The “Destination Recovery” project is a pilot project targeted at young people with major mental disorders, whose goal is to test their skills with a view to potential future job placement.

The project has a duration of 18 months and is targeted at beneficiaries aged 18 to 45 years living in the Milan metropolitan area. It aims to offer a group of 20 young adults with major mental disorders an education and rehabilitation programme targeted at independence and – where possible – employment. The following are considered by Progetto Itaca as major mental disorders: major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and personality disorders. Primary diagnoses of eating disorders, anxiety disorders, addictions and neurodevelopmental disorders are excluded and will instead be evaluated as secondary manifestations of primary disorders.

The proposed training-rehabilitation programme involves active and conscious participation in work groups of 4 participants each, working in remote mode within Progetto Itaca’s job stations under the coordination of a staff member. The work effort consists of managing the process of collecting, sorting, selling, and shipping second-hand items through digital channels (by way of example, the Two-sided marketplaces Subito, Ebay and Vinted).

Proceeds from the first year will be used to improve the training room. As from the second year, people who show real and solid job potential will be placed on job assistance programmes, namely with commercial companies in the second-hand e-commerce cluster, taking advantage of the channel of targeted employment of people with disabilities and within the framework of a cooperation arrangement with some companies in the industry, which were defined during the project start-up phase.

*of which € 25.474 disbursed through the SGR