Great participation at the presentation meeting of the projects selected for the accompanying path of DELFIN (actions for the development and consolidation of a financial ecosystem for the birth and growth of social enterprises in rural areas) organized by Finpiemonte and Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini.

In order to support social entrepreneurship, a Pilot Project is being developed, which foresees a path to accompany the implementation of 10 business ideas with a social impact, selected among 55 proposals received.

The meeting, articulated in different interventions, initially analyzed the theme of the social needs of the internal areas and the responses received from the territory.

Professor Barbera from the University of Turin and the Collegio Carlo Alberto exposed the critical issues facing entrepreneurs in mountain areas, proposing actions to turn these critical issues into opportunities for the rebirth of the territories themselves. The main responses that the territory needs go from simplifying the bureaucratic spiral, to facilitating access to finance, to designing a widespread welfare model.

Following this, the representatives of the Nemo- Innovare in montagna cooperative offered an overview of all the applications received, highlighting how the greatest number of proposals focused on the valorisation of local products, the rediscovery of the territory and sustainable tourism and the promotion of psychophysical well-being.

It was then the turn of the real protagonists of the meeting, the projects: the representatives of the 10 selected projects had the opportunity to present their project idea to the audience of stakeholders, highlighting their needs.

The main needs reported can be summed up mainly in the need for access to funding, institutional support, the creation of a network at a local level that recognises their work and enhances it also economically, and the need to be recognised as actors for the creation of fairer and more sustainable forms of economy.

Very interesting was the presentation by Professor Bogetti of the SAA – School of Management, who illustrated the different phases of the accompanying path which, through frontal lessons, tutoring and mentoring activities, will take the projects from project idea to business project.

Finally, the speech by Elisa Rosso from the Time2 Foundation to present the excellent results of the Prossimi call for proposals, aimed at supporting development, innovation and social inclusion initiatives in inland and mountain areas, provided stimuli for reflection on the need for a system at local and territorial level.

In conclusion, the meeting showed that one of the cornerstones for the development of marginal areas is certainly the need for a strong local ecosystem to support new projects. It is fundamental to encourage and facilitate collaboration and integration between the various stakeholders active in the territory in a perspective of integration between public and private and systemic synergy.

In this, the Delfin project wants to be a piece of the system and to give its contribution by encouraging the development of the 10 selected business ideas.

In these days the Festival of Sustainable Development of Parma is taking place, organised at national level by ASviS (Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development), with the aim of making known the 17 Goals of the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. In Parma the local edition is organised by the University of Parma, WWF Parma, Gist, Arpae, Fruttorti, under the patronage of the Municipality of Parma.

The last day of the Festival, Friday, October 2, will see the participation of “Homes4All – in Turin the right to housing is innovated“, an impact finance project to address the housing emergency in Turin promoted by the City of Turin together with the Chamber of Commerce of Turin, Brainscapital, Homers and ACMOS. The project is also part of the Torino Social Impact, financed by the Fondo di Innovazione Sociale and supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo.

From 11 am to 12.30 pm the conference “Social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Concrete cases with focus on equal opportunities”, which will be attended by Federico Disegni, General Manager of Homes4All s.r.l. who will present the project as a concrete example of impact investing.

To participate in the conference just connect to Facebook live at this link.

Select the 10 projects that will take part in the accompanying course with the School of Business Administration.

Finpiemonte and Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini, as part of the DELFIN project (INTERREG Central Europe 2014-2020), have promoted a pilot project to support the creation, enhancement or scalability of entrepreneurial initiatives aimed at responding to the social challenges of certain mountain and/or rural areas of Piedmont (Biella, Cuneo, Turin).

Out of the 55 project ideas received, found also thanks to the scouting activity carried out by Collegio Carlo Alberto, with the technical support of Nemo- Nuova Economia in Montagna, 10 projects have been selected, which have just started their accompanying path with SAA – School of Management, which will develop in about 9 months and will include training sessions, individual assistance and practical exercises.

The objective of Finpiemonte and Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini is to facilitate cooperation and resource system processes, to generate new ways of interaction and partnership, as well as financing and intervention mechanisms to support social enterprises in rural areas, also through the involvement of local stakeholders from the three provinces concerned and from the financial and philanthropy world.

With this aim in mind, a first workshop was held on September 29 in Turin, where the 10 selected projects will be able to present themselves personally and share their idea of entrepreneurial activity. The 10 selected projects have been proposed in some cases by companies already formally established and in other cases by informal working groups looking for an entrepreneurial outlet. They all share the objective of developing innovative actions with respect to the rural/mountain context in which they fit and to generate with their work also a positive social impact on the life of local communities.

The meeting was also an opportunity to address the social needs of mountain areas, the scouting activity that has been carried out to encourage the identification of projects in the territories and the importance of an accompanying and training path for new entrepreneurs. Moreover, the experience and perspectives of the “Prossimi” Call for Proposals have also been illustrated and the modalities of a wider involvement of the territory to favour the development of social entrepreneurship in rural areas have been analysed.

LIST OF SELECTED PROJECTS

Province of Biella

• “La Scuola Senza Pareti – Filiere, comunità e accoglienza per nuovi luoghi abititati”, promoted by the Onlus “Cooperativa del Mulino” (Netro, Ailoche, Caprile, Coggiola, Crevacuore, Curino, Piedicavallo, Portula, Pray, Quittengo, Soprana, Sostegno, Valdilana, Veglio, Villadelbosco) – Cooperativa di comunità, training for the enhancement of the local landscape and cultural heritage;
• “Vita da Bosco!”, promoted by the individual enterprise “Cubit” and the B&B “Cervovolante” (Campiglia Cervo) – accessible tourism, environmental sustainability, quality tourist services.

Province of Cuneo

• “AGRI-LAB”, promoted by the Cooperatives “I Tesori della Terra” and “Il Ramo” (Cervasca, Valle Grana,Valli Cuneesi) – social agriculture to promote social inclusion, environmental sustainability, enhancement of local agricultural production, sustainability of life in inland areas;
• “Casa Sartorino – Officina Contemporanea”, promoted by the informal group “Casa Sartorino” (Levice e Comuni Valle Bormida, Uzzone, Belbo) – enhancement of the territory, contemporary workshop to generate well-being, awareness, new ways of perceiving reality;
• “Germin-Azioni”, promoted by the “Germinale” Community Cooperative (Unione Montana Valle Stura di Demonte) – creation of sustainable life opportunities in the area, creation of favourable conditions for business activity, reactivation of the local agricultural potential;
• “L’Arma dei Margari”, promoted by a public-private group in the definition phase (Demonte) – valorisation of the territory through the recovery of the Margaro mountain pastures and the trade;
• “Can a local mountain community grow and prosper by guaranteeing the provision of ecosystem services? From theory to practice”, promoted by the Cooperativa Agricola di Comunità “la Volpe e il Mirtillo” (Ormea) – valorisation and increase of ecosystem services, sustainable forest and agricultural management;
• “Vendita di Prodotti Tipici Piemontesi in Germania”, promoted by an informal group currently being defined (Stroppo, Elva, Macra, Prazzo) – valorisation of local production, social inclusion, creation of commercial networks, coordination of local production

Metropolitan City of Turin

• “The land of ERIDAAN: A bet for health”, promoted by the informal group “Eridaan” (Arignano, Balangero, Brozolo, Cavagnolo, Cinzano, Marentino, Montaldo Torinese, Moriondo Torinese, Pavarolo, Sciolze) – socialization and integration through social farming to improve bio-psycho-social well-being;
• “Fattoria Sociale”, promoted by Fattoria Sociale “E.Gi.Ivo” (Valgioie, Coazze, Susa, San Giorio di Susa, Meana di Susa) – social agriculture to promote work integration, city-mountain relationship, participatory management of agricultural activity, generation of economic-social value.

More information and press release

On 1st and 2nd October, do not miss the second edition of Digital Ethics Forum, an event focussed on ethics in the production, distribution, and use of digital technologies.

The event is organised by Sloweb in partnership with Fondazione GCSEC of Poste Italiane and in collaboration with Fondazione Circolo dei Lettori di Torino.

The event is free, registrations are taken at this link: https://gcsec.org/it/digital-ethics-forum/

4 conference panels with more than 30 speakers, amongs them Marco Bentivogli (Mise), Carola Frediani (Guerre di Rete), Sabina Leonelli (Exeter University), Don Luca Peyron (Arcidiocesi Torino), Alberto Rossetti (Psicoterapeuta), Paolo Santi (MIT).

2 special events in which Luciano Floridi (Il verde e il blu), and Simone Pieranni (Red Mirror) will present their latest books and disuss related topics.

A plenary session to decide the 2021 agenda towards an inclusive and sustainable digital world.

Fundraising for the Bottom Up! festival promoted by the Fondazione per l’architettura / Torino and the Order of the Architects in Turin continues until November 3.

Community spaces are fundamental for a city that is shared and lived to the fullest by its inhabitants, from neighbourhood to neighbourhood; this is the philosophy that animates the projects of Bottom Up!, including Miraorti and Stiamo freschi! at the Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario. On October 10th at 8 p.m. you will be able to see with your own eyes the spaces of the urban gardens of Mirafiori Sud on the occasion of the Gran Galà Miraorti dinner, while the Casa del Quartiere awaits you until September 26th to celebrate its tenth birthday. Here are the details!

Miraorti

Miraorti is a project for the redevelopment from below of the illegal gardens of Mirafiori Sud. The aim is to give back to the district 6 hectares of public greenery while maintaining their agricultural vocation, through a participatory process that will involve illegal and voluntary gardeners in the creation of a large park of urban gardens, where they can experiment new forms of urban agriculture and social inclusion.
You can also support this initiative live by taking part in the Gran Galà Miraorti event, a dinner based on fresh vegetables cooked by the vegetable gardeners of Orti Generali. What is special? The dress code: evening dresses and garden shoes! The appointment is for Saturday 10th October, 8.00 p.m., Strada Castello di Mirafiori 40. To stay updated, follow the Miraorti Facebook page.

• Make your donation for Miraorti on crowdfunding.bottomuptorino.it/miraorti

Stiamo Freschi! 10×10

The courtyard of the Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario is an area of 600 square meters that hosts inhabitants of all ages and numerous activities, especially during the summer period. Currently, the courtyard is an expanse of concrete without shade and has very little space for greenery; two elements that complicate the usability of the space during the summer months. The project Stiamo Freschi! intends to create a system of pergolas to increase the shaded area and make the moments of relaxation and outdoor activities that take place here pleasant. On the occasion of the celebration of its tenth anniversary, the Casa del Quartiere in Via Morgari 14 until 26 September will celebrate its birthday and raise funds for its initiative during 10×10. Follow the project on Facebook and Instagram.

• Make your donation for 10×10 on crowdfunding.bottomuptorino.it/10×10

 

These are only two of the projects of Bottom Up!; to know and support all the others go to the page crowdfunding.bottomuptorino.it.

For every donation over 50 euro an official festival t-shirt will be reserved.

Financial markets for impact: model and feasibility study for a Social Exchange

On Wednesday, September 30, from 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm, the Financial Markets for Impact: Model and Feasibility Study for a Social Exchange event will be online as part of the eighth edition of  The CSR and Social Innovation Show.

The commitment of for-profit and non-profit social enterprises must move from fiction to corporate operations evaluated by the stock and bond markets. In a profoundly changed context also as a result of the health pandemic, the challenge is increasingly to integrate shareholder interest with commitment to stakeholders. The meeting will discuss the possibility of creating a Social Stock Exchange where each organisation will be evaluated by institutional investors and retailers.

Coordinates

Giorgio Fiorentini – Professor of Social Enterprise Management at Bocconi University

Speakers

Guido Bolatto – Secretary General of the Turin Chamber of commerce
Giuseppe Bruno – CGM President
Mario Calderini – Full Professor at the Polytechnic of Milan
Davide Dal Maso – Partner of Avanzi
Alberto Eicholzer – Compagnia di San Paolo Finance Department
Emiliano Giovine – R&P Lawyer associated
Barbara Lunghi – Head of primary stock markets at Borsa Italiana

Please notice that during the free registration process, you should specify investors as thematic path.

What is the CSR and social innovation exhibition?

From 2013, The CSR and Social Innovation Show is the most eagerly awaited event for those who believe in sustainability. Recognised as the main event in Italy dedicated to these issues, over the years the Show has contributed to the spread of the culture of sustainability, offered opportunities for updating and facilitated networking between the various social players.

The 2020 edition with 205 “leading” organisations, more than 300 speakers, 80 events and thousands of people streaming will be an opportunity to activate positive energies and share new ideas. But above all to understand how the market is changing at a time of real “metamorphosis”.

All the events, divided into thematic routes, will be streamed live by Università Bocconi on 29 and 30 September from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The public will only be able to follow the events remotely by registering for free on the digital platform on which they will be broadcast.

Torino Social Impact is increasingly establishing itself in Europe as a virtuous partnership model for strengthening the local ecosystem with social impact, thanks to the plan for relations with the European institutions launched in 2019.

In this framework, Torino Social Impact is one of the keynote speakers at the event “New challenges, new innovations, new solidarities – Social Economy in the fight against COVID 19″ on September 24, the first of the eight major digital conferences organised by the European Commission in view of the European Social Economy Summit scheduled for May 26-27 in Mannheim, and was selected by the European Commission as the organiser of one of the panels of the last conference, scheduled for April 29 and entitled “Partnerships for maximising social impact”.

A key milestone in the definition of the future Action Plan for the Social Economy, the Summit aims to promote the contribution of the social economy to economic development, inclusion, green and digital transitions.

The “Digital Road to Mannheim” consists of eight online events. Each Roadmap event focuses on a specific topic and aims to connect different social economy actors in Europe in a highly interactive format, present best practices and use cases, and provide information in interactive sessions of changemakers across Europe.

Digital Road to Mannheim: https://www.euses2020.eu/exchange-events/

Food is community, sociality, a precious good to share and make the most of. Two of the projects of Bottom Up!, the architecture festival promoted by Fondazione per l’architettura / Torino and the Order of Architects of Turin, have chosen it as the mission of their urban transformation initiatives, under the banner of enhancing the social fabric of Turin. Here are the details!

• Waste wheel

Waste wheel is a project that aims to reduce food waste thanks to the philosophy of recovery, transformation and distribution of food surpluses. How? With a fundraiser that aims to raise 6,000 euros for the purchase of a van equipped with a mobile kitchen. The aim is to increase the current distribution network and activate dynamics of urban transformation and re-appropriation of the squares that host the city’s markets during the day and that remain unused once the sales activity is over. Through a van with a mobile kitchen, in fact, it would be possible to recover, transform and distribute food surpluses from the food chain and donate them. Follow the project on Facebook.

Make your donation for Waste Weel on: https://crowdfunding.bottomuptorino.it/ruotadiscarto/

• S.P.I.G.A Social Oven

S.P.I.G.A. is an inclusive bakery project that wants to give life to a social bakery for artisan re-generation in the outskirts of Turin, in Barriera di Milano, in the urban garden of Agrobarriera. The aim is to transform bakery into a moment of integration, an opportunity to make use of physical, cultural, social and environmental resources, according to the principles of the circular economy. The project also proposes the creation of a “grain library” in which to collect different types of seeds from all over Italy, promoting biodiversity. In order for this initiative to become a reality and reach the goal of 25,000 euros, your donation is also necessary. Follow the project on Facebook and Instagram.

Make your donation for S.P.I.G.A. on: https://crowdfunding.bottomuptorino.it/fornosocialespiga/

 

Waste Well and S.P.I.G.A. join forces and give you an appointment for the joint fundraising event Passata/e in Barriera (subscribe to the Facebook event and download the poster) scheduled for Saturday 19th September from 6 to 10 pm, in the urban garden of Agribarriera in via Petrella 28 Torino. The event is on Saturday but the space will be open for the whole weekend: an opportunity to make the sauce all together, discover the two projects and give them a real chance to be realized.

These are just two of the projects of Bottom Up!; to know and support all the others go to https://crowdfunding.bottomuptorino.it/.

Biennale Democrazia – an international cultural event involving citizens and in particular young people from schools and universities – will return to Turin from Wednesday 24 to Sunday 28 March 2021 with the seventh edition entitled “One planet, many worlds”.

The focus will be on our condition as inhabitants of a single planet, today increasingly connected but increasingly fragmented, with particular attention to the many factors that make it difficult to find common answers to problems of global significance. The health emergency has provided an exemplary demonstration of our dependence on the global context: for better or worse, in vulnerability as well as in solidarity. But it has also shown how important are the links – affective, cultural, political, legal – that place people in direct relationship with each other, shaping spaces of citizenship and what is perceived as “one’s own world”. We inhabit the same land, but we belong to different worlds.

The theme of the seventh edition of the Biennale Democrazia is divided into four paths to offer a broad and articulated reflection starting from a plurality of points of view.

• Planet-World. The demands of an environmentalist movement made up mostly of young citizens strongly show the urgency of returning to the discussion of global problems, aggravated today by the pandemic and its economic and social effects; among these also the new risks of nuclear conflict or biological weapons, developments in genetic engineering or artificial intelligence, the economically deflagrating potential of financial flows.
• Worlds against. In the face of increasingly connected societies, the fractures around which mutually hostile worlds are emerging are deepening: opposing geopolitical blocs, but also bitter conflicts, especially in democratic societies, today exacerbated by the social crisis that is maturing following the health crisis. It becomes so urgent to confront both the growth of economic inequalities and the exploitation of labour, and the pressing demand for identity and nationalist policies.
• Politics and other spheres. While the past few decades have accustomed us to think of politics as a compressed form on the stage of economic and technological globalisation, the world health crisis has once again shown its irreplaceable function. Thus the need to investigate the relationship between politics and other spheres of social life returns: first of all science, but also the economic sphere, the media, the world of culture and public opinion in general.
• New worlds. In times of crisis, there is a renewed need to look to the future to give new form to reality. Hence, the need to return to the paths traced by literature,
  from artistic creativity and the encounter with unknown worlds and to experiment with new looks on a saturated world like ours, renewing the drive to imagine possible futures, first of all from a political and social point of view.

TRAINING PATHS

Biennale Democrazia wants to be a support for students and teachers, confirming its commitment to support higher education and civic education. In preparation for the 2021 edition, BD is once again proposing four thematic courses to high schools in Turin and Italy, with the aim of providing students with analysis tools and keys to interpreting the emergency phase that has affected society as a whole and, above all, to reflect on the future transformations that already today give a glimpse of tomorrow’s world.
1) Cities; 2) Changes. Changes; 3) Counting in the world. The right to be counted; 4) Work in progress? Past, present and future of work: four paths structured by usable modules
by students both remotely and in the classroom with the mediation of the teachers. With particular attention to the interaction between students, the courses will offer a wide range of teaching materials (video, audio, readings, images) prepared by the Biennale Democrazia trainers. In light of the unprecedented conditions of these months, it has been decided to opt for video lectures accompanied by proposals for functional activities to promote reflection and discussion. The materials will be usable by all high schools in Italy, and classes in Turin who request them will be guaranteed an in-presence or distance meeting that will allow students to discuss with the trainers.

TWO CALLS TO PARTICIPATE

After the success of the previous editions, this year Biennale Democrazia launches two calls in order to promote openness to new audiences and new associations. The call Become an author
of BD 2021 is addressed to all citizens who wish to propose topics for discussion in the next edition. As part of a wider project to relaunch the cultural realities of the City, the second call will be
This year is reserved exclusively for associations in the Turin metropolitan area who want to contribute to the implementation of an initiative during the five days of the event. Biennial
Democracy will select up to 5 citizens’ ideas and up to 10 organisations’ projects. All proposals must be submitted by 15 October 2020 by filling in the dedicated form available on the biennaledemocrazia.it website.

Fantasy, social inclusion and urban regeneration: these are the three souls of “Loving the Alien Fest”, the Festival of Modern Fantasy organised by Mufant – Museo del Fantastico e della Fantascienza di Torino in collaboration with the social cooperative Altra Mente.

The first edition of the festival will take place from 18th to 20th September: Friday 18th the online event take place on the Mufant’s Facebook page and Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th at the Parco del Fantastico, the large public space next to the museum (via Reiss Romoli 49bis), with a series of events, presentations, concerts and shows.

The rich program will alternate moments dedicated to the most popular TV series, Japanese anime, cinema, contemporary literature and comics. The term “alien” will see an important declination in the concepts of “diversity” and  in its opposite, equality.

The initiative, in fact, is part of the Loving the Alien project that is part of the 15 projects of social innovation supported by the City of Turin (Torino Social Factory program) co-financed by the Pon Metro Programma Operativo Città Metropolitane 2014-2020 (measure 331A).

Loving the Alien was conceived and realised by Altra Mente and Mufant, two very different realities that share a common denominator: the love for the Alien, the Different, the Elsewhere. Starting from the regeneration process in the district of Borgo Vittoria, the project has redeveloped the vast garden adjacent to the museum, creating the “Parco del Fantastico”, a park with large installations made in two workshops (set design and costume design) that is creating employment, both for young professionals and professionals under occupation in the art sector, and for four people suffering from mental distress.

As part of the Festival of Sustainable Development, organised by the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, on Wednesday, September 23, from 11.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., the event Partnerships for Progress: alliances as an engine of resilience and inclusiveness will be held at the Reale Group Auditorium.

The main theme will be the 17th Sustainable Development Goal, which underlines the importance of partnerships to reduce inequalities and develop ecosystems capable of generating positive and measurable social impacts.

Speakers:

• City of Turin – Mayor Chiara Appendino
• Reale Group – CEO, Luca Filippone
• Lavazza Group – Vice Chairman, Marco Lavazza
• Fondazione La Stampa – Specchio dei Tempi – President, Lodovico Passerin d’Entrèves
• Dynamo Academy – President, Serena Porcari
• Torino Social Impact – Spokesperson, Prof. Mario Calderini
• UNHCR Italy – Spokesperson, Carlotta Sami
• GSG Global Steering Group for Impact Investment – Chief Market Development Officer, Kriztina Tora
• European Union – DG Growth – Policy Officer Social Economy, Karel Vanderpoorten
• Reale Group – Head of Sustainability & Institutional Communication, Virginia Antonini

Moderator: Andrea Crabini, Director of Class CNBC (Sky 507) and Class Life.

It will be possible to follow the live streaming on https://reale.top-ix.org/ and on the Reale Foundation’s Facebook page.

Hackability received the Honourable Mention of the XXVI ADI Golden Compass Award, one of the most prestigious international design awards.

Hackability is a non-profit company founded in Turin in 2016 to bring together the skills of designers, makers, digital craftsmen, with the needs (and inventiveness) of people with disabilities. To achieve this goal Hackability has developed a co-design and open innovation methodology that allows people with disabilities and care givers, with the support of makers and designers, to design and implement innovative and customized solutions for autonomy and care, focusing on their ideas, needs and skills.

In 2019, thanks to the contribution of the AxTo Azioni per le periferie torinesi della Città di Torino (measure 3.03), Hackability focused on the area of Turin between the former general markets and the Lingotto (project name: Hackability4MOI), involving about 80 makers, designers, craftsmen, Polytechnic students, people with disabilities, caregivers who worked together to find new solutions for autonomy in everyday life.

What attracted the attention of the international jury of the Compasso d’Oro was this way of working, judged unique, which in four years Hackability has applied to co-design a more accessible future in various areas such as food (thanks to the support of Barilla, Wasa and Harri’s), sport (with Juventus) and mobility (with Toyota and Arriva). But above all, it has made it possible to build co-design tables on accessibility and autonomy in the suburbs of Turin, Milan and Parma, in schools, universities and hospitals and also abroad, in Paris and Shanghai.

It is a great novelty that to win an award in the panorama of the great international design awards is a social innovation project that shifts the focus from design products – which are all released in open source – to social impact and innovation and research. Carlo Boccazzi Varotto, founder and co-founder of Hackability, says: “we are trying to give life in Turin, in addition to the Torino Social Impact ecosystem, the Polytechnic, Links Foundation and the city’s cultural institutions, to a centre that uses co-design as a tool to produce knowledge, open innovation processes aimed at businesses and inclusion to overcome stigma. Not only a prototyping laboratory but a real innovation hub able to create courses, workshops, co-design tables, conferences, exhibitions, putting people with disabilities at the centre”.

The objects and methodologies, awarded with the Compasso d’Oro Award or the Honorable Mention, become part of the ADI Compasso d’Oro Collection, declared on 22 April 2004 by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities of “exceptional artistic and historical interest”.

On 7 July Atelier Riforma launched its first “reward-based” crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, with a final goal of 8000 euros. Two months after the launch, the goal has been reached and exceeded!

Atelier Riforma is an innovative startup with a social vocation, established in Turin in April 2020. Its objective is to reduce the environmental impact of the fashion sector through the circular economy and sartorial creativity. The team collects used clothes from those who want to get rid of them and entrusts them to a network of tailoring realities that, through the process of transformation (called “upcycling”), gives them new value. Once transformed, the garments are sold by Atelier Riforma and can thus have a second life.

The idea for Atelier Riforma was born during the Fondazione CRT’s project “Talents for Enterprise”, a high-level training course aimed at training young people on entrepreneurship. In a year Atelier Riforma has gone from being a simple idea to a startup. Over 2000 garments were collected and a network of ten realities was created, including designers, tailors, sustainable brands and social tailors where people from fragile conditions work. Two collaborations have been established with fashion schools so that students, the professionals of tomorrow, can approach sustainable fashion and learn the art of upcycling. In addition, Atelier Riforma collaborates with two non-profit associations (the ABITO Project in Turin and the Abraham Association in Nichelino), giving them clothing that can be useful to people in economic and social difficulties. Atelier Riforma e-commerce has also been active for about two months now, where you can buy upcycling clothes, but it is only the beginning!
«We want to do much more. – they say – We want to create a traceability system that guarantees those who donate their garments to us the transparency of their destination. At the same time, we want to allow those who buy to discover who made the tailoring work on the garment they bought and understand their positive impact on the environment, generated by buying one of our reformed clothes».

In fact, it is not so easy for all of us today to be sustainable in the way we dress. If we decide to donate our used clothes by storing them in the appropriate bins, we risk the garments being intercepted by the illegal trade in textiles and, in general, the lack of transparency about the destination of the donation discourages many from doing what is essentially a good deed. In addition, the huge amount of clothing that arrives in Africa from Western countries (not donated, but sold) only destroys the local craftsmanship and textile economy. If, on the other hand, we decide to buy clothes made with “eco-friendly” raw materials and processes, we have to pay a lot of attention to “green-washing”, that is the phenomenon for which some fashion brands profess to be “green”, advertising apparently virtuous projects aimed at sustainability, but then in practice continue to produce most of their collections with processes that can be criticised from an ethical and environmental point of view.

In order to create its own traceability system, the Atelier Riforma team has set itself the objective of collecting 8.000 euros, making it its own through its products. It was in fact a “reward-based” crowdfunding campaign, i.e. those who donated will receive a reward in return – corresponding to the value of their donation. In other words: a sort of pre-sale. The team put a lot of money on this campaign. «We opted for a “fixed” target. So if we had not reached the target, we would have returned all the donations».

The results have exceeded expectations! As many as 235 people took part in the campaign, winning a wide variety of products: from a simple guide on sustainable fashion to bracelets made from T-shirts, to notebooks and diaries lined with jeans, to cases and backpacks made from used jeans upcycling, to T-shirts made from the combination of several T-shirts, but also reformed clothes and jumpers made from regenerated yarn. «This great success has given us confirmation of people’s interest in our products and service, as well as the growing sensitivity of people to environmental issues and company ethics. Every gesture has been important to us, we thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts and hope that this is the beginning of a long and virtuous journey».

IN RESIDENCE DESIGN WORKSHOP # 14: “TRUTH TELLERS”

Designers / Tutors:
Thomas Ballouhey + Soft Baroque
When:
4-7 November 2020
Where is it:
MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon
In the context of:
MAAT Mode 2020
Curated by:
Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò

IN Residence Design Workshop # 14 will take place in Lisbon, in the wonderful context of the MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, a prestigious cultural institution that has always been committed to promoting critical discourse and creative practice.

Participation in the workshop – mainly addressed to university students, young professionals of creativity and design-enthusiast – is limited, being reserved for a maximum of 24 people.

Participation Tickets can be purchased directly from the IN Residence website.

We are also happy to announce that the MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology contributes significantly to this educational project, supporting a total of 15 scholarships to be able to participate for free in the workshop. To compete for the selection, candidates must send their RESUME and PORTFOLIO plus a short MOTIVATION LETTER by and no later than September 21st 2020 to the address info@inresidence-design.com. Candidates selected as scholarship winners will be contacted by email no later than September 25th 2020. PLEASE NOTE: Scholarships do not cover travel and accommodation expenses.

For more information visit www.inresidence-design.com

IN RESIDENCE DESIGN WORKSHOP # 14: “TRUTH TELLERS”

Designers / Tutors:
Thomas Ballouhey + Soft Baroque
When:
4-7 November 2020
Where is it:
MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon
In the context of:
MAAT Mode 2020
Curated by:
Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò

IN Residence Design Workshop # 14 will take place in Lisbon, in the wonderful context of the MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, a prestigious cultural institution that has always been committed to promoting critical discourse and creative practice. Participation in the workshop – mainly addressed to university students, young professionals of creativity and design-enthusiast – is limited, being reserved for a maximum of 24 people.

Participation Tickets can be purchased directly from the IN Residence website.

We are also happy to announce that the MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology contributes significantly to this educational project, supporting a total of 15 scholarships to be able to participate for free in the workshop. To compete for the selection, candidates must send their RESUME and PORTFOLIO plus a short MOTIVATION LETTER by and no later than September 21st 2020 to the address info@inresidence-design.com. Candidates selected as scholarship winners will be contacted by email no later than September 25th 2020. PLEASE NOTE: Scholarships do not cover travel and accommodation expenses.

For more information visit www.inresidence-design.com

How can design for social innovation concretely contribute to the regeneration of democratic systems?

Monday, September 28th, 2020, in ONLINE mode, our Impact Dive Design and democracy curated by Cottino Social Impact Campus with Nik Baerten and Virginia Tassinari.

The objective of our Impact Dive is to provide its participants with expertise on design methodologies for social innovation interpreted in the light of the co-creative and co-generative dimension, involving citizens, administrators and other local key players.

Learning Journey with:

• Nik Baerten
• Virginia Tassinari

Is it possible to regenerate cities by involving citizens, local administrators and other stakeholders to rethink the cities of the future in a more participatory, resilient, ecosystemic and sustainable way?

From 30 September to 2 October 2020 + spring 2021, in ONLINE – BLENDED mode, our Impact Agenda The city of the future curated by Cottino Social Impact Campus, with Nik Baerten and Virginia Tassinari.

The aim of our Impact Agenda is to provide its participants with expertise in design methodologies for urban regeneration and the construction of future scenarios for cities.

Learning Journey with:

• Nik Baerten
• Virginia Tassinari

What are the impact tools and how to use them?

From 22 to 25 September 2020 + 9 October 2020, in BLENDED mode, our Impactware Understanding the impact: development tools curated by Cottino Social Impact Campus, with Nik Baerten, Valeria Cavotta, Laura Orestano, Elisa Ricciuti, Alberto Robiati and Virginia Tassinari.

The objective of our Impactware is to provide its participants with an effective and functional instrumentation for the construction and design of actions oriented to social impact, both at individual and organizational level.

Learning Journey with:

• Nik Baerten
• Valeria Cavotta
• Laura Orestano
• Elisa Ricciuti
• Alberto Robiati
• Virginia Tassinari

Would you like to work in the world of Data Science and in building social impact solutions from data?

From September 21, 2020 to January 29, 2021, in BLENDED mode, our Impact Academy
DASI: Data Arts and Science for Impact by the Cottino Social Impact Campus and the Data Arts & Science for Impact team.

The aim of the Impact Academy is to guarantee the participant the development of hard and soft skills to face a Data Science project from the beginning to the end.

Learning Journey with:

• Mara Bianchi
• Barbara Bonoli
• Ferruccio Costantini
• Raul De Maio
• Alessio Giangrande
• Chiara Perricone
• Pierluigi Perri
• Andrea Tinterri
• Flavio Venturini
• Marta Ziosi

Fondazione Brodolini, together with ItaliaCamp, Forcoop, San Donato Scs, Stranaidea and Vides Main, started the project “(Im)perfect Futures”, supported by Compagnia di San Paolo – with the aim of helping young people who have no voice to imagine, aspire and build a future as protagonists by participating in a training program that includes several practical and interactive workshops, to acquire skills, explore new worlds and learn more about themselves and their aspirations.

How does the project “(Im)perfect Futures” work?

It develops in three phases:

1. Future Workshops: between October and December, ForwardTO – Studies and Skills for Future Scenarios will guide participants in exploring possible futures through techniques related to theater, videomaking, written and oral narration and other art forms. From the scenarios identified will arise a common manifesto, which will be the basis on which the association will work at the end of the course.

2. Training path: at the beginning of 2021 will start an accompanying path aimed at providing skills for the activation and management of an associative reality and more generally of social innovation.

3. Constitution of the association: at the end of the course participants will create an association based at Open Incet for the promotion of projects related to cultural and civic innovation with particular reference to young people and their right and need to aspire to a future.

Who can participate?

Two main targets will work in parallel:

– Young people from 14 to 18 years old

– Young people from 18 to 30 years old

How to participate?

Those who wish to participate must fill in the registration form (by clicking here) with the required information, and attach a letter or a graphic project (drawing or photo with caption) to present themselves and how they see themselves in the future.

What will be the “skills of the future”?

On September 15-17-22 2020 (6 hours total) from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm take part at our Impact Academy| e-Learn! Foresight PRIMER curated by Cottino Social Impact Campus and ForwardTO, with Filippo Barbera e Alberto Robiati.

The goal of the Impact Academy| e-Learn! is to know the main methods to explore and generate possible futures, define roadmaps, reconfigure strategies and reinvent their systems (products, services, processes, organizations).

Learning Journey with:

• Filippo Barbera
• Alberto Robiati

What skills should a manager or leader have in an increasingly complex and digitized environment?

On September 14-21-28 + October 5-12 2020, in ONLINE mode, our Impact Academy
I-Leadership by Cottino Social Impact Campus with Andrea Granelli.

The goal of the Impact Academy is to provide the participant with the tools of impact leadership.

Learning Journey with:

• Andrea Granelli

Support Viaggio Italia4Hackability, the crowdfunding campaign promoted by Hackability and Viaggio Italia to donate 3D printers to some Spinal Units.

Viaggio Italia is the extraordinary journey that Danilo and Luca started on August 18th, with their handbikes, through Italy. Danilo and Luca’s friendship began in the corridors of the Spinal Unit in Turin over 20 years ago, after an accident, a dramatic event that they chose to live as “a beginning”. The beginning of a new life, a new way of seeing things, a new adventure. Viaggio Italia is a challenge, to show that living with a disability is possible: a journey from north to south, from Turin to Etna, to discover and talk about everyday life and accessibility. It is also a journey to the Italian Spinal Units, to bring a strong and simple message about how life in autonomy is possible, directly where you start to understand how to live again.

Thanks to “Viaggio Italia” Hackability intends to donate 3D printers to some of the Spinal Units and rehabilitation centers that, crossing Italy by handbike, Luca and Danilo will touch during their journey.

Support the project!

How digital platforms for Open Innovation can enable the development of territories? How can territories accelerate the development of open innovation processes?

Territorial digital platforms and their impact on the development of territorial competitiveness are at the center of the reflection that this webinar proposes starting from the concrete experience of ART-ER with the EROI platform, developed by Emilia-Romagna as a tool for territorial Open Innovation.

The SmartCommunitiesTech Cluster talks about it with Digital Magics, the most important business incubator of Italian startups, ART-ER that for the Emilia-Romagna Region manages the EROI platform, Social Seed that coordinates a community of Social Innovators and Mango Mobile Solutions, a company that on EROI has launched a challenge to start an open innovation process.

The webinar is free.

AGENDA AND REGISTRATION ON EVENTBRITE

The artistic residence of the winners of the competition QUANTE ITALIE?, which was promoted by Artissima and Torino Social Impact, started on September 1st and ended on Septemeber 30th. 

Last May, the Torino Social Impact Art Award – The prize conceived by Artissima and Torino Social Impact and addressed to emerging talents with a multicultural and migratory background – announced the two winners of the call for artistic residence: Caterina Erica Shanta (Germany, 1986) and Liryc Dela Cruz (Philippines, 1992).

The two young talents selected had the opportunity to be in residence in Torino for one month to produce a new video work that involves reflections on the theme of “How Many Italies?”, the title and focus of this first edition of the Torino Social Impact Art Award.

“How many Italies?” invites the young winners to contribute to the transformation of social perceptions on particularly urgent issues, examining life stories considered “distant” to investigate themes such as identity and cooperation, relying on their own multicultural background and personal, faceted and innovative viewpoints, through constant and productive interaction with the context and stimuli of the city of Torino.

The selection of the artists took place through the publication of a call sent to the leading Italian Fine Arts Academies and Universities and digitally distributed. The call received submissions from 22 artists: video artists, photographers, painters and performers, ranging in age from 22 to 35 years, with a slight majority of women (thirteen) and foreigners (twelve). The existence of a multicultural and migratory background in the artist’s life story was a fundamental requirement of the call, interpreted by the candidates in close relation to family history, and in relation to professional and educational experiences. Living for a long period of time in contact with other cultures, and having assimilated their characteristics, many of the candidates feel like “citizens of the world” and see their research as the result of migratory experience. Artists of many different origins responded to the call, with roots in Southeast Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, Central America, South America, the Middle East and the Far East. All the candidates have demonstrated a strong interest in the creation of collaborative works based on dialogue with the inhabitants of Torino.

The two winners have been selected by a committee composed of Ilaria Bonacossa, director of Artissima, Mario Calderini, professor at Politecnico di Milano and spokesperson of Torino Social Impact, Antonio Damasco, director of Rete Italiana di Cultura Popolare, Danilo Correale, artist, and Anna Daneri, curator.

During the residency – initially scheduled for the month of May and postponed to September due to the health emergency – the artists stayed at Combo, the hospitality partner of the project and an innovative format that combines the idea of lodging with artistic and cultural programming open to experimentation. The daily interaction with the heterogeneous community that inhabits and frequents the spaces of Combo, as well as the synergic proximity to Porta Palazzo – the largest market in Europe – which lends its name to the historically multi-ethnic neighborhood that is Combo’s location, permitted the artists in residence to constantly absorb new stimuli and inspirations.

Stimuli were enhanced by the visits organized by Artissima and Torino Social Impact to accompany the artists in the discovery of the city and its most significant artistic, cultural, and social expressions. Artissima also guided the artists in the development of their works, with specific processes of tutoring.

The shared focus on experimentation has led Artissima and Torino Social Impact to formulate the project with the aim of widening the boundaries of action of social innovation to contemporary art. Concentrating on the space of multiculturalism in today’s society, the initiative proposed new relationships and opened unexpected scenarios through the languages and gazes of the winning artists.

 

THE WINNERS

Caterina Erica Shanta won the Torino Social Impact Art Award with the project: Talking about visibility, for the following reasons:

“For the social impact of her proposal, based on horizontal dialogue and exchange of viewpoints. For the desire to question and focus on the imaginary of cinema of each of us, with the aim of giving rise to a project of collective cinema, involving several multi-ethnic communities of Torino and producing a work capable of conveying stories and narratives that shift from the personal to the social dimension.”

Born to an Italian mother and an American father, Caterina Erica Shanta has lived in various countries and been in contact with a range of different communities. Like other works recently made by the artist, Talking about visibility is a place of construction of identity, otherness and memory that places the accent on the act of recognition of self in a given imaginary, and on the visibility of that imaginary inside a common narrative.

 

Liryc Dela Cruz, a filmmaker from the Philippines, won the Torino Social Impact Art Award with the project Il Mio Filippino: Invisible Bodies, Neglected Movements, for the following reasons:

“For the force of social investigation proposed, focusing on the documentation of the collective movement of migration, its perception, the forgotten labour force and social rejection. For the intention to put a silent, subterranean world at the centre of the research, inhabited by people who remain unobserved or overlooked, but who play a fundamental role in our society.”

As in other works thematically linked to his roots and history, the Filipino community of Torino will be the protagonist of the research. The artist, concentrating on the everyday life of domestic workers, sets out to produce a video with choreographic elements.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE ARTISTS

Caterina Erica Shanta

Born in Germany in 1986, Caterina Erica Shanta is an artist and director who develops documentary film projects with a particular focus on media systems for the production and archiving of images.

With a degree in Visual Arts from IUAV University of Venice, her works have been shown at various film festivals and in contemporary art exhibitions. She has worked in the field of education for several years, conducting workshops for children and adults.

Her works have been presented in art spaces and film events, including: Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (FI); Progetto Borca, Borca di Cadore (BL); PAV Parco Arte Vivente (TO); Lago Film Festival, (TV); MAMbo, Bologna (BO); Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano (MI).

 

Liryc Dela Cruz

Born in the Philippines in 1992, Liryc Dela Cruz took a degree in Mass Communication at the University of Davao (PH). He moved to Italy in 2017, and lived for six months in Torino, then moving to Rome where he presently lives and works.

His works have been selected and screened in international film festivals and art exhibitions. Among his various honours and events, we can mention: representation of Italy at Young Artist UK in Nottingham; Editor-in-Chief of the exhibition “Where is South” at Palazzo Querini, Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi in the context of the initiative “Rothko in Lampedusa” during the 58th Venice Biennale; he collaborated with the Festival del Cinema Mediterraneo in Rome as coordinator of Progetto Methexis (2019). Recently he was selected as one of the emerging young filmmakers to represent Italy in the section of the Berlinale Talents festival during the 70th Berlinale International Film Festival. He will also take part in the INFRA project from 2020 to 2021 for Teatro di Roma.