LET’S KEEP LEARNING ASSOCIATION - CASE STUDY

Let’s Keep Learning is an ONLUS which aims are education, training and information, counseling
and professional orientation, protection of civil interests, social and healthcare assistance. They
have a wide target group which includes children, youth, parents, and professionals working with
these groups. They mostly work with people with disabilities, elderly people, NEETs, families,
women in difficulties, migrants.

LKL was funded by Rachele Maria Rosaria Giammario, who is psychologist, with great experience
with dyslexic patients. She founded LKL as an answer to the needs of parents of children with
different disabilities. The parents were under a lot of pressure which was leading them into
burnout. One of the main things causing pressure was actually homework of their children that
they, as parents, needed to do with their kids. This consumed their free time, and they didn’t have
pedagogical skills to help their children to finish homework. They needed support in terms of
information about disabilities of their children, as well as mutual and emotional support, advices
about homework, etc.. Rachele met the needs of the parents by organizing support groups within
LKL as a charity organization, which will later grow into ONLUS.

LKL background is useful because it can indicate elements of a movement that has potential to
become social enterprise. Examples of these elements are, for example, skills and competences of
an entrepreneur, like Rachele competences. Next, there are clear needs of members within
community or specific group within the community. LKL started by recognizing need of both
parents and their children. Important element is social network. LKL social network grew as a
number of users and professionals working with them grew. After support to parents Rachel and
other members of LKL started working with children and youth as well, and later expanded their
services to professionals working with children and youth.

Today, LKL offers different kind of services and activities summarized in:
 research and dissemination of knowledge in the field of psychological disorders and social
problems;
 approaches and methodologies, in the clinical and scholastic sectors, to reduce the
discomfort of the subjects with psychological pathologies and their families;
 training and professional updating of doctors, psychologists, therapists, social-care
workers, educators and teachers;
 promotion of the scholastic and social integration of people with disabilities;
 activities aimed at providing scientific and legal information to parents, teachers and adults
involved in the problem;
 maintaining contacts between families, schools, social and health services, universities and
private institutions interested in the sector of operation of the Association;
 studies and research in psychological disorders and social distress resulting from them;
 the dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge among those working in this sector
for the purposes of research and training of operators;
 the direct and / or indirect execution of surveys, studies and research;
 the organization of congresses and / or training and cultural meetings in collaboration with
local and state bodies, ASL, hospitals and private institutes;
 the training of school staff;
 conception and development of learning environments and e-learning paths;
 orientation, training of trainers and permanent training;
 conception and development of cultural activities and events;

23rd February 2019.

Interview with Claudia di Foglio, legal representative of LKL ONLUS

Claudia di Foglio used to be a lawyer but changed profession early in 2012 to work in education
when Rachele (who is a psychomotoricist and dyslexia specialist) got her interested in creating a
group for dyslexic children and their parents to help each other by sharing their experiences.
LKL is a private non-profit social enterprise based in Vasto, Italy working with disadvantaged
people (disabled, elderly people, NEET’s, families and women in difficulty, migrants). They raise
awareness about Dyslexia, ADHD and Autism, offer counseling, career guidance and legal
assistance for these groups as well as training for school staff about these topics.

In Italia there is total integration of children with dyslexia and other disabilities which is only
possible due to there being a class teacher plus a special teaching assistant who is responsible for
implementing the PDP (Personal development plan) for each child needing extra support. The
special teaching assistant is not there full time however, just usually for a few hours each week. In
addition there may be state sponsored healthcare specialist in class as well depending on the
number of pupils with special needs and level of intervention necessary. For pupils with high
special needs they may be taught during some afternoons separate from their class in a state run
institution.

Typical class sizes in Italy are 25 - 30 pupils in secondary school which means that little time is
available for the teacher to dedicate to each individual. They receive a lot of homework which is
stressful for parents as well as pupils and can be problematic for special needs pupils who often
have self esteem issues and struggle to work effectively away from their classmates.

LKL run an after school service which offers support to students with Autism, Dyslexia, ADHD
and/or SEN (Special Educational Needs) to help them to find an effective method for completing
homework.

As the organisation has developed and grown more needs and opportunities have become
apparent which has led them to initiate a number of projects over recent years including:

Gamification: ICT to play, play to learn (2016-2018) KA2 Youth Education aimed to develop
an innovative method of teaching through Apps.

Game based learning for adults (2017-2019) KA2 Adult Education aimed to develop an
innovative method of teaching for disadvantaged adult learners.

Maths: Real or fiction? (2016-2018) KA2 School Education project sharing good practices
in teaching maths and sciences mainly for SEN students.

Inclusion (2017) KA1 Youth project to teach youth workers non-formal methodologies to
integrate in civil society.

Child disability parents education (2018-2020) KA2 Adult Education project to develop an
e-platform with good practices to support the parents of disabled children.

Code your future (2018-2020) KA2 School education project about teaching/learning of
coding in primary school to prevent the drop-out of students with fewer
opportunities.

Crossing borders (2017-2018) KA1 VET project of mobility for 95 staff and students from
VET Italian Institutes to have a work experience of 4 weeks in 7 different
countries - all at places involved with social services for immigrants and
families in difficulty.