live in. In this context the 3 residential communities in Bolzano follow social and educational goals through individual projects, supporting kids in the fields of education and training, work, and in finding an autonomous way of living. The daily relations with significant adults gives to the communities' guests the possibility of experiment themselves, grow up, test themselves, re-elaborate their histories and make the best choices for their future. All this requires and offers to volunteers at the same time the possibility of playing a central role in the growth process of kids, representing a young and positive figure of adult.
• Sancta Clara: here are hosted kids from 8 to 16 years, sent from the basic social services
• Il Focolare: for kids between 14 and 18
• Pantarhei: for kids between 8 and 14 years