Famiglie affidatarie. Risorsa educativa della comunità

[Autom. eng. transl.] The essays in the volume were stimulated by the results achieved during a focus group with some foster couples. The experiences narrated consider custody as a juridical instrument in line with the pedagogical request of the building of the educating community. They urge us to conceive foster care as a real personal, family and social resource, through which we tend towards spaces of coexistence in which the principle of listening to the suffering of others, mutual help and inter-human solidarity prevail. The narratives also allow us to understand that being foster parents means being animated by the conviction, inspired by precise values, that through education it is possible to help a subject in a situation of need to regain confidence in life, to redefine one's identity, to become citizen of the world. For these reasons, it can be asserted that the foster families are animated by a spirit of service that is typical of the voluntary world and, as such, they serve to strongly emphasize the pedagogical-educational dimension connected with the voluntary action.