CENTRO D'ASCOLTO
“He who opens a school door, closes a prison”. Victor Hugo expresses the feeling with which I have always experienced the project of Centro d’ Ascolto (a supporting centre),located in San Valentino, one of the areas of the municipality of Cisterna di Latina. The centre was conceived as a real mainstay against drug addiction. With time, however, its scope widened, and it became a tool to prevent marginalisation and juvenile delinquency, welcoming some particularly “difficult” children among its participants.
The Centre cannot be compared to a real school. However, the activities carried out there were of highly educational value and were developed in order for the children to recognise the site as their“second home” and the professionals working there as their reference points. The strategy enacted to involve the children included art and sports, with which we managed to teach them the importance of rules and of constant commitment to gain results and success. Games and team tournaments proved essential in getting them used to interaction and reciprocal respect.
The time devoted to helping some of the children with their homework allowed them to overcome their difficulties at school. Hence, some of them were able to pass, and this contributed to reduce the rate of early school leaving, which is still an important issue in the area.
Cinema and theatre laboratories, along with the excursions organized with older mates, allowed younger children to enjoy experiences they were not accustomed to and get to know realities they probably would never see. All in all, both the site and the project have proven sources of personal enhancement for the children who attended the Centre over the years. Above all, they have been such for me.
Coordinating a staff in charge of delicate and challenging tasks, interacting with the representatives of social services, the head teachers and teachers of the schools across the area, the doctors and workers of the Centro di Neuropsichiatria infantile (child neuro-psychiatric Centre)and the juvenile court, when required, have all represented added values for my training and my role in project working.
Among our projects :
LIBRI IN QUARTIERE & 167 MODI DI DIRE COLORE
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“Libri in Quartiere” (one of the actions of the public tender “Io leggo”, issued by Regione Lazio to promote reading and the library as forces of social inclusion) brought the Town Library to San Valentino for a whole week with a series of events organized by Il Ponte Onlus and comprising readings, games, dance, music, sport, writing, meetings with writers and street artists.
Among the activities of the project, the opening of ”167 modi di dire colore”, a work of urban embellishment, stood out: a huge mural (700m2 wide) designed to give colour and liveliness to a neglected bridge, which had been the object of a previous collaboration project of Il Ponte Onlusand local artists of the group Hawana Family.
In an area where culture should play a key role, the projects intertwined, giving more significance to each other.
BE A M U S E
BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Be a Muse is first of all an artistic path made of “glances” resulting in a photographic project on the theme of identity.
The project was devised in order to prompt reflection on what identity is in the contemporary world, which is extremely connected and merciless and where social networks give no concessions to anybody. Hence, people’s virtual image runs the risk of coinciding with their real identity.
The project involved six participants among boys and girls who were genuinely attached to each other and to the developers of the project. They accepted the challenge to become “Muses” and interpret sites we had chosen: a deconsecrated church and a library. Then, we selected 23 shots depicting those young people smiling, or lost in thought, or interacting with each other: the images of individuals who did not give themselves up to that tricky short-cut leading to social oblivion.
Alessandro Comandini, oncologist and freelance journalist, has published on scientific journals internationally. He has started a career as a photographer and is founding member of “100 ASA”, a cultural and photographic association (founded in 2013).
Nadia has always put other people to the fore during her occupation as manager of Centro ServiziDidattici "PantaRei” and while leading the activities of the association of volunteers Il Ponte Onlus, of which she is the president and the core.
Nadia is particularly skilled in communicating with other people, no matter what their role in society or age are, preferring nonetheless the weakest, “difficult” young people, the disadvantaged; in short, all those people who need a helping hand to guide them or to point them a dream to pursue. Her communicative approach is successful as she puts herself on an equal footing as her interlocutors, without judging and without losing her authoritativeness.
She likes to say that her method is based on Socrates’s maieutics. However, I think that her approach goes well beyond that: Nadia is able to open up different communication channels, both verbal and non-verbal, which make her the fulcrum of a network of energies and project design.
Nadia cannot stop: she doesn’t stop even when difficulties and obstacles arise. She doesn’t stop when hindered by bureaucracy. Nor does she rest on her laurels once she has reached her goal. For this reason, having considered the idea for a long time and having handed over Centro PantaRei to her former students, now she is looking for new opportunities and challenges to embark in.
They’ll be lucky folks who get to meet her.
Alessandro Comandini