Milan – The right to play: this is the shared objective of Inter Campus and L’abilità, which emerged from their very first meeting during a round table discussion to exchange opinions and expertise on play and disability. This initial dialogue aimed to conceive and foster the project that later became Gioco al Centro, an initiative of Fondazione di Comunità Milano (of which our President Carlotta Moratti is a board member). Since 2018, this foundation has been working to bring inclusive playgrounds to Milan’s nine municipalities, capable of accommodating children with and without physical and intellectual disabilities.
“It was our guiding principles that brought us together: caring for children not just from a medical perspective; promoting quality of life and well-being; recognizing the need to play to grow and develop skills, all while having fun.” A natural consequence of this was the desire to build a common project, which began with a training course that Carlo Riva emphasizes as a “training exchange, or even better, a cross-pollination between people working in different fields (L’abilità and Inter Campus) who find common educational ground to discuss and continue growing together progressively. Inter Campus coaches possess such extensive experience and preparation, not only technical but also, and above all, educational, that it allows us to immediately connect during both frontal and non-frontal lessons, and to effectively put it into practice on the field.”
Launched in December 2019 with 17 boys and girls with various intellectual disabilities, who are sufficiently competent to participate in the play activities prepared by the technical staff alongside pedagogist Elisa Rossoni, “the Inter Campus-L’abilità project is a wonderful journey,” Carlo Riva continues, “because the children truly engage in meaningful activities, with a real inclusive objective for their future; these children will be able to play with a ball at the playground and in other areas of their lives, together with other children.”
The Covid-19 emergency necessitated the suspension of activities in the gym, but contact with Carlo Riva and Elisa Rossoni has remained constant. This ongoing dialogue has enabled the production of specially prepared videos by coaches Davide Lubes and Gabriele Raspelli, which were sent to families to offer them some relief, provide a sense of continuity to the project, and maintain the relationship with the children.
“We are currently paused but intend to resume as soon as possible, perhaps outdoors, by devising a new strategy and restarting in a new modality that continues to restore to children their natural right to play. The project is at the beginning of its journey but will develop… as has always been among our shared objectives.”
