The social reintegration of people in detention is one of the major challenges of our time. The difficulty of acquiring skills that can be applied in the job market and of building personal development pathways during imprisonment significantly affects the risk of reoffending and the possibility of real change once the sentence has been served. For this reason, we have chosen to support the “Twinning Project” promoted by the Twinning Project ETS Association, which introduces football into prisons as a tool to help reduce recidivism and as a potential driver of social change. The Twinning Project ETS Association, based in Rome, brought to Italy a programme that originated in the United Kingdom in 2018, built on partnerships between professional football clubs and penitentiary institutions. Today, the Project is active in 78 correctional facilities across six countries: the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa, Italy, Romania and Australia. The Twinning Project organizes both theoretical and practical training courses for male and female inmates, with the aim of providing them with the technical foundations and transversal skills adopted by professional football coaches, with the goal of developing competencies that can support their social and professional reintegration upon release. In Italy, the project began in 2024 with the partnership between A.S. Roma and the Rebibbia Prison, involving 64 inmates from both the male and female sections. The courses, lasting a total of 12 weeks, are modular and structured into three groups of approximately 15 participants per institution, selected among inmates serving the final 24 months of their sentence. All activities take place within the indoor and outdoor facilities of the prison and are designed to foster the development of transversal skills such as communication, teamwork, individual responsibility and conflict management — all essential abilities for navigating the world of work. To date, the Association’s goal is to replicate and further expand the project in five Italian cities, in collaboration with local football clubs and with territorial adult and juvenile correctional institutions, with particular attention to younger detainees. The programme is currently in an advanced planning phase and has already attracted the interest of several Serie A teams, including FC Internazionale Milano, as well as the Kayros Educational Community, which supports minors involved in criminal proceedings. Overall, the project will run for 12 months and will involve approximately 225 participants. We cannot change a person’s past, but we can help them build their future. For this reason, we have blown the whistle to kick off this initiative together with the Association. Thanks to our support, the full costs of the project have been covered, enabling its implementation and expansion nationwide. Details Location: Milan Association: Twinning Project ETS Association Contribution: €150,000 Duration: January 2026 – December 2026 Beneficiaries: 225 male and female inmates
