Torino Social Factory aims at supporting bottom-up initiatives promoted by third sector organizations, that can produce positive impacts in terms of social inclusion and job creation in targeted areas of Turin with problems of socio-economic exclusion, according to an approach of self-sustainability.

Torino Social Factory is a process of recognition, selection, capacity building, incubation and start-up of social entrepreneurs. It is promoted by Turin Municipality which operates as the intermediate body for the implementation of the National Operational Programme “Metropolitan Cities” (PON Metro), managed by the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion.

At a first stage, Turin Municipality selected through a public call 25 projects of social innovation in the targeted areas, that were able to produce positive impacts on “urban poverty, social vulnerabilities, unemployment, cultural integration and social cohesion”. The proposals needed to be experimental, to develop innovative approaches of proximity and community welfare for social needs that had not been successfully treated by traditional models of public intervention yet.

From March to May 2018, the promoters of the selected projects have been supported by an Incubation Lab: a process structured in 4 workshops that has tried to transfer knowledge to the teams.

After completing the Incubation Lab, the teams were asked to develop a more advanced version of their initial proposals and submit the revised versions of the projects for the final assessment. In July, at the end of the assessment procedure, 12 projects were approved and received a grant up to 140,000 Euros.

The second stage of the programme will start in September 2018 and will continue for one year, whilst the projects will have two years for their implementation.