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Home from Home - JAMESPLUMB at Rossana Orlandi
date: 01-10-2010
Progetto Itaca Napoli is 10 years old on 2024: great milestones ahead
Information and rehabilitation, support to mental disease patients and families
A quiet and functional convent encloses a sunny courtyard and a cheerful solidarity kitchen: it is a place that inspires strength and calm at the same time. It is also an address, unique in Campania Region (Italy), that heals with a bundle of energy of doing and the strength of empathy.
Located in Chiaia district, it is the home of Progetto Itaca.
It hosts a miracle that has no equivalent in Italian public or private assistance: the Itaca Club where from Monday to Thursday until 5 pm, its 'members' meet, live, have lunch and experiment in workshops and all-round training.
From the arts to language, from artistic craftsmanship to poetry to the approach to professional world and specific training plans. In common, a very special card: having recognized that they suffer from a mental disorder and the will to want to face it to return to a full life. To a complete socio-professional rehabilitation.
The Itaca Napoli club, directed by Gennaro Reder, is just one of the great solidarity interventions of the Progetto Itaca Foundation, active in Milan since 2012 and with a total of 17 locations throughout Italy: a support and care network carried out with the sole strength of its qualified volunteers and a group of private donors.
The Italian Foundation promotes information, prevention, support and rehabilitation programs aimed at people suffering from mental health disorders and their families.
In addition to the incredible and tangible work of the Clubs that have allowed hundreds of members to return to full life, there is also the Listening Line, a toll-free number reachable from a landline (800 274 274) and mobile (02 29007166) active from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 10 pm (linea.ascolto@progettoitaca.org): it provides telephone support with national extension for people suffering from mental distress and their families. It offers empathic listening, personal support and guidance in the world of mental health services. The Listening Line receives and manages over 10,000 requests per year.
The School Project (active since 2000) in 22 years has brought dozens of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, volunteers and professionals, to Italian schools where they have met school authorities, families and thousands of young students throughout Italy.
The purpose of this intervention, more than ever a priority in our days, is "knowing to prevent". Where prevention and information become the keystones for school inclusion, as well as for restoring well-being and showing the way to a full and satisfying life again, even for those who were already affected by mental suffering. Over 17,000 students are involved annually in the School Project.
The Naples office, chaired by Arch. Fabio Pignatelli della Leonessa, celebrates 10 years of activity this year and has 48 members, 12 of whom are active volunteers involved in the daily activities of the Organization.
The members of the Itaca Napoli Club are currently 65 with an average of 25 children and adults most active in daily participation. Throughout Italy there are over 700 children registered with the Itaca Clubs, over 14,000 people assisted in other activities.
Progetto Itaca Napoli Fall timetable is heavily sparkling: fundraising evenings, cultural and scientific events open to the general public, political decision makers and professionals with the Club members and their families at the center.
After a very attended fundraising dinner, offered on the occasion of the anniversary of the Patron Saint of Naples by the Dynastic Orders of the Royal House of Savoy, Itaca Napoli is ready to involve citizens in the celebration of the Mental Health Day established by the World Health Organization which falls on Thursday, October 10. The monumental Fountain of Neptune located in Piazza Municipio will be illuminated on the initiative of the Municipality of Naples for ‘Let’s turn on the lights’ on mental distress.
Every year in conjunction with Mental Health Day, Itaca chooses irony and a direct and inclusive language by organizing Tutti Matti per il Riso both on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October with the distribution of rice packets (which can also be received at home) and the presence of qualified volunteers to raise awareness among citizens and to help eliminate the stigma that surrounds people with mental distress.
In Naples, the appointment is at Piazza Santa Caterina da Siena, Piazza San Pasquale (Chiaia) and Via Scarlatti (Vomero) from 9:30 to 14:30 with the special participation of digital chef Lulù Gargari, 2024 testimonial.
With an audience of 350,000 followers on Instagram, she is the author of Farfalle nella pancia and Nient’altro che la verità. Born in 1997, before becoming a chef she was an actress for advertising and TV series. Lulù takes the baton from those who preceded her in the past editions and personally takes care of the social challenge #tuttimattiperilriso involving and encouraging her followers to create recipes with rice to talk about mental well-being without stigma.
She started the challenge by signing a special and original pumpkin risotto whose recipe is distributed in all Italian squares.
The news for Tutti Matti per il Riso 2024 do not end here. The Latte d’artista initiative unites two non-profit organizations, Progetto Itaca and UltraBlu, committed to fighting stigma and stereotypes towards people who live with a vulnerability.
The collaboration includes the creation of 2,000 limited edition cans, each with a design born from the creativity of the neurodivergent artists of UltraBlu.
Each can and each kg of rice it contains represent the hope of living a full and dignified life, and concrete help to many people to be reborn from the disease with which they live.
Those who want to donate and will not be present in the squares of Naples or the rest of the country, can entrust their online contribution to the Itaca channel on Amazon Charity and secure a tin and rice for mental well-being.
On Saturday 26 October 2024, the Pio Monte della Misericordia hosts an important day dedicated to mental health conceived and promoted by Itaca Napoli which recounts the successes and goals two years after the important challenge launched by Itaca: to found a public alliance.
The meeting opens with an inaugural discussion, moderated by Titta Fiore, between the President of the Campania Region, Vincenzo de Luca, the Mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi and other guests including the national president of Itaca Felicia Giagnotti, the Secretary General of Itaca Ughetta Radice Fossati and the president of Itaca Napoli Fabio Pignatelli. The intense day of debates and workshops ends with a toast at 1 pm.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of Progetto Itaca Napoli, the day focuses on sharing this milestone with representatives of the institutions, health professionals and the associative world and the partners who in various capacities have accompanied Itaca Napoli in these years.
Ten intense years during which, thanks to the collaboration between health professionals and volunteers, Itaca has raised awareness on issues related to mental health to break taboos and stigma, promote prevention and early intervention for psychological disorders.
The aim is to renew the alliance for mental health, proposed by Itaca Napoli in March 2022, during the conference A community for mental health and included today by the sixth mission of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, called Taking care of mental health and by the Third Objective of the UN Agenda 2030 which concerns the promotion of well-being and mental health.
Among the speeches, we highlight that of Dario D’Ambrosi, founder of Teatro Patologico and of Gennaro Reder, director of Club Itaca Napoli.
Among the workshops, we highlight the wonderful mise en scene of the company of the Piccolo Teatro in Libertà born within the Club Itaca Napoli and curated by Emanuela Zincone, Qualcosa di grande a novel curated by the Members of the Club Itaca Napoli born within the creative writing course and published by Rogiosi editore, curated by Demetrio Baffa Trasci; in addition there will be an essay of Poetry workshop curated by Bianca Varelli. Without forgetting the artistic craftsmanship with the jewels created by the members of the Club Itaca curated by Immacolata Marra.
A round table open to the interventions of the citizens and conducted by Titta Fiore will end the day by pivoting the interdisciplinary collaboration for the promotion of mental health.
