On 19th October 2023, the Night of the Homeless was celebrated by Il Cigno at the “Mother Teresa of Calcutta” Homeless Shelter in Rome. With this event, Il Cigno presented during the event the PUSH Project and promoted a new approach using sport for Homeless People as one of possible tool to be used. The event disseminated the first result of Push project: promoting a knowledge exchange among social and sport organizations at EU level.
At the same time the Event organized by Il Cigno aimed at raising awareness among citizens about the living conditions of the homeless, in conjunction with the World Day to Fight Poverty established in 1992 by the UN. During the event Il Cigno presented to other stakeholders (third sectors partners, Municipality, Civil society). The event was attended by citizens, operators of the center, many of the associations and institutions with which the center collaborates on a daily basis. The evening was opened by greetings from the regional manager of the Il Cigno cooperative and Push Project Manager, Dr. Carole Braccini, who on this occasion presented the project “PUSH: Promoting Unity Through Sport for Homeless”, promoted by the European Union and aimed to make sport a tool for social inclusion for the homeless. C. Braccini underlined how the knowledge exchange with the European partners of the PUSH project promoted an experimentation process which allowed sport to be included in the reception social and educational center’s activities.
They were subsequently presented by the coordinator of the shelter, Dr. Salvatore Migliore, the socio-educational activities that are carried out within the centre, including the anti-gymnastics course curated by Elisa Di Lorenzo. This course it’s a results of the internal process promoted by PUSH Project. Homeless People who lives in the center also intervened, showing and explaining to the public the socio-educational activity carried out for the day, entitled “It’s raining stones”. During the evening, professors L.G. Fassari and P. Do of the Department of Social and Economic Sciences of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” exposed the contents of the research work carried out at the “Mother Teresa of Calcutta” center, with which they mapped the places of the city most frequented by the homeless, bringing out peculiar aspects of their way of experiencing the urban space.
The evening ended with a dinner and a musical show curated by “Il Brigante”.