• Nuova Associazione Culturale Ulisse (NACU): SIS institutional partner that aims to assist migrants, refugees and asylum seekers 
• Grass and Roots Group: Association of volunteer asylum seekers assisting other asylum seekers and refugees 

The project emerged in response to the war in Ukraine which led to a growing migrant population of Pakistani migrants. Due to COVID-restrictions, traditional service placements were limited. Direct interactions with migrant and asylum seekers identified the needs that the Home for the World project decided to address. While the project continues, the needs are continuously re-defined in ongoing interaction with migrants and local community organizations.

Partners have an active role in shaping the activities students do, the needs that are prioritized, and how the project evolves. The partner NACU has a specific role in the project, as it works mitigator between the higher education institution and local stakeholders and community organizations. The partners, and particularly NACU directly contribute to the students learning, offer situated knowledge and expertise, and participate in the assessment and reflection process. The migrants community and community organizations directly benefit from the students work through extra human resources and support.

Within the framework of Home for the World, students collaborate with members of the Grass & Roots group, a volunteer initiative that emerged from the initiative of refugees themselves, particularly from the Pakistani community, that later expanded to include people from other backgrounds. This creates a horizontal learning environment in which students and refugees engage together in language learning, intercultural exchange, and community-based activities, fostering mutual learning, responsibility, and empowerment.

The course is integrated in the program ‘Interdisciplinary Migration Studies: Service-Learning and Social Action for Integration in Contemporary Italy’. It is a fully integrated service-learning course, the course is mandatory for all students in the program.

• Students understand migration as a social, political, and historical phenomenon  
• Students analyse Italy as a country of migration (past and present) 
• Students apply concepts from social sciences to real-world contexts 
• Students strengthen their cultural awareness and ethic reasoning 

Service activities: Within the framework of Home for the World, students work side-by-side with migrants to support Pakistani and Afghani asylum seekers. Students and refugees engage together in language learning, intercultural exchange, and community-based activities, and they assist in providing access to basic services such as legal support and healthcare.

Learning activities: The course offers lectures by teachers and practice experts analyzing the historical, political, economic and social aspects related to Italy as a theater of migration. These lectures are connected to the needs of the target group. 

The course strongly values student voice and agency. The syllabus remains flexible and evolves in response to the service experience and students’ emerging interests.

Reflection is a fundamental component of the learning process. Students are required to keep reflective journals throughout the course, where they critically analyze their experiences, confront personal assumptions, and document the development of intercultural dialogue. Reflection is guided through prompts and peer exchange, encouraging a shift from observation to critical awareness and civic responsibility.

• Oral presentation 
• Final project 
• Participation in the service activities 
• Reflective journal 

Teachers, students and community partners are engaged in the course assessment.

Values

• Valuing human dignity and human rights
• Valuing cultural diversity

Attitudes

• Openness to cultural otherness and to other beliefs, world views and practices
• Civic-mindedness 
• Responsibility 
• Tolerance of ambiguity 

Skills

• Empathy 
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Autonomous learning skills 

Knowledge and critical understanding

• Knowledge and critical understanding of the world 

Competences for democratic culture are developed through an integrated experiential and reflective learning process. Through direct engagement with real-life situations related to migration and inclusion, and through the interaction with diverse stakeholders (including the refugee volunteers), these competences come to life.  

A key tool for developing these competences is the reflective syllabus Reflective Intercultural Education for Democratic Culture and Engaged Citizens, where reflection is positioned as a bridge between experience and democratic learning. Through structured reflective journals, guided prompts, and peer exchange, students are encouraged to move beyond observation and engage in critical self-reflection, questioning assumptions, processing emotional responses, and developing awareness of their role within a democratic and intercultural society. In this sense, competences for democratic culture are not taught as abstract concepts but are experienced, practiced, and reflected upon through the continuous interaction between theory, service, and reflection, supporting the development of responsible and engaged citizens. 

• Intrcultural dialogue
• Development of critical awareness and civic responsibility

• Access to basic services such as legal support, healthcare, and mediation of the direct beneficiaries of the student support 
• Social inclusion and community integration of migrants in Siena 
• Bridging gaps between institutions and vulnerable groups, especially where formal systems fall short. Due to the Home for the World project, NACU became a central organization in the city, engaging other community organizations in Siena. 
• As a result of the Home for the World project, the MILAGRO project was developed. This project has led to the creation of the Grass & Roots Group, a volunteer initiative of refugees themselves supporting other refugees and migrants. The target group has thus become more empowered to become active agents in the project and beyond. 

• High workload and organizational complexity for the teaching staff 
• Institutional resistance and lack of readiness, as service-learning goes against traditional academic structures 
• Accreditation 
• High demands for students, due to unpredictability and intensiveness of the course 

• Institutional support of the HEI 
• Flexibility in the curriculum