It may require more than a refurbished building to prepare boys in an institution to face the outside world but providing a positive environment is always a start, according to the man behind the Independent Living project.

After 15 months in the making, Fr Frankie Cini, director of St Joseph’s Home, in Sta Venera, which has fought off its association with abuse scandals, says: “The real work starts now!”

Buildings do not give life, he admits. “We now need to help these boys settle in and make the place their own.”

He is referring to the conversion of over 400 square metres of derelict space – essentially a long and unwelcoming hall – into two flats.

One is housing the kids who have nowhere to go at the weekend – the government subsidises care workers to stay with them when others go home – and they now have an improved environment in which to spend it.

The other apartment is for those who are old enough to leave but need to ease their transition into society.

Before, due to pressure to admit more boys, the idea was to encourage them to leave the home once they came of age. But the plan is to resist that and send them out when they “feel ready”, without, of course, leaving it open-ended and allowing them to spend their whole life in an institution, Fr Cini explains.

“We want them to have time to save more money and run less of a risk of being drawn back into the circles of deprivation they could be trapped in,” he says.

The Independent Living project is already accommodating two boys, aged 19 and 17, who have been in the home and have nowhere to go. It should move on to five by September, with three 15-year-olds moving upstairs, freeing up more space for the younger admissions.

The idea is for them to manage the flat on a semi-independent level in that one care worker would be around too, Fr Cini explains. They would be expected to cook, clean, do their laundry and manage their budget in the shift between life in an institution to independent living.

“Institutional care is normally associated with a neglected environment. We have stepped it up a notch or two. Kids deserve neat and decent surroundings,” Fr Cini points out.

“If kids are given dignity through the place they live in, they will start to see other possibilities to the cycles of poverty they have been in,” he maintains.

The project cost about €90,000. Fr Cini is touched by the amount of helping hands, including suppliers and over 400 voluntary workers, the latest all the way from Oregon, in the US.

A group of youths from the Institute of World Evangelisation – ICPE Mission, which originated in Malta, have rolled up their sleeves and got down on their knees, scrubbing the place clean in time for its official inauguration last weekend.

Katelyn Adams, 18, was unfazed by the fact that layers of dust would reappear soon after the new flats were cleaned and was pleased to see “the before and after” of the project.

Now that the dust has settled, a clean and spacious living room has emerged, with a sleek kitchen and colourful touches.

Each private bedroom also has its own window.