SOCIAL AREA AND SAFETY NET
Porta Palazzo is a neighbourhood rich in history,
from a thousand different aspects plaited into multiple identities and
sense of belonging, which have always been able to offer refuge and
opportunity. For these characteristics it has been considered a "laboratory
of urban complexity" in as much as it is an area of experimentation
in the bringing together of different cultures and interests. The requalification
process that the neighbourhood has been undergoing in recent years has
brought about particularly complex social dynamics that on one hand
has produced a positive push for participation and on the other hand
has highlighted fragmentation, conflict and the difficulty to sustain
"coalitions". The numerous Committees and Associations present
across the area are in continuous movement, they represent the will
and the need of the residents of the neighbourhood to participate and
commit to the improvement in the liveability of this area. In Porta
Palazzo the territorial dispute for space where there is a strong presence
of immigrants has become embittered and it is often associated with
risk, with a sense of degradation or of devaluation of one's own habitat.
Different problems become superimposed such as the housing crisis, the
employment and commercial crisis, petty crime, social and individual
hardship. Yet Porta Palazzo is a neighbourhood full of resources and
abilities to confront such difficulties. The purpose of the interventions
in this field is to strengthen and promote positive dynamics across
the area in the perspective of social cohesion and social exclusion,
in contrast to the new types of poverty, in the minimisation of emargination
and conflict, in the perception of danger by its inhabitants. To carry
through these objectives, The Gate Project decided to take advantage
of a permanent service of Social Support, available to all the inhabitants
of Porta Palazzo to sustain and support daily life and the social problems
present in the neighbourhood.
WHAT WE WORKING ON?
Porta Palazzo and children: in co-operation with the "Polo Educativo"
The project "La Porta dei Legàmi" is presented as a fundamental example of the experimentation deliberated by the Education System of the City of Torino (deliberation of 04/05/01 mecc.200103765/07), which has as its objective the establishment of a “Polo Educativo” integrated in the Porta Palazzo - Borgo Dora area aimed at “..increasing the value relating to specific gender, ethnicity, cultural and religious issues that characterise the history and past of every child”.The initiative aims to sustain access to education services for immigrants, the use of cultural mediation and the training of staff, through the development of a study during the academic year 2002 – 2003 on Shared Actions within the school system of the area.
An analysis regarding the needs of the teaching/school staff, that has been dealing with pupils experiencing socio-cultural hardship, heavy migratory flows and continual evolution of the pupil base for many years, has shown the need for definition and sharing of possible tools for reception, mediation and support within the school and social system, beginning with socialisation of that which effectively takes place in reality. In this light the Scientific Technical Committee of the project has established the need to build a shared concept, among teachers, educational personnel and mediators, on what can be gained from cultural mediation in the school context.
Training opportunities for young immigrants
Young immigrants belong to a group of the population particularly at risk of social emargination: they find it hard to integrate in the social and work environment and they do not have access to normal training opportunities which aim at supplying skills that are in demand on the employment market. By creating an ad hoc training model, together with the training centres and departments responsible for the social perspective, the project aims to develop a more flexible structure for the introduction of work placement training programmes. Parallel courses in Italian will strengthen language skills so that the training is applicable to other realities, allowing access to professional training and the employment market thus favouring the social integration of these young people who would otherwise be excluded.The Safety Committee: methodological and technical-organisational support for District 7
In September 2001 the Porta Palazzo Safety Committee was established within District 7. The aims of the Committee are to monitor the problems relating to Public Order and Public Safety, to highlight critical areas and priorities and to identify possible solutions. The President of the Committee is the President of District 7 and the participation of the Police forces is also summoned following the preparatory meetings with the local citizens.The Porta Palazzo Safety Committee makes use of the methodological and technical-organisational support organised by the Social Support Unit involved in The Gate Project.
"Focus on c.so Giulio"
This project evolved from the intention to explore the themes relating to safety in the neighbourhood by trying to uncover the complexities, the dynamics and the elements that characterise the “sense of safety/danger” perceived by the inhabitants. The initiative which has been underway for about a year and has not yet concluded concerns only a limited portion of the neighbourhood, the beginning of of c.so Giulio Cesare, where the study–initiative was experimented with the involvement of the citizens. The characteristics of the experiment are based on the use of photographs taken by the citizens and used as a qualitative data collection tool and the subsequent group analysis of the contents of the most significant photographs.The context chosen for the initiative required the use of new tools that would highlight those elements related to personal and community perception that can help us understand the aspects that characterise the quality of life of residents.
The photographic material produced is significant, even at a cursory glance: in fact c.so Giulio photographed by Italians seems much like Paris while the very same small portion of space seen by Morrocans seems like certain areas of Beirut.
The group work is producing very interesting considerations and subject matter.
The project will end with the identification, together with the work groups, of methods and resources for an efficient return of the photographic material produced and the diffusion of the considerations that have emerged to the other residents of the neighbourhood and to the city (an eventual report with documentation and an exhibition/event in the neighbourhood are current ideas).
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