Family foster care
Family foster care, more commonly referred to as “affido,” is help provided under Italian law for minors who come from families that for various reasons cannot sufficiently or continuously provide for the care and upbringing of their children.
Because of this transient nature, it is often seen as an emotionally trying commitment or a gesture greater than a person’s or couple’s capabilities. Instead, it is an experience within the reach of any couple or individual, offering unexpected opportunities for growth for the family or caregiver themselves, giving many children the chance to grow up together in a safe and secure environment.
MetaCometa's experience
Each Metacometa service, like the Valdocco Oratory, must be “a real family,” in which one must make sure to “breathe family air” that cheers and makes one feel good. The “family spirit” needs to be built through acceptance among all, reciprocated affection, sharing of tasks and responsibilities, and effective and intense communication among all who live there. This involves a “mutual opening of the heart” and a fraternal and joyful “sharing of life.” It is not, therefore, a matter of material aspects, but above all of inner aspects; a familiarity that is “mutual cordiality and confidence,” which appeals to the inner resources of mutual helpfulness, understanding, forgiveness… which leads each one to do things not out of force, but out of love, because one recognizes their goodness and usefulness. A familiarity enriched by the reality of each person in his or her specificity, respected in his or her dignity, valued in his or her abilities and potential.
A house "with light in it."
Home is the first boundary experience; it determines an inside and an outside, which may be more or less rigid. It is the place where the person begins to define himself, where he feels safe and contained. So home is safety, it is self-expression, but it is also living space, to be lived in and learned to share with someone else. It represents a refuge, a place where you can lower your defenses, shed your superstructures and simply be yourself. A place to refresh, rest, shelter, restore, recharge… “The family is the home of the heart” (Mazzini). It is the place where one’s frailty is taken care of, one feels comfortable, enveloped and pampered, one experiences a sense of intimacy and security, one takes refuge in something familiar and known, one experiences warmth and a sense of belonging, and it is a space experienced and to be experienced, the place of relationships. Relationships between people: emotional relationships between men and women, relationships toward children and, reciprocally, toward parents. “I do the parenting, it’s your turn to do the child!” Positive relationships, situations that deeply mark one’s ‘being. A place where one feels valued and loved and learns to value and love. A house “with light in it…”
A house with open doors
Able to be open to welcoming those in need, the children and young people “children of the world” that life brings us across, someone to love and care for. Able to look to the territory, to a network of relationships that enrich and complement each person’s existences.
Able to live the events of the world with serene optimism, because History is God leading it.
