“Social Street”: where neighbors help each other and share knowledge and experiences together

SOCIAL STREET ITALY – Those of us who spent our childhood in a small town where everyone knew everyone, where in case of emergency you could always knock on the neighbors ' door , and where the neighborhood kids always played together, know how important neighbors are. A resource and a point of support that, however, is often lacking in big cities where, more often than not, we don't even know the faces of the people living in the apartment next door.

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THE IDEA OF FEDERICO BASTIANI, FATHER AND JOURNALIST FROM BOLOGNA – And it is precisely to find a solution and to ensure that his child can grow up playing with other children that Federico Bastiani, a journalist and father living in Bologna, had an idea: get to know his neighbors through the web.

VIA FONDAZZA IN BOLOGNA, SOCIAL STREET – Federico created a Facebook group dedicated to all those who live on Via Fondazza in Bologna and at the same time printed flyers to involve even the less tech-savvy. The result is that what until a few months ago was just one of Bologna's many charming arcaded streets is now not only one of the most famous streets in Italy but also a social street , a concrete reality where citizens collaborate, help each other and share knowledge and experiences.

SOCIAL STREET, FROM VIRTUAL TO REAL – Today the group “ Residents in via Fondazza ” has more than 800 members and the Facebook page dedicated to the “ Social Street Italia ” initiative has almost 4 members.

Gradually, a group has formed, spending evenings together and working together to address the challenges posed by the crisis . For example, some have offered to help elderly neighbors by bringing them groceries, some offer babysitting services when needed, and some offer tutoring to school-aged children . Residents also exchange practical information, and some businesses even offer discounts and special menus exclusively for residents of Via Fondazza.

“ From virtual to real ”: this is the slogan of Social Street whose aim is above all to establish a relationship of trust between people.

A “ Social Street ” project also strongly supported by the Municipality of Bologna which, in recent days, presented the first municipal regulation to regulate and support this form of social organization.

( The images are taken from the Facebook and Flickr pages of Social Street Italia )

SOCIAL STREETS IN ITALY – But not just Via Fondazza in Bologna: the project has been so successful that many have written to Federico asking how to create social streets in their own cities too.

From Milan to Rome, from Mantua to Lecce, there are now countless social streets in our cities and even abroad: thanks to a television report on Via Fondazza aired on Rai International, social streets are springing up in New Zealand, the Netherlands, Croatia, and Chile.

To find out if your neighbors have organized themselves into a community in your city, and specifically in the area where you live, you can consult the Social Street Italia website : there you will find a list of the cities and streets involved in the project.

In this video produced by "Il Fatto Quotidiano", Federico Bastiani explains how Social Street was born and what its goals are:

An innovative and important project, Social Street, in full compliance with the Non Sprecare philosophy, which we hope will soon spread to all Italian cities.

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