Bari, Palamartino HUB: the sports project for social inclusion financed by the "Community Civic Spaces" call is underway

Bari, Palamartino HUB: the sports project for social inclusion financed by the "Community Civic Spaces" call is underway

Palamartino HUB is the project financed with 100 thousand euros as a result of the national tender promoted by the department for Youth Policies and Universal Civil Service and Sport and Health “Civic Community Spaces” (so-called Play District).

The initiative, created by the Duma sports club which has been managing the municipal sports facility for 10 years, is aimed at promoting social innovation paths focused on sports practice, which include the creation and strengthening of civic spaces through youth protagonism supported by individual and collective empowerment processes.

During the two-year project, skateboard and parkour sports activities will be organized free of charge at the Palamartino, as well as collateral activities of photography, modeling, individual and group coaching as well as seminars on correct lifestyles and training activities on management of sports facilities.

This morning the details of the activities were illustrated during a press conference attended by the Sports Councilor Pietro Petruzzelli, the administrator of DUMA ssd and project manager Saverio Fortunato, the Puglia Sport and Health regional coordinator Francesco Toscano, the parkour coach and representative of Activita ssd Antonio Calefato, the coordinator of the socio-educational day center I Ragazzi di Don Bosco Jaqueline Pinto and the representative of the Barese Modeling center Annamaria Cappelluti.

“The start of this project is excellent news, and I thank Sport e Salute which has made important resources available for these initiatives and actions throughout Italy – commented Pietro Petruzzelli -. The fact that many Bari sports entities have been awarded the funding promoted within this type of national tender means that they have managed to present good ideas and projects and, therefore, attract significant resources here in Bari. This project will take place at the center of the Libertà district, in a structure like the Palamartino which, from an architectural point of view, is the most beautiful sports facility in our city. Thanks also to the competent management of Saverio Fortunato and the entire Duma sports club, Palamartino is experiencing continuous growth not only in its activities but also in its sports facilities, expanding an already rich offering. I therefore invite everyone to experience these spaces and these activities more and more, which aim to involve more and more people in the name of sport for all".

“We are very happy to be able to launch this project that won the national tender “Community Civic Spaces”, a project created to combine sporting and non-sporting activities in the name of innovation and social inclusion – said Saverio Fortunato -. It is an initiative that fully fits into the path that we have been pursuing for several years now as the Palamartino management company, in the name of sport for everyone. We are achieving great results in the various sectors we take care of, both in competitive activities - basketball and volleyball - and in disciplines previously considered niche but which are now growing more and more, such as skateboarding and parkour. For this project too, we make use of an important collaboration network, with qualified, competent and structured partners, which I thank, together with Sport and Health and the Municipality of Bari. We therefore intend to continue in this direction, which sees the Palamartino in full expansion to increasingly become a flagship of our city's sports facilities".

“I thank the Municipality of Bari for their collaboration and for hosting us here for the presentation of this project which we will develop at the Palamartino for two years and which, I am convinced, will have truly exceptional results, just as all the initiatives to extend the activities that are taking place in the structure - declared Francesco Toscano -. As Sport and Health we are enthusiastic not only about this initiative, but also about the neighborhood projects launched in the city, at Libertà and San Paolo. And it is worth underlining the great commitment with which Bari and its sports clubs are making an effort to participate in our tenders, with excellent results. We will also soon launch others for which we hope for great participation from Bari and all of Puglia. In our region we are achieving our objectives, in the name of ever-wider participation in sporting activities, which in the projects we finance are always free, combining it with inclusion and social cohesion".

“An activity like parkour, which is often mistakenly judged to be just an extreme sport, can instead have an important value within a community – commented Antonio Calefato -. In fact, by guiding girls and boys with targeted coaching actions, as will happen during the initiative we are presenting today, it can become a very powerful educational tool, which puts boys and girls in a position to question themselves and better understand what the own place in the world. The results in educational terms are truly relevant, also because with this discipline you are taught to see the world with a critical sense, to grasp differences and, therefore, to make a positive contribution to your community. This is why we are very happy to work again with the Palamartino, a place that has already hosted our debut in Bari with parkour".

“We are thrilled to be part of this initiative, after having also participated in other projects launched at the Palamartino, in which, I want to underline, parkour was one of the activities with which we saw girls and boys grow the most, setting themselves objectives that are managed to achieve, overcoming difficulties and respecting rules - concluded Jacqueline Pinto -. It is important that the project we are presenting today is hosted in a wonderful structure like the Palamartino. And it's nice that, thanks to initiatives like this, Bari is increasingly becoming a city that speaks to girls and boys and, above all, a city that listens to them."

Palamartino HUB

• Project duration: 2 years
• Participants: 40 participants aged between 14 and 34.

With the Palamartino HUB project, the DUMA sports club, which manages the Palamartino, was the winner of the national tender “Civic community spaces” (so-called play district), promoted by the department for Youth Policies and the Universal Civil Service and Sport and Health with the aim of supporting social innovation projects focused on sports practice which promote youth protagonism thanks to empowerment processes within a broader perspective of social inclusion.

The design idea is to make the Palamartino a place of inclusion where sport is not a privilege of a few but a possibility for many, in continuity with the path started ten years ago in collaboration with bodies and associations active in the area, involving people with economic, social and integration difficulties or people with disabilities, elderly people, victims of violence, bullying and discrimination and, in general, vulnerable categories. To do this, we chose to identify two innovative, niche sports disciplines, skateboarding and parkour, for which the DUMA already has consolidated know-how for years. They are "urban" sports disciplines that arise from the bottom up, have a strong connotation of social redemption and are by their nature inclusive, as they can be practiced by anyone in urban contexts.

These two activities were combined with a creative path linked to the art of photography and street art in the sporting context, considering that skateboarding can become a moment of artistic as well as sporting expression. A further creative extra-sports activity identified is model making, already successfully tested during the creative workshops for teenagers held at the Palamartino: at the end of the route the products produced will be the subject of subsequent exhibitions or dynamic performances, such as 4wd model competitions.

The planned activities will be carried out with assistance and psychological support services, counseling and orientation guaranteed by qualified partners.

Given the consolidated experience of the staff involved, the project is finally enriched with a training course in the management of sports facilities, which will guarantee participants the knowledge base useful for become collaborators in the administrative management field, with the possibility of inclusion in the sports club's staff at the end of the training.

Meetings will also be organized at certain intervals with nutritionists and other professionals from the sports world on correct lifestyles, nutrition and the importance of movement in terms of preventing a series of pathologies.

The program of activities:

Parkour: Monday and Friday, from 16pm to 17pm

· Skateboard: Saturday, from 11am to 12pm, and Wednesday, from 16pm to 17pm

· Model making: one appointment per month to be agreed

· Photography: one appointment per month to be agreed

· Seminars: one appointment per semester to be agreed

· Training: one appointment per month to be agreed.

The DUMA ssd orpera for over 10 years in the Libertà district: over the years the Palamartino has become a reference center for sporting and cultural activities and more, hosting regional and national events.

The neighborhood represents an opportunity for the development of inclusive planning and the DUMA has always focused on the concept of Sport for all, trying to leave no one behind. What is hoped for, thanks to the collaboration of the institutions, partner bodies, families, parishes and the network that revolves around the DUMA, is the improvement of the living conditions of the residents, integration through moments of dialogue and discussion, the education of children respect for the rules, loyalty, team spirit, sacrifice in order to achieve a goal and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.

Contacts: info@palamartino.it - 329 3173101.