“Rete delle Case del Quartiere” (lit. Network of Neighborhood Houses), is an organisation established by the eight “Case del Quartiere” (Neighborhood Houses) of the City of Turin.
The Houses are places of active participation: they encourage people to take part in the social and cultural life of the neighborhood and the city, through different forms of active citizenship, volunteering and cultural activities. They’re places where people research and experiment new ways of doing welfare, developing proximity based networks and the research of collective solutions to common needs
The Neighborhood Houses are managed by different subjects deeply-rooted in the territory, associations of first and second level, foundations and cooperatives, that are the result of participatory processes that involved, at the time of the establishment, various local actors. The Houses are management models able to constantly learn from experience, verify the suitability of the different proposed activities, catch and analyze needs and expectations, update their own project fixing it to new demands.
They define themselves as Houses, because their goal is to make people feel at home. They’re places of everyday life, in an open dimension, where it’s possible to stay, socialize, and activate yourselves, taking part in activities and becoming promoters of projects and initiatives.
The Houses host, collect and give value to cultural, artistic, social and recreational activities, information desks, courses, workshops, family services, performances, lectures, exhibitions. The Houses guide and support those institutions who aim to promote projects and events, making available knowledges, spaces, tools and resources for a successful and self-organised realisation of them. The Houses are places for artistic and cultural promotion, because they recognize creativity and expression as a powerful tool for community and future. They found their strength on those aspects that link them one to another, and on those that depend on each house and neighborood’s characteristics.
