This project attempts to empower asylum seekers and undocumented individuals to rebuild their lives and achieve housing stability. It offers a structured savings program that supports participants in laying down roots, securing employment, and accessing mentorship opportunities
Problem Emergency housing offers temporary shelter, but the path to permanent housing—and true integration, remains blocked by systemic and cultural barriers, financial insecurity, and broken trust.
CAS centre in Bergamo
Exercise with asylum seekers → Mapping personal journeys
Aggregating journeys in sequence
Understanding the context through putting together journeys, while connecting it with desk research to conceptualise insights.
Mapping all 6 asylum seeker journeys from leaving hometown → if/when they attained documentation to understand gaps
The complex system of agencies/ processes an asylum seeker needs to go through before getting the refugee status.
The undocumented phase, spanning 3 to 15 years, brings uncertainty that disrupts employment, financial stability, housing, and family connections
Looking within the gaps: our intervention space
How might we foster mutual agreements between individuals in emergency housing and their support systems to enhance their ability to settle and integrate into Bergamo as a long-term home?
Asylum seeker's journey towards a home
A service for individuals who want to invest in their future through a fund and receive mentorship and support.
Help people build wealth and achieve their long-term housing goals by creating a system of agreements between multiple stakeholders.
Introduction pamphlet (touchpoint 1) with growth projections and journey further
Transition packet (touchpoint 2): future house keychain + invite from the bank for financial planning + postcard from the guide ( refugee mentor provided by the fund) + congratulatory letter with the savings update till date
Reflections
Understand templates and internalise it, but make them yours. Design Guides are so important, they have a trickling down effect on your end outcome. Empathise but don’t get emotionally attached
