On Thursday, September 10, at the headquarters of the Italian Trade Agency in New York, the seminar “New Horizons for the Inclusion and Well-Being of Persons with Autism” was held. The event, promoted by the Minister for Disability Alessandra Locatelli in collaboration with The Center for Discovery, is part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two realities last February.
The morning opened with the institutional greetings of Locatelli, Theresa Hamlin, CEO of The Center for Discovery, and Giuseppe Pastorelli, General Consul of Italy in New York, introduced by Prof. Serafino Corti, coordinator of the seminar, and Cesare Casella, Chief of DNA Food and Farming. The program developed through three symposes: the first dedicated to healthy nutrition and lifestyles, the second to the management of complex behaviors, the third to work inclusion as real enhancement of people’s talent with autism.
Locatelli also presented the reform of the current disability in Italy, which introduces the tool of the “life project”: “He does not want to give answers to door, health or social, but gives the person the opportunity to be the protagonist of his destiny, responding in a multisystem way on all aspects of daily life. ” He proudly claimed the role of Italy on the international level: “Often, the Ministers, including other countries, of Europe but of the rest of the world, ask us about our political choices because they are also interesting for other countries. ”
Behind the scenes of the event, chef Fabrizio Facchini, a member of the board of directors and consultant of the Italian Chef New York Association, has been working for a couple of years with Minister Locatelli on several projects, including an event at UNESCO in Paris with almost one hundred special boys. For the occasion of New York, Facchini worked alongside four young people with autism, coming from Inchiostro Cooperativa, a social cooperative based in Soncino, in the province of Cremona, and from Open House, a reality based in Fano. “I also have a small Autistic son, I am very proud to be able to collaborate in these projects,” said Facchini, “and also have these fantastic boys with us today for the catering service that we will do for both the Minister and the institution and the center. ”
Among the boys involved, Fabio Zotti, who has curated the coffee and biscuits service and helped to prepare the half-day buffet, with sliced meats, cheeses and specialties such as oranges. “We are here in New York for this conference,” he says, “it will be fantastic. ” Anna Aurora Vicari, first student and today employee of Inchiostro, where she already works with a company of Orzinuovi bringing the food truck for the meals of the employees on lunch break, was also her for the first time in New York, and was also her first flight on the plane: “It’s huge, it’s great,” he says of the city, “a little bit of everything, it’s a mix.” And Arun Musci, who works at the Open House in Fano taking care of the bar and preparing cocktails like the American and Spritz, as well as flanking other boys on their way: to his first experience abroad, he describes the day as “a magnificent feeling I’ve never tried”.
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