Community work practices against children poverty in Southern Italy. Exploring experiences and perspectives in local welfare

PurposeThis paper has a dual purpose: on one side, it analyzes what types of solidarity and social relations are implemented as social support resources applied to actions aiming at the empowerment of children living in poverty. On the other, it investigates on the role of the community in the governance of local welfare practices and its ability to produce social innovations for municipal policies in favor of children and adolescents.Design/methodology/approachProximity, flexibility, generativity and territoriality are just some of the features that – in the framework of the scientific debate – characterize the social work in areas of social disadvantage. In the framework of the debate, this paper presents a qualitative research on the social ties and educational practices promoted and implemented by nonprofit organizations that attempt to counteract educational poverty and social exclusion of children and adolescents in the eastern peripheral neighborhoods of Naples, one of the poorest cities in the South of Italy.FindingsThe results of the analysis reveal a capacitating and generative role of the actions applied to social and educational practices for children and adolescents and their families in poor neighborhoods and peripheral areas; a role that is, however, also useful for community social policies targeting children and adolescents. Among local welfare policies enhancing community resources, such practices have indeed become an active resource of subsidiarity; they also ensure wider rights and empowerment for children and adolescents who live in poor communities and for their families as well.Originality/valueMore recent studies focusing on the role of social ties in deprived context and impoverishment processes, demonstrated that nonprofit organizations operate as crucial actors fostering inclusion and social cohesion, by means of “elective participation”; this guarantees access to protection and recognition resources that are an integral part of the social support these organizations provide in their areas of intervention. Despite the wide debate on the key role of the Third Sector in territorial welfare policies, further empirical studies on the role of these organizations in poor neighborhoods of the cities of the south of Italy are necessary. The value of this article is an attempt to provide to bridge this gap.