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Neighbourhood HousesCase del Quartiere (CdQ)Torino (Italy)

EU-MIA RESEARCH REPORTEmanuela RomanFIERI

January 2014

Neighbourhood Houses Case del Quartiere (CdQ)

Torino (Italy)

EU-MIA RESEARCH REPORT Emanuela Roman

FIERI

January 2014

The materials in this publication are for information purposes only. While ITCILO, FIERI and COMPAS endeavour to ensure accuracy and completeness of the contents of this publication, the views, findings and content of this discussion paper are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the official position of ITCILO, FIERI and COMPAS.

© 2013 International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin (ITCILO) Forum Internazionale ed Europeo di Ricerche sull’Immigrazione (FIERI) Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford

This discussion paper is financed by the European Commission and published in the context of the project “An integrated research and cooperative learning project to reinforce integration capacities in European Cities-EU-MIA, EC Agreement Nr HOME/2011/EIFX/CA/1996”. The content of this discussion paper does not reflect the official opinion of the European Commission.

Index

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2. Operational context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.1 Key characteristics: demographic mix, socio-economic indicators and main challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

2.2 Policy context: local policy community and key interventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

3 The Functioning Practice (FP): Neighbourhood Houses – Case del Quartiere (CdQ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

3.1 Objectives and methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.2 Partners and networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3.3 Chronology and funding of activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.4 Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.5 Learning and evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3.6 The next steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Bibliography and Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Annexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Annex 1 – Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Annex 2 – Map of Turin with the Neighbourhood Houses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

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1. IntroductionEU-MIA (European Migrant Integration Academy) is a research-based co-operative learning and training

initiative targeting and directly involving local stakeholders responsible for the development and

implementation of local level integration policies in selected European cities.

The project is structured in three phases:

1. Background research, to create a repertoire of promising practices in the field of integration at city

and neighbourhood level and selection of 10 Functioning Practices (FP) from throughout the European

Union.

2. Fieldwork missions in the cities where the selected Functioning Practices are located, based on in-depth

interviews with local stakeholders and the production of short videos.

3. Development of a cooperative learning kit based on the research component of this project which forms

the basis of the training initiative Migrant Integration Academy.

We do not look for perfect models of integration policy which can be adopted wholesale across different city

contexts, but we believe there is, across Europe, a wealth of successful initiatives carried out at city level

and in partnership with civil society. Starting from this assumption, we define Functioning Practices (FP)

not as the best practices on integration in Europe but as practices relating to successful initiatives that

make an outstanding contribution to manage issues at hand.

The selection of Functioning Practices was based on three tools:

• literature review and web browsing;

• consultation of experts and city networks;

• nominations (including a majority of self-nominations) by local stakeholders through a Call for Practices.

These were the criteria used for the selection of Functioning Practices1:

a. innovative and successful measures in any fields which have clear goals in terms of integration of people

with a migrant background, be they migrant-focused or not;

b. measures carried out at local level;

c. measures involving public authorities;

d. live actions or recently closed actions, i.e. practices concluded within the past two years, and consolidated

measures that have been implemented for at least two years.

The following sections present the Functioning Practice ‘Neighbourhood Houses – Case del Quartiere (CdQ)’

implemented in Turin, Italy. Empirical findings are based on analysis of official documents as well as

interviews with key actors, stakeholders and beneficiaries.2 The report is practically oriented given that its

1 For further details see: http://www.eu-mia.eu/2 Please refer to Annexe 1 for a list of interviews.

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aim is to foster exchanges of functioning practices, learning from experience and development of knowledge-

based policies: it analyses how the practice concretely works and assesses the main achievements and

assets, on the one hand, and pitfalls and difficulties, on the other hand. The report ends with a look towards

possible follow up and transfers.

2. Operational contextIn order to provide an understanding of the institutional framework that Turin’s Neighbourhood Houses are

part of, this section aims to provide an outline of the demographic and socio-economic context as well as

the main stakeholders of the local policy community, focusing on the interplay between integration and

urban regeneration policies.

2.1 Key characteristics: demographic mix, socio-economic indicators and main challenges

Turin is an important Italian city which historically has been a major industrial and manufacturing centre

and thus a symbol of Italian industrialisation. For this reason, ever since the 19th century, Turin has been a

‘city of immigration,’ attracting workers and families firstly from the surrounding rural areas, later (especially

after the World War II) from Southern Italy and more recently (starting in the 1970s and more intensely since

the 1980s and 1990s) from foreign countries. Notwithstanding the de-industrialisation process and the

resulting shift from industrial production to service industries which, since the 1990s, have progressively

changed Turin’s socio-economic system and city planning, the immigration phenomenon has never stopped

and the number of foreign residents living in Turin has continually been increasing.

On the 31st December 2012 there were 140,365 foreign residents in Turin, i.e. 15.4% of the whole

population (911,823 inhabitants). As a proof of the recent years’ slowly but constantly increasing trend, in

2010 this percentage was 14.2%, in 2011 14.8%, and in May 2013 it was approximately 16%. Still, if

we consider the whole decade 2002-2012, we will notice that the number of foreign residents increased

rather rapidly (+ 10%) since in 2002 they were 46,393, i.e. 5.4% of the whole population.3

As concerns countries of origin, on the 31st December 2012, 56.8% of the foreigners living in Turin were

third-country nationals (79,746) and 43.2% were EU citizens (60,619). It must be noted that out of

the latter, 55,731 citizens come from Romania: in fact Romanians represent almost 40% of the total

amount of foreigners in Turin. The second most numerous migrant community consists of Moroccan citizens

(20,326 people – 14-5%) and the third national community is the Peruvian one (9,491 people – 6.8%).

Other relevant countries of origin are: China (4.7%), Albania (4.3%), Moldova (3.4%), Egypt (3.3%),

3 Ufficio Statistica Comune di Torino, http://www.comune.torino.it/stranieri-nomadi/stranieri/torino/dati.htm; Silvana Fantini (ed.), “La popolazione straniera a Torino nel 2011. Dati generali - La componente adolescenziale”, in Osservatorio Interistituzionale sugli stranieri in provincia di Torino. Rapporto 2011, Città di Torino - Servizio Statistica e Toponomastica - Ufficio Pubblicazioni, 2011, 83-85, http://www.comune.torino.it/statistica/osservatorio/stranieri/2011/pdf/06_la_popolazione_straniera_a_torino_nel_2011.pdf; http://www.comune.torino.it/informacasa/studi_statistiche/processi_demografici/stranieri_torino.shtml.

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Nigeria (2.8%), Philippines (2.5%), Brazil (1.5%) and Tunisia (1.2%).4 On the whole, migrants living in

Turin come from more than 150 different countries.5

Foreign residents are differently spread over the territory of the city and are mainly concentrated in certain

neighbourhoods, also depending on their nationality. As described in the following sections, for the EU-MIA

project we chose to focus our attention on three neighbourhood houses that are located in circoscrizioni6

characterised by extremely different demographic and socio-economic features, especially in terms of

immigrant presence: Cascina Roccafranca in Circoscrizione 2 (Mirafiori Nord), Casa del Quartiere di San

Salvario in Circoscrizione 8 (San Salvario) and Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié in Circoscrizione 6 (Barriera di

Milano)7. Circoscrizione 6 (neighbourhoods of Barriera di Milano, Regio Parco, Barca, Bertolla, Falchera,

Rebaudengo, Villaretto), together with Circoscrizione 7 are the districts with the highest share of migrant

residents (21-22% in 2011), mostly Moroccan citizens, and more generally immigrants from Africa, as

well as Chinese people. Also Circoscrizione 8 (neighbourhoods of San Salvario, Cavoretto, Borgo Po) is

characterised by a significant presence of foreigners (15%) and an interesting ethnic mix. Circoscrizione 2

(neighbourhoods of Santa Rita and Mirafiori Nord) is among the areas with the lowest percentage of foreign

residents (9%), mainly Romanian citizens.8

Finally, Turin’s immigrants can be described as a young population: in 2011, the highest percentage of

foreigners could be found in the age group comprising 25 to 34-year-old people (i.e. foreigners were about

31% of the total amount of residents aged 25-34). Foreign minors (aged 0-17) were 21.9% of the total

number of minors living in Turin and 61.5% of them were born in Turin and represent the so-called second

and third generations.9 In particular, as regards teenagers, in 2011 there were 9,777 foreign young people

aged between 10 and 17 (i.e. 17,7% of the total amount of young people of the same age in Turin), a figure

which comprises 2,156 foreign young people who were born and grew up in Turin.10 Since the second half

of the 2000s, second generations have represented both a challenge and a target of specific local policies

for the Municipality of Turin, that saw in this category of foreign residents an opportunity for the city as a

whole and a key to a successful integration. On the contrary, elderly migrants aged more than 65 are only

1.2% of the total amount of people of the same age in Turin; nonetheless, this figure might change in the

future.11

4 Ufficio Statistica Comune di Torino, http://www.comune.torino.it/stranieri-nomadi/stranieri/torino/dati.htm.5 44% of the foreigners living in Turin come from the EU (mainly from Romania, as mentioned above), 26% from Africa, 11% from America, 10% from other

European countries and 9% from Asia. See: Fantini, “La popolazione straniera a Torino nel 2011”, 86.6 A circoscrizione is an administrative unit comprising a number of neighbourhoods within a Municipality. The City of Turin is divided into 10 circoscrizioni. For a

map of Turin’s circoscrizioni, see: http://www.comune.torino.it/decentr/.7 Please refer to Annexe 2 for a map of Turin showing the location of the Neighbourhood Houses.8 Fantini, “La popolazione straniera a Torino nel 2011”, 87-94; see also: http://www.comune.torino.it/informacasa/studi_statistiche/processi_demografici/stranieri_

torino.shtml.9 I.e. children or grand-children of immigrants, who despite being born and growing up in Italy, hold a foreign nationality at least until they are 18 (due to the ius

sanguinis-based Italian nationality law).10 Fantini, “La popolazione straniera a Torino nel 2011”, 84, 95-118.11 Ibid., 84.

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2.2 Policy context: local policy community and key interventions

Local policy community

The Municipality of Turin has always paid a special attention to the issue of migrant integration, being the

very first city in Italy to establish, in 1982, a municipal service dedicated to foreign people (Ufficio Stranieri

e Nomadi). Turin was also one of the first municipalities in Italy to develop an integrated approach to the

issue of urban renewal, also thanks to the Outskirts Project (Progetto Periferie) launched in 1997. Such

project played a relevant role in the development of specific skills and a certain sensitivity in the field of

urban regeneration which turned out to be useful for the creation of the neighbourhood houses.

The commitment of the Municipality in coordinating and managing the development and implementation

of local integration and urban regeneration policies became particularly evident in 2006 with the

creation of a City Councillor in charge of the Coordination of New Citizens Integration Policies and Urban

Regeneration (Assessorato con delega al coordinamento delle politiche di integrazione dei nuovi cittadini

e della rigenerazione urbana) and a dedicated Integration and Urban Regeneration Department (Servizio

Rigenerazione Urbana e Integrazione) within the Municipality. The idea of merging integration and urban

renewal in one single councillorship was based on the awareness of the challenges that Turin as a changing

town was facing in terms of demographic mix, economic system and city planning, thus the need to face such

multidimensional challenges in a coordinated and comprehensive way. At a political level, the establishment

of these city councillor and municipal department corresponded to the recognition of interculturalism and

integration as a cross-cutting issue which needed to be incorporated in a more comprehensive way within

all public policies.

In the years following 2006, the Municipality proved able to cooperate with and benefit from the already

existing dense and active network of community associations, NGOs, social cooperatives, migrant associations

and informal groups of citizens. This amalgam of actors, which includes both the third sector and the local

community, and which embodies the perspectives of both foreign residents and the receiving community,

is key to the successful implementation of both integration policies and urban renewal policies in Turin.

A third crucial actor of the local policy community is represented by private foundations, in particular by a

bank foundation based in Turin called Compagnia di San Paolo.12 In the last decade, it has been playing a

central role in financially supporting the implementation of local public policies, inter alia, welfare policies.

As a matter of fact, the Municipality of Turin implements or supports several measures in this area (and in

particular in the field of migrant integration) through an agreement it signed with Compagnia di San Paolo.

The ‘Protocol between the Municipality of Turin, Compagnia di San Paolo and Ufficio Pio della Compagnia

di San Paolo for the Development of Welfare Programmes in the years 2012-2013’13, followed the first

12 The Compagnia di San Paolo was founded in Turin in 1563 as a charitable brotherhood and is one of Europe’s most important private foundations. The current Articles of Association, adopted in the year 2000, specify its purposes: the Foundation participates in society’s activities by pursuing ends that are of public interest and social utility, with the aim of favoring civil, cultural, and economic development in the community in which it is active. The areas in which Compagnia acts are: Research and Higher Education, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Activities, Health and Welfare Policy. For further details, see: http://www.compagnia.torino.it/eng.

13 Protocollo d’intesa Città di Torino - Compagnia di San Paolo - Ufficio Pio della Compagnia di San Paolo per lo sviluppo e la qualificazione di programmi di welfare per gli anni 2012-2013.

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agreement of this kind signed between the Municipality and Compagnia in 2007.14 As we will see, the

Network of Neighbourhood Houses is entirely financed through the 2012-2013 Protocol.

Key interventions

Shifting from actors to policies, since 2006 the measures and initiatives implemented in the field of

integration by the City of Turin have been focused on four main areas15:

1. Support to cultural integration, through the promotion of and support to services and projects aimed at

ensuring Italian learning and the enhancement of linguistic and cultural diversity.

2. Support to active citizenship and foreigners’ participation in Turin’s public life, through welcoming and

information initiatives, and through specific actions targeted at migrant associations.

3. A specific attention paid to second generations, through several initiatives and events aimed at fostering

interaction and integration among young people of different national origins, through the establishment

of the ‘Civilian Voluntary Service for Foreigners’ at city level, and through a number of different activities

(e.g. in schools) carried out by the Education Department and Welfare Policy Department of the

Municipality of Turin.

4. Promotion of the ‘social use of public spaces’, through the creation of places of socialisation and

intercultural interaction at neighbourhood level; such places are supposed to play different functions, as

tools of urban regeneration, institutional communication and new ‘urban welfare’.

The FP analysed in this report belongs to the latter area of intervention.

3 The Functioning Practice (FP): Neighbourhood Houses – Case del Quartiere (CdQ)

3.1 Objectives and methodology

Turin’s ‘Neighbourhood Houses - Case del Quartiere (CdQ)’ might be roughly defined as neighbourhood

community centres, but they are characterised by a number of peculiar features (e.g. their origin, spirit,

functions, management model, relationship with the neighbourhood, etc.) that make them something

different from more traditional community centres. For this reason they were called ‘houses’, because they

were created to be felt, used and lived by everyone as their own house. The ‘Network of Neighbourhood

Houses – Rete delle Case del Quartiere’ is a project initiated in 2012 by the Municipality of Turin with the

support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, aimed at establishing a network between the seven already

existing neighbourhood houses.

14 ‘Protocol between the Municipality of Turin and Compagnia di San Paolo for the Development of Programmes and Initiatives in the Fields of Immigration, Integration and Interculturalism’ (Protocollo d’intesa Città di Torino - Compagnia di San Paolo per lo sviluppo di progammi e iniziative in materia di immigrazione, integrazione e interculturalità) signed on 20 March 2007.

15 For further details on integration policies implemented by the Municipality of Turin, see: Pogliano Andrea, AMICALL Research Reports. Country Report – Italy, Report produced by FIERI as part of the AMICALL research project, April 2012, http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/files/Publications/Research_projects/Urban_change_settlement/AMICALL/AMICALL_report_Italy__April_2012.pdf.

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The gradual process that brought to the creation of seven CdQ started in the early 2000s as a neighbourhood

level initiative: in some cases it was a bottom-up process initiated by civil society organisations, in other

cases it was the result of a municipal plan, and more often a combination of both the local community and

associations activism and the Municipality support. In any case, at first this process was neither planned

nor coordinated at city level; each neighbourhood house was established independently from the other ones

and often in very different ways, whilst the idea of connecting them in a network was a consequent step,

strongly promoted by the Municipality.

This report will analyse the Neighbourhood Houses as a FP, with a special attention to the recent creation

of their Network.

The Neighbourhood Houses

Before moving to the Network, it might be useful to better explain what a neighbourhood house is. The

CdQ are public spaces with a social function: they host and offer the most diverse educational, cultural

and social activities, as well as public services and help desks (sportelli). They are usually the result of a

remarkable renovation of old and abandoned buildings owned or acquired by the City and transformed into

new and attractive spaces, as part of an urban regeneration process which represents a positive progress for

that neighbourhood as a whole. Therefore, one of the main features of the CdQ is the quality of their physical

space, whose architecture, colours and furnishings are meant to be pleasant and attractive as such.

As concerns their function, the CdQ are places that stimulate situations of aggregation and socialisation,

allowing people, ideas and projects to meet and develop. They are also spaces of active citizenship and

participation that host, assist and support community associations, local NGOs, migrant associations and

informal groups of citizens in planning and implementing their initiatives. They are a sort of ‘empty box’ that

need to be filled with services and activities, but such filling is not supposed to be an exclusive task of the

CdQ managing entity, rather it has to come above all from the local community and associations. The CdQ

‘users’, indeed, are not simply the beneficiaries of a service, rather they are the leading actors of what takes

place within ‘their’ CdQ. Neighbourhood houses are meant to be deeply rooted in the territory they stem

from: the local community and neighbourhood associations are largely involved in the process of creation of

‘their’ CdQ, usually through a process of participatory planning, which implies their active engagement from

the very first steps of the project until its actual implementation and follow-up. For this reason, every time

a CdQ is inaugurated, since the very first day it is usually already full of associations, initiatives and people

who share a sense of belonging and affection to that place.

Neighbourhood houses welcome people of all age, origin and socio-economic conditions: e.g. from babies

to elderly people and from Roma children to Arab women at Cascina Roccafranca and Casa nel Parco; from

second generations of ‘new citizens’ to migrant associations keen to preserve the culture and traditions of

their national community at CdQ di San Salvario and +Spazio 4; from extremely vulnerable and marginalised

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people to teenagers with a passion for rap music at Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié. Clearly, the target of this FP

is the whole population, although in neighbourhoods where there is a large proportion of foreign residents,

the CdQ represent an important reference point for immigrant people and families, as well as for migrant

associations and local NGOs operating in the fields of migrant welcoming, information, Italian learning and

counselling16. In those contexts the CdQ also play a crucial role in terms of integration and social cohesion

at neighbourhood level, hosting and promoting fruitful interactions between the immigrant population and

the receiving community.

The Network

Given the overall successful experience of the CdQ and the awareness of the increasingly crucial social function

they play vis-à-vis the retrenchment of municipal welfare, the City of Turin proposed the establishment of

a Network of Neighbourhood Houses, as a way to strengthen them and optimise their funding system. The

creation of the Network had the following specific objectives:

• to give a common identity to all CdQ, while also respecting their peculiarities;

• to share experiences, know-how and best practices between different CdQ;

• to build new networks linking NGOs, associations and informal groups operating in each CdQ;

• to design and implement shared projects, initiatives and events;

• to have a greater impact on specific issues through the development of coordinated actions;

• to develop a shared fundraising strategy and a shared communication strategy;

• to benefit from economies of scale;

• to experience a new model of ‘community welfare’.

A key feature of the Network is its informality. In fact, it is supposed to be a ‘light’ and almost costless

structure, whose function is that of facilitating cooperation between different CdQ, while framing them

no more as neighbourhood experiences completely separated from each other, but as neighbourhood-

rooted initiatives that share a common identity and if considered as a whole (i.e. at city level) reveal to

go towards the very same direction. Most importantly there is no intention on the part of the Municipality

to ‘institutionalise’ entities which were born and developed in a rather spontaneous and creative way;

there is no centralisation trend, the CdQ remain free to organise their activities and way of functioning,

preserving their autonomy, whilst having also the chance to confront with each other and to plan and

implement common initiatives. Neither is there any desire to promote standardisation to a unique model

of neighbourhood house, as there is no uniform model at all. The CdQ are completely different one from

the other - in terms of planning and development processes, legal status, actors involved, management

model, available resources, neighbourhood of reference, etc.; each of them has its own peculiarities and

this enriching diversity is something the Network wants to preserve as one of its added values.

16 This is especially the case for Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié in Barriera di Milano (Circoscrizione 6), Cecchi Point - Hub Multiculturale in Aurora (Circoscrizione 7) and CdQ di San Salvario in San Salvario (Circoscrizione 8).

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3.2 Partners and networks

As mentioned above, the entity that promoted the creation of the Network is the Municipality of Turin

and, within the Municipality, the service responsible for the project implementation and management is

the Integration and Urban Regeneration Department. The main partner and unique sponsor of this FP is

Compagnia di San Paolo, more precisely the Welfare Policy Department of the foundation. Members of the

Network are the seven CdQ, which at the Network meetings are represented by their directors or a delegated

person. The CdQ are:

1. Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié (Circ. 6)

2. Barrito (Circ. 9)

3. Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario (Circ. 8)

4. Casa nel Parco (Circ. 10)

5. Cascina Roccafranca (Circ. 2)

6. Cecchi Point - Hub Multiculturale (Circ. 7)

7. +Spazio 4 (Circ. 4)

In addition to the current CdQ, there are two new projects that were included in the Network as ‘prospective

CdQ’:

8. Bossoli83 (Circ. 9)

9. CdQ Le Vallette (Circ. 5)17.

A further actor involved in this FP is Progetto Porta Palazzo - The Gate, which is responsible for general

back office and service activities for the Network under the coordination of the Integration and Urban

Regeneration Department of the Municipality.

In addition to the members and partners of the Network, each neighbourhood house has its own network of

partnerships with:

1. public institutions and municipal actors;

2. private foundations;

3. NGOs and associations.

As regards public stakeholders, all CdQ have an important partnership with their circoscrizione of reference,

in the form of both a small financial contribution and a tight cooperation in planning and implementing a

number of initiatives. Moreover, many CdQ have established a fruitful collaboration on specific activities

or services also with other city departments and municipal services besides that of Integration and Urban

Regeneration (inter alia with the Departments of Culture, Education, Youth, Health, Welfare Policies,

Employment, Trade, Environment, Equal Opportunities, and with the Social Services, Foreigners Service,

Nomadic People Service and LGBT Service) as well as with local hospitals (ASL), Psychiatric Services

17 Both projects originate from well-known cultural associations that have been active in Turin since decades (Hiroshima Mon Amour and Stalker Teatro - Officine Caos respectively) and decided to expand their activities beyond the cultural sphere (music/concerts and theatre) and become a public space open to the whole population and to all kinds of educational, cultural and social activities. They were admitted as Network members for a one-year ‘incubation period’, during which they have the chance to learn from other CdQ experiences while developing their projects with the support and cooperation of the Network.

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and Services for drug and alcohol dependent people (SERT). In addition, most CdQ have well-established

partnerships with public schools, centres for adult education (CTP) and city libraries located in their

neighbourhood, with whom they carry out several educational and cultural activities. Certain CdQ host and

take part in projects which are financed by the Piedmont Region or the Province of Turin and implemented

by networks of different actors (e.g. LeggerMente, Benvenute a Roccafranca, Per i nuovi cittadini, W Nizza,

Andiamoci in bici, Cecchi Bank, etc.).

As concerns private foundations, some CdQ have been created with the direct support of private company

foundations, such as Fondazione Vodafone Italia (in the case of CdQ di San Salvario) and both Fondazione

Vodafone Italia and Fondazione Umana-Mente Allianz (in the case of Cecchi Point). Some bank foundations

such as Fondazione CRT, Ufficio Pio della Compagnia di San Paolo and Unicredit Foundations are also

partners and sponsors of certain CdQ in relation to specific projects.

Finally, as mentioned in previous sections, all activities, services and projects that take place within each

neighbourhood house are the result of the activism and engagement of numerous cultural associations, art

centres, social cooperatives, trade unions, citizens committees, community associations, NGOs, migrant

associations, informal groups of citizens, professionals and volunteers, who are all part of the large network

of non-institutional partners involved in this FP.

3.3 Chronology and funding of activities

Although the creation of the CdQ started in the early 2000s, the Network of Neighbourhood Houses was

established in May 2012; therefore, as such, the Network is a rather young and still developing project,

that interviewees also described as ‘embryonic’. As mentioned above, it is totally funded by Compagnia di

San Paolo, through the ‘Protocol between the Municipality of Turin, Compagnia di San Paolo and Ufficio Pio

della Compagnia di San Paolo for the Development of Welfare Programmes in the years 2012-2013’. Whilst

before the creation of the Network, the CdQ used to apply for funding to (among the others) Compagnia’s calls

in an uncoordinated way, thanks to the inclusion of the Network within the budget lines of the 2012-2013

Protocol, all CdQ are granted a financial contribution by Compagnia within a comprehensive framework.

The Municipality plays a relevant role in this funding system: it has co-funded the CdQ until 2012, while

nowadays it acts as a promoter of the Network and a mediator between the CdQ and Compagnia, sitting at

the same table with both stakeholders and supporting the financing of the CdQ as part of its welfare policy;

furthermore, the Municipality supports the project of the Network and the single neighbourhood houses

through contributions in kind18.

The project budget is renewed every year. The total budget devoted to the Network of Neighbourhood Houses

for its first year of activity (2012-2013) amounted to 500,000 euro and included contributions to 7 CdQ

and to The Gate for its service function. The total budget for the second year (2013-2014) was 520,000

18 Such contributions in kind consist of: the municipal staff who devote part of their working hours to the project + seven municipal employees working at Cascina Roccafranca; the real estate where the CdQ are located; costs for routine maintenance; part of the CdQ’s costs for electricity, water and heating consumption, as well as telephone and internet lines.

15

euro and included contributions to 7 CdQ + 2 ‘prospective CdQ’ and The Gate. The share to be allocated

to each neighbourhood house is decided on a case-by-case basis according to the financial situation,

dimension and activities of each CdQ; such decision is agreed upon by Compagnia and the Municipality.

The percentage of Compagnia’s funding on the total budget of each single CdQ may vary from 30% to 80%,

but it is in any case a form of co-financing. It is worth noting that both the Municipality and Compagnia

require a strong commitment on the part of all CdQ to expand to the utmost their capacity of self-financing

and to look for alternative sources of funding (i.e. calls for application, private sponsorships, crowdfunding

and other innovative forms of fundraising). The idea is that, notwithstanding the crisis of public welfare, the

Network members should consider also Compagnia’s funding as gradually decreasing19.

The neighbourhood houses’ activities, management model and funding: three case studies

In order to give more detailed information about this FP, in the following section we will focus our attention

on three neighbourhood houses in particular. These CdQ have been chosen because they are rather different

from one another in terms of their origins, funding system and management model, and they are located

in peculiar neighbourhoods. Given the focus of our analysis, here they will be analysed following an order

based on the relevance that the objective of migrant integration has in their activities: from the CdQ where

such objective has always been the main one, to the CdQ where such objective was initially not explicitly

considered.

a. Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié

This CdQ is located within the neighbourhood’s public baths. Several Bagni Pubblici were opened in

town during the first decades of the 20th century – an early phase of industrialisation and internal labour

migration – as laundry and bathing facilities, representing one of the first examples of local welfare policy.

The public baths of via Aglié were still used as bathing facilities during the second half of the 20th century,

but were later closed for some years and reopened in 2006, initially simply as public baths. In 2007 the

consortium of social cooperatives Consorzio Kairos applied to the Compagnia di San Paolo call ‘Immigrants

New Citizens’ (Bando Immigrati Nuovi Cittadini)20 and proposed the transformation of the public baths of

via Aglié into a place of cultural aggregation and multi-ethnic socialisation for the neighbourhood of Barriera

di Milano. This project, called ‘Twines of Cultures’ (Intrecci di culture), was among the selected ones and

obtained a funding of 60,000 euro. Meanwhile Consorzio Kairos was entrusted with the management of

Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié for a ten-year period (2009-2019) through a public call of Circoscrizione 6.

The big challenge was to transform the public baths from a place of marginalisation, victimisation and

conflict, perceived by the neighbourhood population as the place of ‘the others’, into a central place

of aggregation in a neighbourhood where public spaces of socialisation were lacking; the objective was

19 Cosistently with this perspective, in 2013 Compagnia di San Paolo offered to all the CdQ managing entities a course on fundraising, planning and communication.20 The call ‘Immigrants New Citizens’ was funded in the framework of the 2007 ‘Protocol between the Municipality of Turin and Compagnia di San Paolo for the

Development of Programmes and Initiatives in the Fields of Immigration, Integration and Interculturalism’. The total budget of the call was 1,6 million euro and it was allocated to 37 different projects. For further details, see: http://www.compagniadisanpaolo.it/Come-opera/Bandi/Bandi-chiusi/2007/Immigrati-Nuovi-Cittadini-2007.

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to make the Bagni Pubblici a “place of everyone”. The concept of Bagni di Via Aglié is that of a place

which offers both a basic public service to people in need, and cultural and social activities to the whole

population; its main purpose is that of detecting and trying to satisfy people’s needs, being a sort of front

line in terms of community welfare for the neighbourhood. Moreover, being located in the neighbourhood

with the highest percentage of foreign residents in town, this CdQ was born with explicit objectives in terms

of migrant integration.

At the ground floor there is an area with the shower stalls and the laundry, while the old shower stalls at the

first floor, that are no longer used for bathing, became a small art gallery which hosts temporary exhibitions

related to the themes of interculturalism and integration (project ‘A Dive in Barriera’ - Un Tuffo in Barriera).

The former shower stalls also host a recording studio (Where Else Studio) which has a significant role in

helping the teenagers of the neighbourhood, both Italians and foreigners, to socialise. At Bagni Pubblici

there is also the workshop of a Senegalese tailor who offers sewing courses (Baobab Couture); in addition,

throughout the year there is a multiplicity of cultural and social activities and events taking place in

this CdQ.21 Furthermore, this neighbourhood house gives its rooms for free to migrant and community

associations for their meetings and activities; there are currently twelve associations that meet regularly

there. However, migrant associations are not only offered a place to meet: the managing entity is actually

committed to support and accompany them in their path towards their autonomous development. Besides

associations, there is an informal group of citizens called ‘The Bathers’ (i Bagnanti) who actively take part

in the organisation of initiatives at Bagni di Via Aglié. Last but not least, there is a helpdesk that offers

information and assistance mainly on employment and public services, and which is broadly used both by

immigrants and Italians to get information about administrative procedures, access to rights and services

and job applications.

The governance body of Bagni di Via Aglié is composed of the CdQ director who represents the managing

entity, a representative of Circoscrizione 6 and a representative from each association or volunteer who

carry out permanent activities within the CdQ; this assembly meets twice per year. People working at Bagni

Pubblici are: one person employed by the managing entity (the director) and one person in charge of the

shower service; in addition there are approximately 25 people among volunteers and trainees. As concerns

quantitative figures on users, official data are not available22; in terms of proportion of foreigners out of the

total amount of beneficiaries, their estimated percentage is very high, although it varies according to the

kind of use:

• Shower service � 70% foreign residents

• Helpdesk � 75% foreign residents

• Social and cultural activities � 50% foreign residents

21 Some examples are: bookcrossing, Arab writing, theatre, painting, chess and yoga courses, as well as social activities targeted at elderly people. In addition, Bagni di Via Aglié host meetings and debates on issues such as equal opportunities, gender discrimination, racism, integration and disability; they also host events such as outdoor cinema, concerts, public readings (project ‘Drops of Writing’ - Gocce di Scrittura) and neighbourhood parties.

22 Based on estimates: 50-60 people per day use the shower service, 40-50 people participate in the bookcrossing activity, 15-20 people participate in each course or workshop, an average of 150 people join events such as art exhibitions, concerts, readings.

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Even though Bagni di Via Aglié is a small CdQ in comparison with the two cases we are going to describe

in the following sections, in its four-year activity it has successfully reached its initial objectives: it has

become a central place in the neighbourhood, where a special attention is paid to the needs of migrants and

vulnerable people and where, at the same time, integration is pursued through the promotion of intercultural

dialogue and activities involving both foreigners and the receiving community.

At the moment of writing, a renovation of the building is taking place, which will lead to the elimination of

all architectural barriers and to the creation of a small café-bistro. As concerns the latter, the CdQ director

explained that having a small commercial activity inside their neighbourhood house could help reduce the

share of funding they receive from the Municipality and Compagnia di San Paolo and could represent a

further incentive to socialisation but, at the same time, will constitute a rather big change for this CdQ.

In facts, there is a certain fear in introducing a commercial activity that might produce changes in the

activities, relationships, spirit and image of this very peculiar CdQ.

b. Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario

Similarly to Bagni di Via Aglié, this neighbourhood house is also located within the former public baths

of the neighbourhood of San Salvario. In this case, however, the building has been completely renovated

before the opening of the CdQ and it no longer hosts public baths. Nevertheless, the memory of the previous

function of this place remains on the façade of the building and in the name of the restaurant-café inside,

called Bagni Municipali.23

Even though the CdQ di San Salvario opened only three years ago (in September 2010), the process that

led to its creation started in the early 2000s and can be truly described as a bottom-up process. As a matter

of fact, the establishment of a community centre was identified and promoted as a strategic action for the

neighbourhood already at the end of the 1990s by a number of local actors which will later merge into the

Agency for the Local Development of San Salvario (Agenzia per lo sviluppo locale di San Salvario). The

Agency is an umbrella-association composed of a number of diverse associations, cooperatives, parishes

and citizens committees all based in the neighbourhood of San Salvario. The idea of setting up the Agency

originated within the third sector and the local community as a reaction to the crisis that the neighbourhood

was experiencing in the second half of the 1990s; at that time San Salvario was witnessing a rapid increase

in its immigrant population and was portrayed by local and even national media as a symbol of neighbourhood

decay and insecurity.

Already in 1997 a plan of interventions aimed at the regeneration and development of the neighbourhood,

which included the creation of a CdQ, was drafted by the above-mentioned third sector subjects and shared

with Circoscrizione 8 and the Municipality. The Municipality decided to support the creation of the Agency

and its initiatives. Immediately after its legal establishment in 2003, the Agency started to carry out

23 There is one more CdQ which has been created inside a public baths building. It is Barrito in the neighbourhood of Nizza and likewise Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié, here the shower service is still operating. This CdQ is also the only one which, besides a restaurant-café and a multi-purpose room, has a small hostel with 4 rooms. This accomodation service is mainly targeted at family members of patients of the 4 hospitals located in this neighbourhood.

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activities of participatory planning and feasibility studies in order to identify a proper location for the

future CdQ, involving the local community, the Municipality and all possible stakeholders. At the end of

this participatory process, the report “A neighbourhood house in San Salvario” (2003) was produced and

delivered to the Mayor of Turin. The main problems, however, seemed to lie in the unavailability of municipal

resources and the lack of a suitable building. In 2005 the Agency applied to a call of Fondazione Vodafone

Italia with the project ‘ConverGente. Casa del Quartiere’. The application was successful and Fondazione

Vodafone decided to finance the project with €439,000 for the renovation of a building to host the CdQ, at

one condition: the building had to be publicly owned and the Municipality had to grant the Agency the right

over it for a quite long period of time, to ensure continuity to the project. At that point, the Municipality

committed to provide a public building, finally identified in the former public baths of Via Morgari (granted

to the Agency as the managing entity for a 30-year period), and the financial resources necessary to co-

finance the renovation of that building (approximately €550,000).

The renovation works lasted many years (2006-2010). During that time, the Agency continued the activities

of participatory planning and elaborated a management model focused on self-financing, in the awareness

that given the crisis of welfare policies, the CdQ had to be able to sustain itself with limited public funding.

For this reason the Agency decided to have a commercial activity (a restaurant-café) inside the CdQ, to ask

all the associations and groups that use the CdQ rooms for a small contribution, and to rent out available

rooms for private parties.24 Revenues from these three sources allow CdQ di San Salvario to be the only

neighbourhood house able to finance itself for 75% of its total budget.25 The remaining 35% is covered

mainly by Compagnia di San Paolo, as part of the total budget allocated to the Network of Neighbourhood

Houses, and by the Municipality (for the period 2010-2011) and Circoscrizione 8 (starting from 2011).26

This CdQ hosts a variety of activities, services and projects that are planned, proposed and implemented either

by its managing entity or by a large variety of different actors. This includes various kinds of associations,

NGOs, informal groups of citizens and individuals.27 Migrant integration has been an explicit objective of

this CdQ since the very beginning, when immigration was still largely perceived as a negative element and a

source of conflict in the neighbourhood. One of the main challenges, indeed, was to overcome this idea and

show that foreigners could be a key element for the renovation of the neighbourhood. Migrant associations

have been involved in the participatory planning phase and since the opening of the CdQ they have carried

out their activities there; a special attention has always been paid to assist and support the autonomous

24 Rooms may also be rented out for free or for a reduced price, when the proposed activity is particularly interesting, relevant, offered for free/for a small price and targeted at a large public, or in situations where the CdQ decides to support the proponent association. Moreover, the rental price of rooms for private parties may be lower for children parties and parties organised by migrant associations.

25 The restaurant-café Bagni Municipali is managed by the cooperative Tavola di Babele selected through a public call. The cooperative pays a monthly rent of 1,500 euro to the Agency and also gives 6% of the annual turnover of the café to the CdQ. Revenue from this commercial activity covers 35% of the total budget of the CdQ.

26 Public funding allocated to the Agency amounted to: 60,000 euro in 2010 (Municipality); 40,000 euro (Municipality) + 20,000 euro (Circoscrizione 8) in 2011; 10,000 euro in 2012 (Circoscrizione 8); 5,000 euro in 2013 (Circoscrizione 8)

27 For details on the activities, workshops, courses, events, help desks and services hosted and offered at CdQ di San Salvario, see: Progetto Porta Palazzo The Gate (ed.), La Rete delle Case del Quartiere, May 2013; and visit the web site: http://www.casadelquartiere.it/.

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development of such associations.28 Moreover CdQ di San Salvario hosts several specific initiatives targeted

at foreigners:

• a help desk providing information and assistance to refugees and asylum-seekers managed by the

association Mosaico;

• a legal counselling service managed by immigration lawyers;

• consular activities offered periodically by the Filipino and Senegalese consular authorities, based in

Milan;

• a 2012 project to get the Italian language certification L2, funded by Fondazione CRT;

• a 2011 project targeted at refugees and asylum-seekers, funded by the European Refugee Fund.

Most importantly, CdQ di San Salvario is a place where migrants as well as Italians can meet, have a talk,

let their children play together and simply share the same physical space. In this very simple and informal

way, this neighbourhood house plays a relevant role in terms of social cohesion. Furthermore, there are

several migrant associations that are very active and organise meetings, language courses, dance classes,

parties and activities targeted at children and women. However, the percentage of immigrants in the overall

number of beneficiaries is still rather low because they rarely attend the CdQ for evening events and, with

the exception of children, they seldom take part in activities organised by other associations. Interviewees

noted, indeed, that it can be quite difficult to foster interactions between different associations and to

involve them in common activities; this was actually confirmed by the directors of all the three CdQ analysed

in this report.

The governance body of this CdQ is composed of the President of the Agency, the City Councillor in charge

of Integration and Urban Regeneration and the President of Circoscrizione 8. The staff of the CdQ consist

of six people employed by the managing entity (including the director) and sixteen people employed by

Cooperativa Tavola di Babele who work at the restaurant-café. In addition, there are approximately fifteen

more people among volunteers and trainees. As concerns quantitative figures on users, each year there are

from 2,000 to 3,000 people registered for courses, workshops and other cultural and educational activities

that take place on a regular basis. Moreover, the estimated total amount of users per year is approximately

70,000 people.

c. Cascina Roccafranca

This CdQ was the first one to be inaugurated and it is the biggest one in terms of spaces, activities, staff, and

budget. Its creation process started in the early 2000s from an initiative of the Municipality of Turin, within

a broad EU-funded project of urban regeneration focused on the neighbourhood of Mirafiori Nord, called

Urban 2 (total project budget: more than €40 million for the period 2000-2006).29 The physical space to

host this CdQ was immediately identified in a ruined and abandoned rural house from the 17th century,

28 Generally speaking, all associations (not only migrants’) are not only given a room, but also support and assistance in planning and implementing their activities. A similar approach to the relationship between CdQ managing entity and associations is adopted at Cascina Roccafranca (see following section), whose interviewees talked about their ‘3 As approach’ towards associations, the 3 As being: accoglienza (welcoming), ascolto (listening) and accompagnamento (support).

29 For further details about the project Urban 2, see: http://www.comune.torino.it/urban2/progetto.html.

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which was bought by the City in September 2002. In October 2002 the Municipality initiated activities

of participatory planning and a feasibility study coordinated by the NGO Gruppo Abele. It consisted of

involving the local community and third sector actors through public meetings, workshops, interviews with

associations and questionnaires to citizens. The planning phase ended in December 2004 and proved to be

successful in mobilising the local community around a project that soon became ‘everyone’s project’. The

period 2005-2007 was spent, on the one hand to carry out huge renovation works, and on the other hand

to continue the participatory planning and define the management model and future activities of the CdQ.

In April 2006 the Fondazione Cascina Roccafranca30, managing entity of this CdQ, was founded and in May

2007 Cascina Roccafranca was opened.

Similarly to Bagni di Via Aglié and CdQ di San Salvario, this neighbourhood house had the purpose of

creating a place of encounter and aggregation that could facilitate the development of interpersonal

relationships in a neighbourhood where spaces and opportunities for socialisation were lacking. It must be

noted that, unlike the two CdQ previously described, Cascina Roccafranca initially did not have any explicit

objective in terms of migrant integration, also due to the fact that the neighbourhood where it is located

(Circoscrizione 2) has the lowest percentage of foreign residents. Moreover, the approach adopted focused

primarily on the whole population as a target, rather than on specific groups or categories of people. As

specific needs gradually emerged, however, responses were offered in the form of projects or initiatives

targeted at a precise group of people.

For instance, shortly before the opening of Cascina Roccafranca, a group of Moroccan parents proposed

the managing entity to organise an Arab language course for their children. The course was activated in

November 2007 in cooperation with the Moroccan consulate and since the very beginning there have been

70-90 children attending two different classes. Soon after, the CdQ staff detected the need to activate a

parallel Italian language course targeted at the mothers of those children, who often have no or limited

Italian language skills and are unable to communicate without the help of their children, despite their long-

term residence in Italy. As a result, in February 2008 the project ‘Welcome to Roccafranca’ (Benvenute

a Roccafranca) was launched and in the following years the number of beneficiaries rose from 10 to 25

women. The project also includes the possibility for these mothers to leave their babies at the CdQ baby

parking (inaugurated in 2008), so that they can have the chance to learn Italian while their older children

attend Arab classes and their babies play with Italian babies. These activities encouraged dynamics of

encounter and interaction between the receiving community and the Moroccan community, that started

to cooperate and participate in several initiatives at Cascina Roccafranca; for example, a one-week event

dedicated to the Moroccan culture and traditions in 2009 (Layali al Maghreb), the Eid Al Fitr celebrations

and the 2011 multiethnic Neighbours’ Party (Festa dei Vicini).

30 Fondazione Cascina Roccafranca is a fondazione atipica di partecipazione, an atypical kind of foundation composed of one founding member, bearer of estate and capital assets (the Municipality of Turin) and several participating members, bearers of immaterial assets (the associations). For further details on the establishment and organisational structure of Fondazione Cascina Roccafranca, see: Città di Torino, Deliberazione del Consiglio Comunale 6 Febbraio 2006. Oggetto: Costituzione Fondazione “Cascina Roccafranca”. Approvazione dello Satuto, 2005 09287/070, February 2006, available at: http://www.cascinaroccafranca.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=57.

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A further example of the unexpected integration function of this CdQ, is the case of the Romanian Roma

community that in 2010 set up an unauthorised camp next to Cascina Roccafranca. The association Terra

del Fuoco, a Turin NGO active in the field of Roma rights, immediately proposed Cascina Roccafranca

to carry out after-school activities targeted at Roma children. Despite the initial cautious expectations,

the experiment soon proved to be successful; children’s participation to the CdQ activities encouraged

the whole Roma community to approach the CdQ and the neighbourhood community. Today, the Roma

community is usually involved in the CdQ parties, where women bring traditional Romanian food and

perform their traditional dance shows. Cascina Roccafranca played a crucial role as mediator and facilitator

in establishing the first relationships between the Roma community and the neighbourhood and actually

succeeded in mitigating the mutual suspicion.

As mentioned above, this is the biggest CdQ in Turin. Therefore it hosts and offers the largest variety of

activities and services.31 The governance body of Cascina Roccafranca is composed of four members: two

are nominated by the Municipality (the City Councillor in charge of Integration and Urban Regeneration and

the President of Circoscrizione 2) and two are nominated by the College of Participants (that consists of 45

associations and groups operating at Cascina Roccafranca). The composition of this body puts in practice

the idea of co-management between the public sector on the one hand and the third sector and citizenry

on the other hand. The CdQ staff are quite numerous if compared with other CdQ; they consist of: fourteen

persons belonging to the managing entity (seven municipal employees, among which the CdQ director plus

seven employees of the foundation); four persons working at the baby parking (managed by Cooperativa

Educazione Progetto); five persons working at the restaurant Osteria Zucchero e Sale; four persons working

at the café Algomas32; in addition, there are more than 40 volunteers and trainees. As concerns quantitative

figures on users, initial expectations amounted to 1,500-2,000 users per week, whereas current figures

have almost doubled as this CdQ has approximately 3,500 users per week. These data are representative

of the success of Cascina Roccafranca. In particular, interviewees highlighted the surprising number of

informal groups of citizens that were formed over time as a sign that this CdQ has been able not only to

cooperate with already existing associations but also to involve the local community and stimulate active

participation of citizens.

As regards finances, the 2013 total budget of Cascina Roccafranca is €230,000.33 55-60% of this budget

is covered by Fondazione Cascina Roccafranca through self-financing. As in the case of CdQ di San Salvario,

the main part of this sum comes from the rent paid by the café and restaurant, while the remaining part

comes from the contribution paid by the associations and groups that carry out their activities at the CdQ,

and, lastly, from the renting of rooms for private occasions. However, in contrast to CdQ di San Salvario,

31 Among the others: 100 courses with more than 1,200 enrolled people per year; 40 workshops mainly targeted at children, families and elderly people per year; 180 events per year, with more than 18,000 people attending (conferences, cinema, theatre shows, concerts, readings, parties). In addition it hosts several help desks managed by different associations (400 users per year), many active citizenship groups and informal groups of citizens; it also cooperate with the Municipality and other public actors to provide certain public services to the local community. For further details, see: Cascina Roccafranca (ed.), Bilancio Sociale 2007-2010, 2011; Progetto Porta Palazzo The Gate (ed.), La Rete delle Case del Quartiere, May 2013; and visit the web site: http://www.cascinaroccafranca.it/.

32 Cascina Roccafranca hosts two separate commercial activities (a restaurant and a café) which are managed by two different private subjects, with whom Fondazione Cascina Roccafranca has stipulated a rental contract (contratto d’affitto di ramo d’azienda).

33 This sum does not include the costs of 7 municipal employees + telephone line, heating, electricity and water consumption + routine maintenance, which are paid by the Municipality (approximately 382,000 euro). See: Cascina Roccafranca (ed.), Bilancio Sociale 2007-2010, 2011, 37.

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the budget deficit which remained was rather large. The reason for this is related to the origins of Cascina

Roccafranca; an ambitious EU-funded project which after six years of activity, in 2013, was cut-off from

further EU funding and, due to the unavailability of further municipal resources, had to face the issue of

self-financing. In February 2013 a crowdfunding campaign called ‘1,000 friends for Roccafranca’ (1,000

amici per la Roccafranca) was launched with the aim of gathering 10,000 euro. The campaign was a

great success: 1,200 ‘friends’ among individuals, groups, associations and private companies participated

heartily and contributions reached a total of 15,000 euro. The remaining funding (80,000 euro in 2013)

comes from Compagnia di San Paolo in the framework of the Network of Neighbourhood Houses.

Undoubtedly, the issue of funding represents the most urgent challenge for this CdQ. The director admitted

that the foundation has already made a big effort to reduce its expenses as much as possible (without

reducing the staff) shifting from a 2009 budget of €370,000 to the current budget. A parallel effort has

been made to increase the amount of self-financing, which in 2009 was only 35%.34 It is estimated that

in 2014 the self-financing share could reach 70% of the total budget. According to interviewees, however,

it will be difficult to further increase the self-financing capacity of both Cascina Roccafranca and CdQ di

San Salvario.

Shared initiatives of the Network of Neighbourhood Houses

Given the fact that the Network as such is a relatively young project and that it is supposed to be a light

form of coordination between entities which have their own dense calendar of activities to carry out, the

shared initiatives jointly planned and implemented by the seven CdQ are few.

Among them, there is a program of summer events implemented in June-July 2013 and involving all

neighbourhood houses which included, inter alia, the successful cultural initiative ‘In my neighbourhood.

Singer-songwriters and poets in tour in Turin’s neighbourhood houses’ (Nel mio quartiere. Cantautori e poeti

in tour nelle case del quartiere di Torino).

On a different level, the Network of Neighbourhood Houses has applied to a noteworthy proposal submitted

to the Italian Ministry of Interior for funding under the European Integration Fund 2013 national call. The

purpose of the project was to offer foreign residents who are not represented in Turin by their consular

authorities, the opportunity to meet the latter within the CdQ and carry out consular activities there. The

idea was to expand to the whole Network an initiative which is already implemented at CdQ di San Salvario.

Unfortunately, this project was not selected. However, interviewees confirmed the intention of both the

Municipality and Compagnia di San Paolo to look for alternative sources of funding to put this project into

practice.

34 Figures concerning Cascina Roccafranca total budget for the years from 2008 to 2011 are published in: Cascina Roccafranca (ed.), Bilancio Sociale 2007-2010, 2011, 35-36.

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Communication strategy

Each neighbourhood house carries out its own communication activities35, while the communication strategy

of the Network might be defined as ‘light’ or ‘insufficient’ according to different points of view.36 Certain

interviewees explained that the light communication within the Network is the result of a choice to maintain

an image of the CdQ as autonomous entities that are not too related to the public sector, consistent with

the above-mentioned will to avoid any centralisation and institutionalisation of the CdQ. On the other hand,

other interviewees admitted that the Network communication is still underdeveloped and that, in order to

improve it, each CdQ was asked to nominate a person responsible for communication from within their

staff. From the users’ point of view, the communication of this FP is definitely insufficient; many users

are not even aware of the existence of a network connecting all the CdQ but when they are told about this,

their reaction is usually extremely positive. What they highlight as a first impression is the great potential

of networking and cooperation between different neighbourhood houses, rather than possible side effects,

such as the intrusiveness of the Municipality or the imposition of a standard CdQ model.

3.4 Outcomes

As noted above, the Network of Neighbourhood Houses is a young initiative that is grounded on seven

different projects which have a longer history behind them. Therefore, in order to properly consider both

positive outcomes and difficulties related to this FP, it is worth to reflect upon the overall experience of

Turin’s neighbourhood houses, considered both as single entities and as a network. The positive elements

which determined the success of this FP are the following:

• A mixed management model based on a partnership between the public sector on the one hand and the

third sector and local communities on the other hand.

• A particular attention paid to the issue of economic sustainability. Self-financing and crowd funding

initiatives, which are necessary to sustain the CdQ activities in a time of public budget cuts, have at the

same time to be balanced with the basic principle of a not-for-profit approach.

• The importance of the physical space, both in terms of quality and pleasantness of the CdQ architecture

and design, and in terms of recognisability and centrality of the CdQ within their neighbourhood.

• The non-exclusivity of the place, meaning that the CdQ have no specific target and the use of their rooms

has to be shared with everyone else and for any kind of activity. Notwithstanding requests of certain

migrant communities to have dedicated places at their exclusive disposal, the City has encouraged the

35 Each CdQ has its own web site, mailing list, facebook profile and newsletter; they all print (mostly in house) flyers and leaflets; they encourage the word of mouth among partner associations and local community; most importantly each neighbourhood house as an open, attractive and welcoming place has a communicative function in itself. Cascina Roccafranca is the only CdQ to have a staff member in charge of communication, whilst CdQ di San Salvario would like to have more resources to dedicate to that. Interestingly, Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié decided to change their communication strategy after the first year of activity, abandoning multilingual flyers, because they feared to be perceived as a place for migrants only and to lose their Italian users.

36 The Network communication strategy consists of the following initiatives: since 2012 the Network has its own web site (http://casedelquartieretorino.org/); in spring 2013 the City Councillor in charge of Integration and Urban Regeneration announced the creation of the Network in several public occasions; the above-mentioned 2013 summer events were advertised by means of flyers.

24

shared use of public spaces like the CdQ among all minority communities and associations, as well as

the majority community, consistently with the idea of integration as a bilateral process embraced by

the Municipality. The latter decided to respond to the demands for exclusive spaces raised by certain

national communities choosing to offer instead mixed spaces with no ethnic or national connotation to

be shared by all groupings, with the aim of fostering coexistence and social cohesion.

• The respect and protection of each CdQ’s specificity and peculiarity. The creation of the Network does

not aim at imposing a uniform model of CdQ; thus, the existing differences should be regarded as an

enriching element for the Network, rather than an obstacle to its development.

• The informality of the Network, which is intended to be a light structure, able to foster cooperation and

free exchanges between CdQ, while avoiding their institutionalisation.

• The enlargement of the territorial scope of this FP from the neighbourhood to the city, which represents

an invitation to mobility and complementarity. All CdQ are tightly related to the neighbourhood they stem

from, but at the same time they offer themselves to the whole city population; the Network encourages

people to go beyond the territorial and mental borders of the neighbourhood they live in and discover

other contexts and experiences.

• The CdQ awareness of playing, among the others, a crucial function as new actors of urban welfare,

simultaneously interacting with traditional public actors of welfare. Being so close to the people, the CdQ

have the capacity to immediately detect the needs of vulnerable individuals, of specific groups, as well

as of the whole community, and give a very first reply to such demands or address them to the proper

service, contributing to the well-being of the neighbourhood community.

On the other hand, the creation of the Network included some risks and difficulties which will have to

be faced over time. The following are some of the current obstacles and foreseen challenges that might

jeopardise the future development of this FP. Among them there are some of the elements that have just

been listed as positive aspects; the reason is that such elements are double-edged, and, given the fact that

the Network has just been established, they could potentially represent both a quality and a shortcoming:

• The crisis of the public sector and resulting drastic reduction in funding to welfare policies, which

endangers the economic sustainability of the CdQ.

• The informality of the Network, which might correspond to a weakness of the Network as a structure, in

particular if its members do not share a strong will to cooperate.

• The specificity and peculiarity of each CdQ, which might represent an obstacle to inter-houses coordination

and to the organisation of broad cross-cutting initiatives involving all CdQ.

• The risk of competition over funding and conflicts of interest. Even though the Network was created

in order to also develop shared fundraising strategies and actions, CdQ could still be in the position of

competing among one another for funding, either to obtain a larger share of Compagnia di San Paolo total

project budget, or to access external public or private funding.

• The lack of a proper involvement of associations in the Network project, mentioned by some interviewed

association members.

25

3.5 Learning and evaluation

Before the establishment of each CdQ, preliminary investigations have been conducted at neighbourhood

level by the proponent subjects in coordination with the Municipality. This preliminary socio-demographic

and economic analysis was not done in a homogeneous way; on the contrary, it has been more or less

in-depth and structured in different CdQ depending on circumstances and available resources. However,

in all cases such preliminary work has involved the local community and associations. CdQ di San Salvario

and Cascina Roccafranca are the cases where preliminary investigations have been more complex and well-

done, including feasibility studies and activities of participatory planning.

In addition, in the case of Cascina Roccafranca, the preparatory research included a tour in a number of

European cities aimed at learning from and confronting other experiences of creation of public spaces

with a social function in urban regeneration contexts.37 This European tour proved particularly useful in a

moment when the actors involved were shaping the idea, fundamental features and management model of

what was going to be the first neighbourhood house of Turin. At the very beginning, indeed, the Municipality

had focused on the need to respond to the problems of the local community and on the idea of a ‘House

of the Daily Discomfort’ (Casa del disagio quotidiano), a name later changed into ‘Everyday House’ (Casa

del Quotidiano) and finally into Cascina Roccafranca. Experiences from other European cities suggested a

change of perspective so to highlight the positive elements rather than the negative ones, in order to convey

the image of a pleasant, light and lively place with an aggregation function.

In terms of evaluation, at the level of the Network no activity of this kind has been implemented so far, but

also at the level of single neighbourhood houses evaluation activities have been rather limited. Generally,

each CdQ carries out on a regular basis an informal internal reflection which involves the managing

entity, CdQ staff, associations and the governance body, in order to jointly consider achieved outcomes,

unaccomplished objectives, problems, challenges, developments, etc. Cascina Roccafranca also conducted

a broad evaluative investigation in 2010, in order to involve associations and the local community in judging

the overall experience of this CdQ in the period 2006-2010 and rethinking its objectives and activities for

the period 2011-2015.38 The results of this evaluation are extremely interesting. Importantly, it emerged

that 70% of the initial objectives set in the Strategic Plan 2006-2010 have been achieved.39

3.6 The next steps

The main upcoming development of this FP consists in the enlargement of the Network of Neighbourhood

Houses to include two new CdQ, Bossoli83 and CdQ Le Vallette, as mentioned in section 3.2. The request

coming from these two entities, which were two already existing cultural associations, represented a

37 The tour included the cities of Barcelona, London, Birmingham and Marseille. According to the CdQ director, the most interesting example came from Barcelona, where the Turin’s mission visited a facility that represented a truly inspiring model for Cascina Roccafranca.

38 This investigation was based on 70 questionnaires completed by associations operating inside Cascina Roccafranca and 1,242 questionnaires completed by individual users (and non-users) of Cascina Roccafranca. For an analysis of the results of this research, see: Cascina Roccafranca (ed.), Bilancio Sociale 2007-2010, 2011, 64-73.

39 Cascina Roccafranca (ed.), Documento Strategico 2006-2010, 2006, http://www.cascinaroccafranca.it/images/stories/doc_progetto/DOCUMENTO_STRATEGICO_PLURIENNALE.pdf.

26

challenge for the Network, that was forced for the first time to reflect upon the requirements that an entity

has to fulfil in order to enter the Network, i.e. the criteria for being eligible as a neighbourhood house. On

the one hand the enlargement of the Network is seen as a positive development in the perspective of giving

a CdQ to each neighbourhood of the city; on the other hand, both the existing CdQ and the Municipality are

keen to protect the concept and fundamental features of neighbourhood houses, maintain a high quality

standard and avoid to debase them through the transformation of any cultural centre into CdQ. Besides

that, any possible developments of this FP hinge upon the availability of funding. The issues of economic

sustainability and self-financing, which have already been discussed in previous sections, represent the

most urgent challenge for the Network and for each single CdQ.

Existing and potential project replication

To the knowledge of the project stakeholders, this FP has yet to be replicated in any other Italian or

European city. Nevertheless, the issue of transferability of the ‘CdQ model’ (with particular reference to

Cascina Roccafranca and CdQ di San Salvario) has been discussed with several Piedmont and Italian

municipalities.40 According to interviewees, certain elements of this FP may be transferred in other

contexts. More precisely, local public policies replicating the idea of the social use of public spaces could

be implemented by other towns. Moreover, a mixed management model based on a partnership between

the public sector and the third sector is transferable, as well as participatory planning as a methodology to

involve the local community in the implementation of the project. According to many interviewees, the main

element which hampers the replication of this FP is the lack of public resources. Finally, all interviewees

identified as crucial conditions for the project replication the predisposition of the local community to

active participation and the existence of a strong and cooperative network of associations operating at local

level. These factors would guarantee the spontaneity of the creation process and the embeddedness of the

project within the local community.

40 Among them: Alessandria, Arezzo, Cagliari, Catania, Cuneo, Genova, Lecce, Milano, Pino Torinese, Roma and some towns in Emilia Romagna.

27

4 ConclusionsThe CdQ represent a key-element of Turin’s local integration policy, which play a crucial role vis-à-vis the

challenges of immigration, urban regeneration, coexistence and diversity at neighbourhood level.

The CdQ are the result of a process of participatory planning which involved a number of different stakeholders

as well as the local community, and produced a mixed management model based on a partnership between

the public sector and the third sector. Such model proved to be successful in a time of public budget cuts,

such as the current one. While municipal funding has been gradually reduced, the CdQ have become more

and more able to self-finance their activities, without losing their function as a public policy.

The CdQ, as part of a policy aimed at promoting the social use of public spaces, play a crucial role in

terms of integration and social cohesion at neighbourhood level. Notwithstanding demands for exclusive

spaces raised by certain national communities, the Municipality decided to offer mixed spaces open to

everyone and for any kind of activity. This was done to facilitate dynamics of coexistence and encourage

intercultural dialogue and the sharing of public spaces among different national communities and the

receiving community, consistently with the idea of integration as a bilateral process embraced by the City.

However, findings from the fieldwork highlight that certain boundaries continue to exist. Even in the

welcoming and lively context of the CdQ, interactions between different national communities or social

groups are not frequent and it appears to be quite difficult to involve different associations in common

activities.

Nonetheless, the CdQ also play a relevant role as new actors of urban welfare. Thanks to their proximity to

the people, they have the capacity to immediately detect the emerging needs of both specific groups and

the whole local community.

The creation of the Network of Neighbourhood Houses represents a progress both in terms of enlargement

of the territorial scope of this FP from the neighbourhood to the city, and in terms of increased cooperation

between CdQ, sharing of know-how and optimisation of the funding system of this FP. A crucial prerequisite

to the successful development of the Network project seems to be the protection of the peculiar features of

the CdQ, i.e. their specificity, autonomy and spontaneity.

28

Bibliography and Sources

Primary Sources

Cascina Roccafranca (ed.), Bilancio Sociale 2007-2010, 2011.

Cascina Roccafranca (ed.), Documento Strategico 2006-2010, 2006,

http://www.cascinaroccafranca.it/images/stories/doc_progetto/DOCUMENTO_STRATEGICO_

PLURIENNALE.pdf.

Città di Torino, Deliberazione del Consiglio Comunale 6 Febbraio 2006. Oggetto: Costituzione Fondazione

“Cascina Roccafranca”. Approvazione dello Satuto, 2005 09287/070, February 2006,

http://www.cascinaroccafranca.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=57.

Città di Torino, Statuto della Fondazione “Cascina Roccafranca”, 2006,

http://www.cascinaroccafranca.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=57.

Progetto Porta Palazzo The Gate (ed.), La Rete delle Case del Quartiere, May 2013.

Secondary Sources

Fantini Silvana (ed.), “La popolazione straniera a Torino nel 2011. Dati generali - La componente

adolescenziale”, in Osservatorio Interistituzionale sugli stranieri in provincia di Torino. Rapporto 2011,

Città di Torino - Servizio Statistica e Toponomastica - Ufficio Pubblicazioni, 2011, 83-119,

http://www.comune.torino.it/statistica/osservatorio/stranieri/2011/pdf/06_la_popolazione_straniera_a_

torino_nel_2011.pdf.

Pastore Ferruccio, Pogliano Andrea and Valetti Roberta, Comunicazione istituzionale e integrazione degli

immigrati. Uno studio comparativo sulle esperienze di alcuni enti locali italiani, Report produced by FIERI

as part of the AMICALL research project, November 2011.

Pogliano Andrea, AMICALL Research Reports. Country Report – Italy, Report produced by FIERI as part of

the AMICALL research project, April 2012,

http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/files/Publications/Research_projects/Urban_change_settlement/

AMICALL/AMICALL_report_Italy__April_2012.pdf.

29

Web Sites

http://casedelquartieretorino.org/

http://demo.istat.it/

http://www.cascinaroccafranca.it/

http://www.compagnia.torino.it/

http://www.compagniadisanpaolo.it/Come-opera/Bandi/Bandi-chiusi/2007/Immigrati-Nuovi-Cittadini-2007

http://www.comune.torino.it/decentr/

http://www.comune.torino.it/informacasa/studi_statistiche/processi_demografici/stranieri_torino.shtml

http://www.comune.torino.it/rigenerazioneurbana/

http://www.comune.torino.it/statistica/osservatorio/stranieri/2011/

http://www.comune.torino.it/stranieri-nomadi/stranieri/torino/dati.htm

http://www.comune.torino.it/urban2/progetto.html

30

Annexes

Annex 1 – Interviews

# Date Name Position and Project role

1 09/07

26/07

Giovanni Ferrero Officer of the Urban Regeneration and Integration Department

of the Municipality of Turin – Funzionario PO del Servizio

rigenerazione urbana e integrazione del Comune di Torino

2 11/09 Renato Bergamin Director of Cascina Roccafranca

3 11/09 Stefania De Masi Person in charge of the animation and coordination of socio-

cultural activities and workshops at Cascina Roccafranca

4 11/09 Erika Mattarella Director of Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié

5 11/09 Malick Niang Person in charge of the tailor’s workshop at Bagni Pubblici di Via

Aglié

6 12/09 Roberto Arnaudo Director of the Agency for the Local Development of the

Neighbourhood of San Salvario (Agenzia per lo sviluppo locale di

San Salvario) and of the Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario

7 27/09 Luca Scarpitti Manager of the Welfare Policy Department of the Fondazione

Compagnia di San Paolo (main partner)

8 04/10 Ilda Curti City Councillor in charge of Coordination of Integration

Policies, Urban Regeneration, Equal Opportunities, Youth and

European Funds - Assessore del Comune di Torino con delega al

coordinamento delle politiche per l’integrazione, rigenerazione

urbana, pari opportunità, politiche giovanili e fondi europei

9 04/10 Yagoub Kibeida Association Mosaico - Azioni per i rifugiati

(c/o Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario)

10 04/10 Valerie Françoise

Motio Kamgam

Association DoMigInt - Donne Migranti Internazionali

(c/o Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario)

11 11/10 Rosanna Falsetta Association Terra del Fuoco (c/o Cascina Roccafranca)

12 16/10 Perjan Pani

(Manny Rivera)

Where Else Studio (c/o Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié)

13 16/10 William Ocello

(DJ Ken)

Where Else Studio (c/o Bagni Pubblici di Via Aglié)

31

Annex 2 – Map of Turin with the Neighbourhood Houses

Source: Progetto Porta Palazzo – The Gate

ITCILO

Miriam BoudraaProgramme Offi cer on Labour Migration

Social Protection Programme

Viale Maestri del Lavoro, 1010127 Torino (Italy)

Tel: + 39 011 693 6359Email: m.boudraa@itcilo.org

www.itcilo.org

If you want more information on the project please visit our website: www.eu-mia.eu or contact:

The Partners

FIERI

Irene PonzoResearcher

Via Ponza, 310121 Torino - Italy

Tel. +39 011 5160044Email: fi eri@fi eri.it

www.fi eri.it

COMPAS

Ida PerssonResearch & Communications Offi cer

COMPAS, University of Oxford

58 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6QSTel: +44 (0) 1865 612358

Email: ida.persson@compas.ox.ac.uk

www.compas.ox.ac.uk

The International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO) is the consortium leader in charge of the implementation of the EU-funded EU-MIA project.

The consortium research partners are: the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford and the

International and European Forum of Migration Research (FIERI).

Copyright © International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization, 2012. All rights reserved. Design Luca Fiore – Printed by the International Training Centre of the ILO, Turin, Italy

Made of paper awarded the European Union Eco-label, reg.nr FR/011/002, supplied by International Paper.