Proponent
Dr Emanuele Merlino, project Manager of the cultural centre “Casale Caletto” on behalf of the associations “Trousse”, “AICEM” and the social cooperative “Spazio Nostro” that are managing the space jointly now.
Main responsible entity
The leading association of the centre is the Trousse association (www.associazionetrousse.it), which has been dealing with the establishment of local theatres and various cultural activities since 1977 in Rome and Lazio’s socially disadvantages areas in collaboration with the Italian Ministry for Cultural Assets and Activities and numerous other local entities. The association Trousse has been managing these public spaces by qualifying in public tenders and has been awarded several times. While safeguarding its own mission, vision and identity, the association Trousse has established successful collaborations with its peers.
Date/Timeframe
January 2012 to date
Funding source
The main funding sources are both public and private. The public funding comes from qualifying in public local, regional and national tenders for social activities, such as social inclusion, actions against poverty and discrimination, recycle labs and reuse aimed at preserving the common good, theatre, various specialisation courses, cinema festivals and promotional videos on social topics, culture and peri-urban areas. Moreover, campaigns such as “No Hate” took place at the centre thanks to the contribution of the Council of Europe: more specifically, AICEM oversees the translation into Italian the online manual on hate words on behalf of the Council itself.
The private sources come from the Bank of Cooperative Credit Foundation and from other cultural associations and cooperatives.
Location
All activities take place at
Cultural Centre “Casale Caletto”
via Jacopo della Quercia SNC
00155 – Roma
ITALY
The Centre belongs to the IV Municipality of Rome but is managed by the association after qualifying in a public tender in 2012 by the trio of association Trousse, AICEM and Spazio Nostro Cooperative
Background/Context
The Cultural Centre “Casale Caletto” takes its name from the neighbourhood where it is in the outskirts of Rome. Its location weights an enormous importance and contributes to convey its mission greatly. Casale Caletto ranks second on the scale of social discomfort index (Indice di Disagio Sociale – IDS), as calculated by the Municipality of Rome and published in January 2016; moreover, Casale Caletto is peri-urban area with vast green areas, some of which are rural. Unfortunately, an absent housing policy together with very high criminality rates render the area immune to public efforts in improving the general conditions. Both literacy and unemployment rates are quite high: 12% and 20% respectively, with young women, single mothers below thirty and house wives being the most exposed and vulnerable to organised crime and addictions. There is virtually no economic activity in the area, except for ICT companies, which has a relevant conglomerate nearby; however, this is of no attraction for the local dwellers for their lack of necessary skills.
In this sense, Casale Caletto has strong linkages with the centre or Rome, as it depends on it economically, administratively and politically but possesses vast green areas, most of which are rural and often cultivated without proper supervision or even illegally. The overall conditions of the entire neighbourhood expose its dwellers to erratic food consumption patterns, leading to malnutrition both in terms of obesity and lack of many nutrients. Lately, migration has slowly become a pressing issue because migrants are perceived as a threat to the already feeble and uncertain household incomes, with some outbreaks of violence and dissatisfaction towards foreigners. Generally, inhabitants perceive themselves as unfairly treated by local, regional and national authorities. This is the context that led many to form these local associations with the aim of triggering a positive reaction with significant spill-over effects for every inhabitant.
Focus/Objectives
With a general mission of safeguarding the common good and aiming at an inclusive and aware local community, the Cultural Centre Casale Caletto has been delivering successful experiences in terms of cultural activities. Some of said activities aimed at raising awareness amongst its members and local inhabitants on food-related matters, especially in terms of waste reduction and reuse.
The Centre would like to become a listening and information post regarding local initiatives linked to food security and nutrition. The motives behind this choice reside both in the aforementioned context and background focusing on including the most vulnerable groups, such as women, especially young and single mothers, local youth, migrants, in activities to raise their awareness regarding nutrition, with special attention to the role it plays in education in growing children, and family farming initiatives, which can play a key role in raising the general income levels as well as providing safer and locally grown food.
Key characteristics of the experience/process
The main characteristic of the Centre is the close collaboration between the professional profiles who are employed in our activities and the neighbourhood inhabitants. All our laboratories and course are the outcome of a very lively collaboration, in full respect of each other’s roles. In fact, there are local assemblies and public consultations with the local inhabitants and relevant stakeholders before beginning any new activity at the Centre. All initiatives benefitted from this approach and the price to pay was a slightly lengthier decision making process. However, the success it delivered each time outweighed the hardships of collective deliberation thanks to the strong link and ownership feeling by the local community, who participated and contributed to each activity with great passion and enthusiasm. This form of collaboration made the Centre the point of reference of the neighbourhood for such activities.
One concrete example of the Centre’s key characteristics and processes lies in the public library, opened at the Centre earlier this year (2017): its shelves are made of recycled materials such as wooden crates used to carry food to local markets. This initiative involved several actors – such as small vendors at the market – who became part of the decisionmaking process by adhering to the establishment of a public library, sharing that ownership feeling, despite their main activity being completely different. The local inhabitants named the library “The Beauty of Casale Caletto” (La Bellezza di Casale Caletto).
In conclusion, the Centre’s involves relevant actors horizontally as described by sharing ownership of each initiative but also vertically, by involving local, regional and national institutions. For instance, the Department for Culture and Youth Policies of the Lazio Region determined by one of its deliberations that the Centre’s activities are good practices with regards to culture and social inclusion (Deliberation n. G11578 del 12th October 2016)
Key actors involved and their role
Local inhabitants for their crucial role as co-owners and active participants; institutions such as the Municipality of Rome, Lazio Region and the Italian Ministry for Cultural Assets and Activities for their financial and political support through public tenders; professionals with different backgrounds who volunteered to share their experience and knowledge for each activity or initiative; similar or other local institutions for their support and partnerships, such as but not limited to the National Youth Forum, often instrumental in offering a different perspective emerging from their unique growth path. At the international level, the Centre collaborates with the Council of Europe on addressing hate speech.
Key changes observed with regards to food security and nutrition and sustainable agriculture and food systems
The only threat to food security derives from low incomes but there are no reasons to expect a drastic worsening of the situation; with regards to nutrition, there has been no change in behaviour regarding food since the only concern is to purchase the cheapest available goods. In that sense, there is still no awareness regarding nutritional values of what is consumed daily or the importance of a balanced diet, especially in growing children. However, there have been some appreciable changes in terms of reducing waste because the perception of saving money while doing it is immediate. Despite showing some interest in attempting to grow locally and sustainably, there is too much uncertainty regarding the legal and environmental conditions of available land, which is there nonetheless. The inhabitants perceive a general lack of confidence towards local institutions, should some initiatives be taken to reclaim green spaces. However, there is a general interest instead to correctly apply the Mediterranean diet, which is easily accessible, fairly balanced and reasonably cheap to a certain extent.
Challenges faced
The main challenge in establishing the Centre was the co-ownership of the initiatives and activities by the inhabitants and the associations who originally proposed the project. Casale Caletto is an extremely troubled neighbourhood: suspicion and diffidence are the first reactions we faced that we overcame by applying the co-ownership approach. This method required more time to establish solid roots but it paid off afterwards in terms of participation and involvement.
Another challenge is our relationship with the closest level of administration: the IV Municipality of Rome. After some initial exchange of formalities and allowing the Centre to be established, the local administration disappeared and is still a closed channel after five years– unlike the Lazio Region and the Italian Ministry for Cultural Assets and Activities.
Lessons/Key messages
The Cultural Centre “Casale Caletto” has already demonstrated that the people who live in a neighbourhood may successfully establish virtuous practices to substitute the lacks of their local administration. Two conclusions may be drawn by the lesson emerging from this experience: the first one is telling us that those practices must be established alongside the local administration, in close collaboration with civil society organizations; the second one suggests that there are situations and conditions in which longer decision-making processes are necessary to ensure success.
There is also a lesson regarding sustainability of such projects: the Centre requires a constant supply of fund, however minimal, to function. These funds should come from the closest administration, which is the IV Municipality of Rome. In other words, subsidiarity should always apply in these contexts.
The key message of this initiative is that there are untapped resources and potentials regarding food security and nutrition: synergies such as the one established by the Centre prove that these activities may prove extremely beneficial for dwellers who live in troubled areas and in particular for vulnerable groups such as women, youth and migrants in our case.
Emanuele Merlino