Preparing the first Open day of Salus Space

Public presentation to citizens and institutions

The Second public meeting for an open discussion with citizens has been carried out the 5th of June, and it has been followed by a third public presentation in the Urban Center, for a wider audience, to which also the Institutions and the Local Stakeholders have participated. In this occasion the Think Thank for the multicultural welfare, foreseen by the project, has been presented.

Design activities and site preparation

The design activities are very intense and the definitive plan is almost ready to be discussed internally and then presented to the public in occasion of the next public meeting in October 2017.

Some extra activities have been necessarily carried out for the technical and environmental surveys on the site.

In order to prepare the Villa, some activities have been conducted by a migrant volunteers' association called El Ihsan, that signed a Collaboration Pact with the Municipality. These activities, linked to cleaning and recycling, are very welcomed by the local community as the association look after the site.

Communication and citizens journalists

The internal communication has been carried out fluently, according to the communication plan, and all the partners have met several times for the co-design process that is still ongoing.

The activities of the participatory staff of citizens-journalist (thanks to a training conducted by our project partner Opengroup) are very intense, the citizens have met almost twice per months and have conducted several interviews to other citizens who live in the neighborhood, to the president of the social association El Ihsan and to the architect in charge of the architectural project, to understand the state of the art.

The project has had a big resonance on the local press, an article has been published in a regional journal of the volunteers' service centers, newspapers and radio spots have been used to communicate the events. The Facebook page has reached a very high number of followers and interactions. The official website is being constantly up-to-date with news and materials produced by the citizens in the blog session, called "Salus Space Story".

First opening evening

The 4th of July, Salus Space has celebrated its first "open day". The gates were opened and citizens could come in and meet the volunteers. It has been the final destination of a neighborhood walk, with residents, that visited some other places which are meaningful for the local community, such as Lambrakis square and the social gardens of Via Mondolfo. The citizens were the storytellers, the group of the participated editorial staff has been engaged, and the group of citizens-evaluators (well trained by the project partner IRS) has carried out several interviews to collect the feedback of participants.

The visit ended in Villa Salus park, with an artistic performance of Cantieri Meticci and a photographic exhibition organized by the social cooperative Arca di Noè. Many citizens have helped for the cleaning and preparation of the site, together with some refugees and tourists, that asked for being involved in the volunteering works. Music and dances have completed the framework of this cultural evening, the goodbye before the summer break of activities. More than 120 people have participated to this event, including the artists and the partners.

The housing community

The discussion about the housing community creation is open and will continue after the summer break. The managers of the reception centers have met to discuss about the refugees involvement in the participatory process and the groups will be made in September, to avoid the potential dispersion during the summer.

We presented the project to the Social Community Innovation Summer School, organized by Bologna University in the framework of the Social Innovation Community Horizon 2020 project and in the occasion we engaged about 50 students for the coming from all over Europe, to discuss about social innovation and how the challenges to be address in Salus W Space process.

What’ s next?

The demolition project is almost ready and the public procurement process will start by the end of the summer, in order to complete this activity and allow the new build, that must undergo another public tender for the selection of the construction company. The project for the new settlement of Salus Space will be presented in a public event, in October, and will be discussed with stakeholders and citizens, in order to make last eventual corrections and modifications. The urban planning instruments are being updated to allow to host all activities foreseen by the project, that will be done thanks to a formal derogation, which is already been planned before the project final approval of the City Council.