In Italy, CIES encourages initiatives focused on intercultural and global citizenship education and aimed at developping positive integration of immigrants, both in formal and non formal educational contexts. 
Since its birth CIES Onlus has paid special attention to the connection between cooperation and development education, with the goal of achieving a cultural gain from projects implemented in the Global South thanks to information and awareness-raising programmes implemented in Italy. We were among the founders of the Italian Global Citizenship Education Platform [Piattaforma Educazione alla Cittadinanza Mondiale], which led a national debate aimed at redefining the concept of development education.
These programmes and initiatives aimed at education for global citizenship are intended for young people and schools and cultural and social professionals; their goals are shaping public opinion in general, thus helping the people of the world live together in solidarity, developing educational and training strategies to create greater awareness about the problems of Global North-South relationships, migration, human and civil rights, the relationship between development and the environment, and raising awareness on cultural diversity. 
We have a long experience in non formal education practices, gained in both our cooperation and global education projects. 
Since 2010 we run a Youth Center called Matemù where young people (approx. aged 11-25, Italians, new immigrants, second generation immigrants, unaccompanied minors, most of them in situations of serious social exclusion) from different Countries can meet and experience several activities and services, all of them offered for free. The activities are based both on the delivery of social services (orientation to the world of training and work, teaching Italian as a second language, counseling and tutoring) and non-formal education practices mainly based on art-education (dance, music, singing, spray art, theatre, digital storytelling). The center is a bridge between the city centre and the suburbs, the city's area and the school, among young people and associations and institutions responsible for providing social services.
Our main approaches are: inter-disciplinary and inter-cultural approach, Cooperative learning, active/ interactive techniques (role-play, various games etc.)