A Community at the service of the territory

The Salesian Oratory Michele Rua was founded in the early 1920s, and has been part of the wider reality of Barriera di Milano, Borgata Monterosa, in Turin for over a hundred years. It has always been a driving force, a hookup and an educational hub for the young people of the neighborhood who have attended and still attend it for play or study, alone or with their families.

The Michele Rua Community is a vital point of reference for the neighborhood. The school complex with more than 570 pupils from 3 to 14 years of age made up of the Mamma Margherita Infancy School, the San Domenico Savio Primary School and the Michele Rua Secondary School is one of the most important educational center of the town; the Monterosa Amateur Sports Association that has 6 active sectors and 450 members; the Monterosa Community Hall that feeds the need for culture with cinema, theatre reviews and a summer arena; and the San Domenico Savio Parish that guarantees personal and family growth,  with the Salesian Cooperators Association, the Union of Men and Former Pupils Association and the Golden Age Group are examples of all-round aggregation.

Moreover, the Michele Rua educational-pastoral community is enriched by the presence of charitable realities with different charisms, but fundamental for accompanying families, which remains the first focus of our actions. Every day, realities such as Caritas, San Vincenzo and Friends of the Sick approach many of the poorest families in our area for a parcel of food, or to include them in more structured paths such as Amico Speak and Amico Digital to acquire specific skills in IT or the Italian language.

The core of the Salesian Presence is the COURTYARD, around which all the other activities revolve and hinge. On a daily basis it welcomes more than 150 young people (which become more than 500 during the summer center in June and July), from first grade to middle school, and even university students, engaged as much in free play as in structured sports activities, as well in the Day Care Centre, in training or in structured after-school activities.

The latest activities arising from an analysis of the situation are the Maker Labs in which, yearly, more than 1,000 young people, since 2021, have the opportunity to be engaged in practical activities such as tailoring, carpentry and digital workshops. Through these activities, the Maker Labs aim to redeem young people who have difficulties in studying and concentration. Thanks to a creative learning method their interests are stimulated and they have the possibilities to approach the study in a different way.

Moreover, in order to enable young adults to start a job, new pathways have been tried. In addition to classroom lessons, we added also a babysitting service, several meetings of analysis of the family context and we activated a support network to find answers to their basic needs.

The volunteers

So many activities require a great work. Alongside the work of the Salesian priests, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and a group of almost ninety employees (teachers and non-teachers, educators, administrative and service staff), the real strength of the Oratory is the consistent group of more than 300 volunteers, who, for various reasons and in different circumstances, offer their time and professionalism, now for small maintenance or cleaning jobs, now for assistance and after-school care, now for animation, catechesis, sports activities or Maker labs.

It is precisely the work of the volunteers which guarantees an important added value to the activities. Their presence assures a concrete answer to the arising needs in a real perspective of co-responsibility with the religious community.