Safari urbano

Summary of the project

Since its foundation the park of Bresso, located in the northern part of Milan, one of the most densely urbanized areas in Europe, has been an example of how a green space can help in mitigating the effect of the urbanization. However, in recent years, the increased presence of foreign citizens hosted in the centre for asylum seekers of the IRC has discouraged the residents to go to the park, considering foreigners as a source of threats and dangers due to the feeling of insecurity politically spread. The project aims at discovering and promoting the park of Bresso, as a place where it is possible to spend some spare time in an open-air area but also to share experiences and to build new relationships by overcoming mistrust and prejudice. The idea is to disseminate a sense of belonging beyond the origins and make the park of Bresso not only a place but also an occasion for meeting and socialization between Italian and foreign citizens. Due to the success of a previous initiative carried out with children, there is the intention to replicate it with adults, who will be trained to become ‘park guides’ for visitors to know more about the park and its story-lives together with interventions for the greenings care. SAFARI URBANO so is meant as a urban route that ideally connects the city centre to the Park, but in practice wants to connect all citizens, regardless their nationality, with the common objective to take care about the park as a green place where it is possible to build relationships overcoming linguistic and cultural differences.

Beneficiaries

• 80 Italian and foreigners citizens

Overall achievements

This project trained young people and adults coming from outside the UE as intercultural guides inside Parco Nord, a park situated in the north of Milan. At the beginning it has been organised an Italian language course so as to improve the language skills of each participant (20) and then a specific training course for the guides (10).
On one side, this initiative was really well-received by locals. Local people really appreciated the effort that guides made to learn the language and to learn about the park. On the other side, for the guides it was a moment of great personal satisfaction, because for the first time they talked in public in front of Italian people in Italian and felt themselves as the very protagonists of the day and of the whole project.