Southern and Islands Initiative

The initiative to build opportunities between schools and the local area

The Southern and Islands Initiative continues in the 2025/26 school year.

Our country's educational crisis is most acute in the South and the Islands. It is there that Italy still faces the most acute gaps, and educational inequality reflects these gaps. The phenomena of explicit and implicit school dropout provide a tangible sense of challenges rooted in a complexity we refuse to surrender to.

We believe that strengthening the work of public schools is a fundamental strategic key to investing in order to generate necessary change.

This belief has motivated us to promote an initiative focused on dialogue with various national and local stakeholders: Regional School Offices, experts in teaching and combating inequality, schools, and local communities. Furthermore, in order to draw on ongoing sources of inspiration on these issues at the international level, we also cultivate an ongoing exchange with Teach For All's international partners, all of whom share the belief in the strategic foundation of focusing on an approach based on the principles and practices of Collective Leadership.

Our goal is to design and test a transformative teacher model in the regions of Southern Italy and the Islands, actively promoting Collective Leadership to combat implicit and explicit dropout. In Southern Italy and the Islands, many innovation-oriented schools already exist, serving students who have grown up in very challenging environments.

Our ambition is to collaborate with these institutions to jointly promote even stronger innovation paths that can also serve as a model for other contexts. Hence the Southern Italy and Islands Model.

Teach For Italy has selected a group of Fellows, hired directly by Teach For Italy, who have committed to working for two years in the schools involved in the initiative as additional teaching and pedagogical professionals with both scholastic and extracurricular roles.

Specifically, the Fellows collaborate with the Class Council in pursuing teaching and pedagogical objectives related to combating school dropout and promote dialogue with the surrounding local community to facilitate collaboration on the educational project.

Who are the Fellows?

  • Claudia Argento

    Claudia Argento Teach For Italy

    From Caltanissetta. She holds a degree in Teaching Italian to Foreigners from the University for Foreigners of Siena. She is an active participant in the “Southern and Islands Initiative” at the San Donato Institute in Sassari.

  • Giulia Battistelli

    Giulia Battistelli

    From Orvieto (TR). She graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Bologna. She holds a PhD in Chemistry (UNIBO) and a Master's in Science Communication (SISSA, Trieste). She is an active participant in the “Southern and Islands Initiative” at the ISS Crispi in Ribera (AG).

  • Sara Caddeo Teach For Italy

    Sara Caddeo

    From Arbus (SU). Graduated in Social Work and Social Policies from the University of Florence. She is an active participant in the S“Southern and Islands Initiative” at the Santa Caterina Institute in Cagliari.

  • Francesca Delli Carri

    Francesca Delli Carri

    From Avellino. She graduated in Modern Philology from the University of Salerno. She earned a Master's degree in Teaching Italian as a Second Language from the University of Naples "L'Orientale". She is an active participant in the "Southern and Islands Initiative” at the ISS Crispi in Ribera (AG).

  • Sara Delrio Teach For Italy

    Sara Delrio

    From Nuoro. She graduated in Modern Languages ​​for Communication and International Cooperation from the University of Turin. She is an active participant in the “Southern and Islands Initiative” at the Devinu Institute in Cagliari.

  • Davide De Salvo Teach For Italy

    Davide De Salvo

    From Messina. He holds a degree in International Relations from the University of Naples "L'Orientale." He is an active participant in the “Southern and Islands Initiative” at the IISS Lercara Friddi in Lercara Friddi (PA).

  • Daniela Fonnesu Teach For ITaly

    Daniela Fonnesu

    From Iglesias (CI). Graduated in Pedagogical Sciences from the University of Cagliari. She is an active participant in the “Southern and Islands Initiative” at the Azuni High School in Cagliari.

  • Simona Galletta

    From Messina. She graduated in Modern Philology from the University of Turin. She is an active participant in the "Southern and Islands Initiative” at the Pestalozzi Institute in Catania.

  • Daniela Lazzara Teach For Italy

    Daniela Lazzara

    From Siracusa. She holds a degree in International Relations from the University of Padua. She is an active participant in the "Southern and Islands Initiative" at the Pestalozzi Institute in Catania.