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The Centro Astalli Association is the Italian office of the Jesuit Refugee Service. The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international Catholic organization with a mission to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. JRS undertakes services at national and regional levels with the support of an international office in Rome. Founded in November 1980 as a work of the Society of Jesus, JRS was officially registered on 19 March 2000 at the Vatican State as a foundation. The mission assigned to JRS includes all those who are far from their homes due to conflicts, humanitarian tragedies or human rights violations. JRS is responsible for services at national and regional level with the support of an international office in Rome. The purpose of JRS is intimately linked to the mission of the Jesuit (Jesuits), that is to promote justice, in dialogue with other cultures and religions. JRS was founded in 1980 by Father Pedro Arrupe SJ, the then Superior General of the Society of Jesus, as a practical and spiritual response to the suffering of the refugees of the time. Given the increased incidence of forced migration during the 1980s and 1990s, the Company has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to refugees.

The Centro Astalli Foundation, founded in 2000, has as its main objective to contribute to promoting a culture of acceptance and solidarity, starting from the protection of human rights. The Foundation mainly carries out activities of sensitization and education on the topics of Interculture and interreligious dialogue. The main areas of intervention are teaching in schools, lectures and seminars for groups of Italian and foreign university students, training courses for volunteers and other operators in the sector. Public meetings are organized periodically dedicated to issues at the center of the cultural and political debate on immigration, asylum and dialogue between religions. On the occasion of World Refugee Day 2017, a migration interview was organized entitled "Refugees. Humanity does not stop" between Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See and the journalist Ferruccio De Bortoli.

In the constant effort at the service of refugees, interreligious dialogue occupies a fundamental place. Starting from the assumption that religious pluralism has become a reality, the Astalli Center plays an important educational role in helping to know the religions present on the Italian territory, because only after a real mutual knowledge it is possible to overthrow stereotypes. It is a journey that starts from one's own identity, because in order to open oneself to dialogue, without fear, one must feel sure of one's roots. The Centro Astalli is engaged not only in theological dialogue, but also and above all in the dialogue of life, where people strive to live in a spirit of openness and good neighborliness, sharing the joys and sorrows, problems and human concerns. and in the dialogue of works, in which all believers actively collaborate to promote common values such as freedom, justice and development.

Interreligious dialogue means not only meetings between the "great people of the earth", who try to mediate situations of conflict, or between representatives of different religious institutions who exchange embraces and words of brotherhood. It is also necessary to build opportunities and meeting places, in which the faithful of the different religions can meet and know each other. In today's Italy, where, through migration and globalization, the world shows itself in all its cultural, ethnic and social nuances, dialogue between faiths can play a decisive role in society in its capacity to act as a means of peace in Europe and on its borders, particularly in the Mediterranean area, whose stability also depends on the possibility of coexistence between different religions.

Participation in one of the literary competitions offered by the Centro Astalli:
"Writing does not go into exile" for secondary school pupils
and "We write in color", for those in secondary schools of first grade.
The students will have to try their hand in drafting a story that addresses a theme chosen from those proposed by the projects: the right to asylum, immigration, interreligious dialogue, intercultural society.