Third Mission

Every academic institution engages in purposefully planned activities that are made available and directed towards the territory in which it works. The academic community is involved in this interactive engagement with its environments and audiences of reference as communities of instructors, students, and administrative and service personnel.

Every academic institution plans and implements social, cultural, and economic activities that are carried out alongside its first traditional mission of teaching, which is based on interactions with students, and its second mission of research, which is carried out in interaction primarily with scientific communities and peers; this interaction with its environments and its audiences of reference is generically defined as its “third mission”. This concept was introduced for the Italian universities by the ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca, or the National Agency for Evaluating the University System and Research) as “openness towards the socio-economic context by accentuating various forms of knowledge” through initiatives with socio-cultural and educational value.

Each university offers to its local and global environments what is appropriate to each, beginning with its history and its organization; it in turn receives ideas, experiences, skills, presentations, and policies from its social and cultural context. On one hand these impact and improve the value and the relevance of its teaching, learning, and institutional research; on the other hand, they integrate academic skills into the outside communities to which it is directed and with which it interacts.

Along with the basic goals of instruction and research, the Faculty has always maintained a Third Mission to those outside its walls in all its activities and contributions that seek to foster accentuating, using, and directly applying knowledge developed in the university world to contribute to the social, cultural, and economic development of society and to the Church’s evangelistic mission, and in turn letting itself be enriched and shaped by the needs emerging from the field.
Through its instructors and students, the Faculty is committed to communicating, accentuating, and transferring knowledge and methodologies back into the local territory, the civil society, and the ecclesial environment to promote pedagogical education and sustain a culture of life.

It thus characterizes itself as an ecclesial presence “in the service of thought” in “pastoral care of the culture” in “intellectual charity”; consistent with the guidelines of the magisterium of Pope Francis and of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, it presents itself as a “providential cultural laboratory of the Church going forth". It produces new graduates for the local, national, and international environments who are professionals in the education field, educational psychologists, religion teachers for schools of all grades and degrees, and pastoral care staff, all trained in bachelor’s or master's programs, level I or II postgraduate programs, or advanced study or professional qualification programs.

The Auxilium academic community is a community of instructors, students, and administrative and service personnel who are united by a shared project of education, study, and research whose roots are in the Christian and Salesian pedagogical humanism of St. Giovanni Bosco and St. Maria D. Mazzarello.
Each person is co-responsible for the common good and cooperates within their respective competencies to pursue the goals of the community.

The activities it considers as its Third Mission are clustered around various comprehensive core areas:

Organization

• of conferences and seminars that are open to professionals and citizens in the area
• of university-level continuing education courses, university degree courses, post-graduate study, refresher courses, and specialization in the psycho-socio-educational and pastoral fields

Presentations and Reports

• to conferences or training sessions for religious congregations in different areas
• to inter-congregational study courses

Supervision

• of internships in various residential and semi-residential organizations and services for various types of public groups
• of educational activities in parishes and of parochial catechesis and volunteers

Openness and Availability

• of the library resources (which specialize on women) and of the reading room, with more than 500 titles, to scholars and foreign students

Continuing Education and Open Learning

• Presentations in schools of all levels
• Online and in-classroom refresher courses
• Consulting and participation in projects designed for instructors and students of various Italian high schools

The Faculty’s work is influential on national and international levels as well, with the purpose of accentuating the richness of its multidisciplinary competencies and of creating synergy and partnerships.

In particular, its activity is structured as

Participation

• *in national and international academic study and research organizations and associations related to the Faculty’s research areas
• IFCU (International Federation of Catholic Universities )
• ACISE (International Catholic Association of Institutes of Educational Sciences)
• OIEC (International Organization of Catholic Education)
• AIDU (Associazione Italiana Docenti Universitari)
• SIPED (Società Italiana di Pedagogia)
• ANPE (Associazione Nazionale Pedagogisti Italiani)
• SCHOLÉ (Pedagogisti di ispirazione cristiana)
• CIRSE (Centro Italiano per la Ricerca Storico-Educativa)
• SIRT (Società Italiana per la Ricerca Teologica)
• ATI (Associazione Teologica Italiana)
• CATI (Coordinamento Associazioni Teologiche Italiane)
• APL (Associazione Professori Liturgia)
• AIPSC (Associazione dei Professori di Storia della Chiesa in Italia)
• * to the Board of Directors of the Opera Nazionale della Città dei Ragazzi di Roma

Collaboration

• * with the Roman Curia of the Holy See through the provision of some teachers as consultants/secretaries of the Dicastery
• Dicastery for Culture and Education
• Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
• Dicastery for Evangelization
• Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
• International Council for Catechesis
• *with the Italian Episcopal Conference through the performance of individual teachers in specific sectors
• Ufficio Liturgico Nazionale
• Ufficio Catechistico Nazionale
• Comitato scientifico del Centro Studi Scuola
• Coordinamento Presidi Istituti Superiori di Scienze Religiose Romani
• Comitato Scientifico e organizzatore delle Settimane Sociali dei - Cattolici italiani
• * with the Diocese of Porto-Santa Rufina (Rome)
• Responsabilità dell’Ufficio per l’Insegnamento della Religione cattolica nelle Scuole
• Direzione dell’Ufficio Catechistico diocesano
• * with the formative/educational organizations of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians:
• Centro Italiano Opere Femminili Salesiane-Formazione Professionale-Italia;
• Centro Italiano Opere Femminili Salesiane-Formazione Professionale-Scuola Italia;
• Volontariato Internazionale Donna Educazione Sviluppo
• Volontariato Internazionale Donna Educazione Sviluppo-Italia, Scuola Salesiana Europa;
• Commissione Scuola/Formazione professionale Europa SDB-FMA
• ISS-FMA (Istituti di Studi Superiori dell’Istituto FMA)
• Associazione Cultori di Storia Salesiana (ACSSA)

Drawing Up

• Agreements with internship agencies
• Agreements with dioceses and parishes

Management and Guidance

• The Mother Magdalene Morano School for Catechists and Pastoral Coordinators
• A school for free time activity directors
• A summer camp for including adolescents and young people in informal education settings

PURPOSE AND GOALS

The Centre for Guidance, Counseling and Psychological and Educational Training is a service established by the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium, which operates primarily from a perspective of prevention. It is available to Faculty students and is open to the local territory. It offers psychological and educational services in support of students’ growth in their formative years and for people’s psychological well-being, particularly for women and families.

• Preventing psychological and social distress
• Offering psychological support for individuals and educational support for the family
• Promoting personal and relational resources to face difficult short-term situations or psychological and emotional distress
• Supporting resources for educational and training institutions

ACTIVITIES AND RECIPIENTS

The Centre’s services are structured as follows:

• Guidance
• Psychological and Educational Counseling
• Training

These are addressed particularly to:

• Students enrolled in the Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium
• Young people in their formative years and adults
• Parents (for training courses)
• Educational institutions (guidance presentations, prevention and management of certain behaviors, and teacher training courses).

CONTACTS

Centro di Orientamento Consulenza e Formazione psicologica ed educativa
Via Cremolino, 141
00166 Roma (RM)
Tel. +39. 06.615720500
centro.ocf@pfse-auxilium.org