The first step of a path to support social reintegration, in collaboration with the "Spazio Acrobazie" project
A gift to those who will spend Christmas away from loved ones and a hug from the Rosanero players to those who, also thanks to sport, go through a path to put aside the wrong choices and reintegrate as free and new people in the social community. This is the spirit that has brought Palermo players Davide Bettella, Samuele Damiani, Marco Sala and Edoardo Soleri (representing the whole team) within the walls of the Malaspina Juvenile Penal Institute in Palermo in recent days. To accompany them, the director Clara Pangaro, together with Elisa Fulco and Antonio Leone, responsible for the project “Spazio Acrobazie. Production and redevelopment laboratory through artistic mediation", whose laboratories are already active in the Malaspina prison and in which the collaboration with Palermo FC is inserted.
The project, promoted by Fondazione Sicilia and the CON IL SUD Foundation, intended for prisoners with a definitive sentence in the Calogero Bona – Ucciardone prison, for minors and prisoners in external penal executions, uses contemporary art as an opportunity for training, requalification of prison spaces and as a production formula capable of improving the image and positioning of what is produced by the prison system.
This is only the first phase of a shared journey that will last for the entire sports season. The visit, with the delivery of rosanero gifts for the boys of Malaspina, in fact allowed a first meeting between the young prisoners and the players, who shared smiles and dribbles together on the football field of the Institute. The following steps will lead the students to create, during a cycle of workshops with the artistic duo Genuardi/Ruta, a co-designed soccer ball, part of a larger project to regenerate the playing area and recreation rooms of the Malaspina prison, where graphic motifs and geometric shapes will be shared, together with a reference to pink and black colours.
In the months to come, the club will host a delegation of young prisoners accompanied by the Institute's staff at the Renzo Barbera stadium to attend one of Palermo's upcoming home games; and on another occasion, the Institute's delegation will visit the Palermo Museum and meet some members of the team.
Since its rebirth, Palermo FC has cultivated a strong bond with its territory through the development of an identity component linked to the city and its inhabitants. A perspective that includes but enriches and goes beyond the normal relationship between a football team and its fans, and acquires the wider scope of the connection between a local institution and its citizens.
In such inclusive perspective of social responsibility, Palermo has been carrying out a transversal and multidisciplinary commitment for over three years, in particular for the benefit of the weakest people or for those in difficult socio-economic conditions, exploiting the great attraction of sport to raise awareness of fans and enthusiasts on issues of community relevance, as a tool for emancipation, the fight against all types of discrimination and a vehicle for positive values.