“Parco Tutti Insieme” - The First Multi-Active Park In Italy Fully Accessible To The Disabled, Especially Those With Physical Disabilities

Project location: Italy, Rome
Project start date: October 2014 - Project end date: October 2014
Project number: 2014-040
Beneficiary: Associazione La Partita del Cuore – Umanità senza Confini ONLUS

 

The association “La Partita del Cuore – Humanity without Boundaries” ONLUS was created in 2005 by will of the Association National Team of Singers in order to collect funds to be destined to realization of important projects of solidarity and of direct and concrete help to whom is less fortunate.
Founding members are Andrij Shevchenko, dr. Gianluca Pecchini and Notary Luciano Quaggia.
During those nine years funds were collected and entirely donated with the support of the events organized and promoted by the Associations:
Broadcasted live on Italy’s first national channel Rai Uno, the Partita del Cuore became a traditional event in which the National Italian Singers Team has a leading role, and the Association embodies the centre of collection for the funds, not only by managing the ticket sales for the stadium, but mostly, the donations which arrive thanks to the phone calls received from fixed and mobile lines, through the SMS-text for charity and the direct payments through credit cards.
The values and the ethics which inspired and guided every single action of the Association were successfully converted into important projects of solidarity, in Italy and abroad.
For example, the attention and the strong commitment to the value of research was shown with the support of Telethon, the Foundation for Research on Cancer, the Ail, the AISM and not only, many minor provincial associations were financed for the acquisition of blood donating chairs (AVIS) or ambulance cars geared with the necessary machinery such as defibrillators.
Another guiding principal is legality, and a great example are the projects of the Falcone Foundation, the Magistrates Association, the Capitano Ultimo Foundation, with actor Raol Bova,  and the support of Don Ciotti.
Many of the international projects include those inspired by the value of peace, respect for minorities and different cultures and education: with the help of the Dalai Lama and US actor Richard Gere a Tibetan school was built in India, with the collaboration of Rigoberta Menchù another school with a formation centre was created in Guatemala, a formation school in Somalia, the projects of integration achieved thanks to the support of the Gorbaciov Foundation with other Nobel Prices for Peace, and a series of operations in the African continent (Sudan, Congo, Kenya and Senegal).
In addition to the projects mentioned above, the biggest effort sustained by the Association is related to the Parco della Mistica, a park of over 27 hectares within the Commune of Rome assigned to the Foundation Parco della Mistica in order to create a public park for the education of the values of legality and solidarity:
For this purpose a Foster home was created (already a home to 8 minors since 2012) and in 2014 (first case in Italy) a 4 hectares space accessible and utilizable also by the disable, will open with a playground, a picnic area, an 18 hole mini-golf course approved for official competitions, and a bio-lake with a small bridge and an educational itinerary.

The Tutti Insieme (All Together) park is a project actively sustained by the National Association of Italian Singers whom, thanks to the funds collected through the years with the “La Partita del Cuore” events, have been promoting the project in order to create a structure and an area where everyone can share and experience the importance of recreational relations and sport.
Tutti Insieme park is not only a multi-activity park – the first in Italy – fully accessible to the disabled (especially those with physical disabilities) but is also an open air space, suitable for all generations, where cultural and physical barriers are overcome by the socializing of people from any cultural background.
The park was inaugurated on Sunday the 8th of June 2014 with a successful public party. The 4 hectare park includes: a children’s playground (created specifically to include the most possible people in recreational activities), an 18 hole mini-golf course (unique in Lazio region) homologated by FIGSP (Italian Golf on Track Federation) for official competitions, a picnic area with a gazebo and barbeque grills, a bio-lake (in which the combined action of plants and cleaning lapillus “filters and depurates” the water without the use of any chemical substances) with a small bridge which allows its crossing, a central pavilion which includes two football tables, one of which “special” because homologated by the FPICB (Italian Para-Olympic Federation of Table Football) which allows disabled players to comfortably play from their wheelchairs. Also there will soon be a football pitch and a volley ball pitch (both will be seeded in September, and until then shall be in regular soil) and an area, which has already been defined and settled, just for events and shows which shall host concerts, film festivals, markets, expositions and parties. 


The Nando Peretti Foundation has awarded a grant to achieve these goals:

•    management and maintenance: the expenses for the park maintenance and management– excluding the equipment which has already been acquired-  are mostly related to the cutting and preservation of the greenery (the lawn, the plants and the edges) supervised by qualified personnel, the general cleaning (toilets and pavillon) and the bills for potable water and light. 
•    palaeontology excavating camp: this project implies the creation of an “educational-scientific itinerary around the evolution of life”. Starting from the bio-lake the itinerary is set by info-panels and scale reconstructions of various animals which evolved starting from the fish/amphibious to the insects, reptiles, mammals and finally a palaeontology camp where the public (mostly children and teenagers) can experience excavating and reconstructing a dinosaur and reproducing, with the necessary materials, it’s tracing and footprints. This project is achieved with the collaboration between a popular science palaeontology expert along with a geologist, and will be fully accessible also to the disabled, who can access the normal itinerary or a dedicated structure in wood, which is slightly higher than the ground, but simulates the terrain where the excavation takes place. 
•    arts house: a 200 square meters multi-functional structure, accessible also for the disabled, to host music, theatre, painting, sculpture, photography courses and, at the same time, an exhibition-exposition room to publicly display the creations, also usable as a conference room or for various activities. Also agreements have been reached with art institutes and various social cooperatives for the introduction of courses to  sustain and integrate the disabled operating in the artistic-cultural sector ;
•    sport area extention: with two bocce (petanque) courts and a multi-activity court for tennis and basketball (both accessible and usable) and a beach volley court, all three areas served by one prefabricated changing room . 
•    The Sensorial Garden and Alzheimer House is surely enough the most ambitious project of the entire park, which will require the largest investment, in both economical and planning terms. The idea is to create a garden with so-called “sensorial” abilities, so that the “space” can be experienced not only as a relationship-wise instrument, but utterly as a therapeutic space to: reduce behavior issues, especially those related to space-time disorientation, escape attempts, wandering and catastrophic reactions, reduce the use of psychoactive medications, reduce (or abolish) the use of restrainment, defer the deterioration of functional abilities, stimulate the remaining abilities and stimulate the remote memory of patients with references to their previous activities, (for example growing vegetables, nurturing flowers, walking in the garden), and compensating for the cognitive and functional deficits caused by dementia.
The green space (the garden will follow its seasonal changes) is set to become a space for the senses (touch, smell, sight) and for connecting. Senses will be stimulated in specific small areas dedicated to essences: chromatic areas (specific plants are selected in order to guarantee the correct color distribution) and aromatic areas (plants that’s intense perfumes can be smelled by touching the leaves). The connecting space is represented by the green turf and the trees. This entire project is achieved with the collaboration between the architect and the paramedic personnel which will later guide the patients across the garden.

At the same time, in order to avoid creating an “oasis in the desert” and to preserve the garden’s project, the ground floor (160 square meters) of a two story building assigned to the Italian Singers National Team right in front of the park (just 15 minutes distance) and inside the Tenuta della Mistica (the name of the building) which would become the welcome-entertainment centre, will be renovated with a medical area for Alzheimer patients, in order to guarantee a global assistance. 


In short, this project will achieve  management and maintenance for the cutting and preservation of the greenery (the lawn, the plants and the edges), the general cleaning (toilets and pavillon) and the bills for potable water and light. Increase in knowledge of the evolutionary age of the earth and the animals especially for schoolchildren, with a focus on accessibility for the disabled, which will have the opportunity to experience live paleontological excavation, with playful and methodological approach with direct experience .

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