Cultural heritage plays a crucial role in the social and economic change of a community. For this reason, in the historic center of Palermo, particularly in the Kalsa district, a redevelopment process has begun that focuses on education, tourism, and crafts. Part of this change is the Palermo Mediterranean Gateway Association, established in 2018 with the goal of regenerating the city through social inclusion, local development, urban redevelopment, and training of its inhabitants. From this commitment, the Association wants to create a model of replicable activities whose starting point is precisely Kalsa and its Palazzo Butera, the center of the project we support: QuattroPuntoZero. The mission is to give young people and adults, including the most fragile, the opportunity to create value for themselves and for society through the rediscovery of cultural memory: this will take place within a diffuse information hub whose activities will expand in multiple areas of Palermo. In the historic center, for example, there will be a Diffuse School of Artistic and Traditional Crafts where training and work will be united thanks to the collaboration of pre-existing laboratories, workshops and stores in which people will be able to recover the trades of traditional crafts and artistic workingssuch as restoration, the production of ceramics and furniture accessories or gardening. Then there will be activities to support self-entrepreneurship with advisory services and digital promotion, not only as a marketing support but as a real development support. All this will lead to two main results: the acceleration and creation of micro-enterprises - which will help make Palermo and the Kalsa two socially and economically more lively and attractive realities, especially for younger people - and a growing education in beauty - thanks to meetings and workshops with artists and artisans and, for the youngest, thanks to guided tours in their workshops - which will increasingly stimulate citizens to believe and invest in their social fabric and their territory. Details Location: Palermo Association: Palermo Mediterranean Gateway Beneficiaries: Youth and adults in need, local artisans and families Grant: up to 50,000.00 euros Duration: October 2022 - October 2025
