Inclusion: Talents and Competencies in Italian…

The side event will offer presentations and illustrations of the various employment and work programs promoted in recent years throughout Italy, with persons with intellectual disabilities and/or autism engaged as protagonists in multiple and different agri-food and catering activities.

Italian cuisine, like many other cuisines of the world, requires dedication and attention to the preparation and selection of high-quality raw materials, as well as skills and creativity in the preparation of food. It is thus an ideal sphere of activity to promote not only skills, talents, and creativity of persons with disabilities, but also social inclusion and the independence of persons with disabilities. Indeed, through these work activities, the person with disabilities has an opportunity to experience adulthood and equality in a typical, mainstream
setting with other persons on a daily basis.