(ANS – Rome) – On Tuesday 13 October, at the Capitol in Rome, young people will be the protagonists at the presentation of a survey on Roman teenagers commissioned by the Salesians of Central Italy (ICC). "The survey covered about 1,000 young people aged between 14 and 17 from schools and vocational training centres in Rome, plus a large sample of disadvantaged young people" says Fr Leonardo Mancini, Superior of ICC.
The survey was entitled "Teenagers: the challenge of the transition to adulthood in a complex society". It was coordinated and directed by the Toniolo Institute with the collaboration of some lecturers from the Salesian Pontifical University.
According to Fr Mancini, "The results of this research will certainly be a useful tool in understanding the situation of our young people beyond the clichés in order to create projects based on current data. It will also be a tool we can give to the community to improve and integrate joint efforts on behalf of young people."
"The idea for this research came from the fact that it was not enough just to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Don Bosco. We had to do something that would show that Don Bosco is still alive. So it was important to give a signal of our commitment to the world of youth (especially the poorest of them). When we found out that in the municipality of the capital city there were no up-to-date data on teenagers we decided to provide the city with more recent research" said Fr Stefano Aspetti, Director of Don Bosco Boys Town in Rome.
Fr Aspetti also said, "This is a document that as Salesians we have to study carefully because the survey of young people is of interest to our Professional Training Centres and our schools, as well as to the state, and there is also a large sample of disadvantaged teenagers (10% of the total). We need to understand who we are dealing with. (...) It is true that young people cannot be categorized by the results of a survey, but it is also true that it is important to keep up to date."
Published 9/10/2015
