Every year, millions of children around the world suffer violence, often in the very places that should be safest: home, school, and community. At the same time, child protection systems remain fragmented and poorly coordinated in many areas. Safe in Town was created to bridge this gap — a European project coordinated by Defence for Children International Italia and co-funded by the European Union.

The project spans four countries — Italy, Greece, Portugal and Cyprus — with a municipal approach: working at the level closest to children, the local territory, to build concrete, integrated and sustainable child safeguarding policies. In Italy, the pilot territory is Municipality I Centro Est in Genoa, which thus confirms itself as a national leader on this crucial issue.

On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, a roundtable promoted by the Municipality and Defence for Children Italia was held at Palazzo Tursi, bringing together institutions, social and health services, schools and the third sector. The meeting took stock of the work done so far and outlined the next steps toward drafting a municipal child safeguarding policy — a document that every party collaborating with the Municipality on projects involving minors will be required to read and sign.

The preliminary mapping work carried out with the territorial working group made one priority clear: overcoming the fragmentation of the system. Many resources are already present in the area, but an integrated coordination that makes them effective and accessible to those who need them — above all, minors themselves — is still lacking.

The working group currently includes the Municipality with all its services, the municipal 0–6 educational services, ASL 3 with its family health clinics, the Children’s Ombudsman, the Local Police’s vulnerable groups unit, primary and secondary schools in the area, third-sector organisations including the Patto di Comunità, and social services. The group is now also expanding to include Casa sull’Albero at Gaslini Hospital and other local organisations wishing to join the project.

One issue that emerged strongly concerns state schools: unlike municipal schools, which already have their own procedures in place, teachers in state institutions often face risky situations alone, with no shared protocol on who triggers the procedure or how. The municipal policy aims to fill precisely this gap.

Furthermore, the roundtable — with the agreement of the parties involved — highlighted a data point deserving particular attention: despite the presence of many foreign families in the area, those reported to and followed by social services are predominantly Italian children. This trend runs counter to what one might expect, and as Cosso reaffirms, "it is important to work with the real data of the territory."

The end result of the process will therefore be a shared, binding policy: anyone participating in Municipal tenders, requesting patronage, or working with minors within Municipal activities will be required to have read and signed it. Operators will also take part in specific training to be prepared to recognise and respond appropriately to situations of risk for minors. Once tested at municipal level, the model is designed to be replicated and scaled up to the entire City of Genoa.

In support of the project, the Safe in Town learning platform is now available at childsafeguarding.eu — a free, multilingual (Italian, English, Greek, Portuguese) learning space aimed at public officials, professionals, volunteers and anyone who works or wishes to work in local child protection. The platform includes a full e-learning programme, interactive sessions, exercises and a resource centre with in-depth materials, all grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and European standards on the subject.