Interview with Caroline Caporossi, founder of The Association for the Integration of Women
Who is Caroline and why you decided to create AIW?
I am a 26-year old American Italian and have been passionate about the non-profit sector for as long as I can remember. I started my career in the United States supporting undocumented Latino residents- first as a legal assistant for women and families who had survived different types of violence, and later, conducting research about emergency preparedness for our limited-English speaking neighbors in South Carolina. I was extremely lucky to be mentored early on by inspiring women who were making great strides in their fields.
In 2016, I decided to move to Italy for a change of pace. When I arrived in Modena to teach english I knew very little Italian, had no social network, and was in severe culture shock. It took me two years to feel like I had finally accepted both who I was and who I was going to be in my new life. I found a wonderful job at Food For Soul, an organization founded by Chef Massimo Bottura. I made friends and settled in, but all the while I found myself organically connecting with migrant women, no matter where they were from. I love working with women because in spite of our perceived differences, oftentimes we share the same dreams.
About a year ago, I met Ella, who eventually inspired me to launch the AIW. She was my age at the time, 25 years old, and a refugee from Nigeria. She had lived through severe hardship, but when we were together we were just two young women laughing over failed plans and hopes for the future. Ella shared that she left Nigeria because she had dreams to continue her education, but since coming to Italy she was not able to realize that goal. At this point I had a small network around me, so I leaned on them to help connect Ella to her first work opportunity. It was that experience that got me thinking about the value of a service that could assist women like Ella on their journey to integration. I started researching and discovered that migrant women between the ages of 25-35 are the most disadvantaged group to integrate socially and economically. This became the basis for the AIW‘s model, and we’ve grown every day since hand-in-hand with women like Ella.
Can you tell us more about the current and future projects of AIW?
Our organization is very young. We are still working toward the realization of our main project, Roots, a food-focused integration project for Modena’s newcomers. We had made significant strides in this project before the COVID-19 crisis, but when Italy went into lockdown we had to completely shift our plans. We learned from previous community engagement that many women in our target demographic were seamstresses in their home countries. We saw this an opportunity to provide critical financial support to families that were at high risk of losing work contracts due to the pandemic, while also providing a valuable service to our community – so we gathered up a roll of fabric and started employing women to sew cotton face masks.
Thanks to Cucire Insieme we employed 7 women and raised 15.000 Euros. The model was very simple: donors could make a free donation and to thank them, we would send them one of our handmade masks, and their donations were used to pay fair wages to our seamstresses. During the course of the campaign we were able to do some fun collaborations as well. We ran a design competition in partnership with Deshabille Magazine and The Fashion Propellant inviting designers all over the globe to submit their mask designs for production by the AIW. We donated many masks to local non-profit organizations that were providing relief boxes to our neighbors in need. We made and donated beautiful scrub caps to thank essential workers in our local hospitals. Currently we are working on new collaborations to diversify our sewing program, allowing us to offer more jobs to migrant women with seamstress skills.
It was an amazing growth experience for us. Now we’re back in action working on the opening of Roots, an empowering food space that gives Modena’s new cooks a platform to showcase their food culture while gaining skills for employment in the industry, but our seamstress program is growing as well. We now have two work opportunity tracks for migrant women in Modena, and we hope to develop more in the future. You can follow all the updates on our programmes on AIW’s website.
What’s the situation regarding migrants in Modena at the moment, especially women? Which are the measures put in place by the local government to help/support migrants? What do you think, in your opinion, is missing to encourage and support a full integration?
Women now represent a greater share of migrants that are arriving in Modena. Women have increased barriers to their integration and employment – cultural discrimination, childcare responsibilities, and household duties being just some of those challenges. The greatest gap in my opinion is service that is dedicated to women – one that takes these needs and challenges into consideration, and takes advantage of the amazing benefits to our society when we choose to invest in women. Achieving this means creating a new space in markets for these women to bring their unique value, rather than just trying to fit into what is already there.
What does it mean to be an activist for you?
For me it means not compromising, not being afraid to be the dissenting person in the room.
Which is the most important thing you have learned from all the women you worked, and you are working with?
I think that I am constantly reminded not to underestimate women. The women I work with are resourceful, resilient, motivated, and continue to surprise me. Our mission is to ”provide resources for women to establish roots and flourish” and I truly believe that every day I am watching women that wrongfully society does not expect much from, get one step closer to flourishing – and I cannot wait to see what Modena looks like when these women will show all they can do.
