MAESTRI DI STRADAEuclid Network: Neapolis 2.0International Social Innovation Competition

Created in loving memory of Carla Melazzini and Diogo Vasconcelos.Their social engagement is an example for all.

WHAT: The European Social Innovation Competition for Naples is a chance to bring positive change to a city where state and market have failed to solve persisting social problems.

WHO:Coproduce.it is an international collective of designers, innovators and creative thinkers practicing cocreation and coproduction methods in response to social challenges across Europe. We are participating in the Social Innovation Competition as it provides an opportunity to apply our experiences and work methodology to a worthwhile challenge.

WHY:Coproduce.it chose to focus on the challenge of developing a new and sustainable business model for Maestri di Strada. Maestri di Strada is a non profit organisation that operates in the field of education and focuses on marginalised populations of the youth in the community. Its aim is to reduce the school drop out rate in schools where it exceeds 30%.

Inspirations:Quotes from Carla Melazzini,

“Insegnare al principe di Danimarca”[Sellerio, 2011]

”...qualunque sia il tipo e il livello di apprendimento, qualunque sia il tempo impiegato da ciascuno per conquistarlo, il ragazzo fa in modo di presentarlo anche come un dono ai propri educatori...Olimpia...ha recentemente dichiarato, insieme alla sorella, che prima o poi vogliono fare qualcosa per gli altri, per restituire quello che hanno ricevuto. Su questo desiderio prezioso...bisognerebbe investire di più per costruire progetti di vita e di lavoro.”

BUILDINGLIFEAND WORK PLANS

“Whatever is the type and level of learning, whatever it takes for everyone to acquire it, students offer it as a gift for their educators...Olimpia...has recently declared, with her sister, that sooner or later they would like to make something for the others, to give back what they have received. We would invest more on thisprecious wish to build life and work plans.”

[P 245]

FOSTERING INDEPENDENCE AND RECIPROCITY

“ il volontariato, anche le persone con le migliori intenzioni, se creano dipendenza non lavorano bene. Questa è una faccenda difficilissima da gestire perché l’indipendenza è legata a doppio filo con un’altra caratteristica a mio avviso irrinunciabile in una relazione: che è la reciprocità...La relazione buona è quella in cui tu espliciti che stai ricevendo molto, per esempio in termini di conoscienza, perché in una buona relazione si crea pensiero.”

“if volunteers, although they’re people with good intentions, if they become a volunteer to resolve their own problems, it does not always work. This is a matter difficult to manage because dependency is linked to another characteristic that, according to me, cannot be abandoned: reciprocity...A good relationship is one which you show that you’re receiving a lot, for example knowledge is created because in a good relationship people generate thoughts.”

[P 206]

MULTIPLYPLACES DEDICATED TO PROJECT ACTIVITIES

“La signora F., sorella di un boss defunto, si lamenta che da lei nessuno va a prendere il caffè. A Chance non solo prende il caffè, ma da consigli alle altre madri su come tirare i figli fuori dai letti per farli andare a scuola...La camera di decompressione può ospitare contemporaneamente tante concomitanti e conflittuali infelicità. E’ l’unico spazio del quartiere dove è pensabile elaborare i lutti al di fuori degli schemi rituali...Uno spazio simile, in termini economici, non costa molto. Se ce ne fossero molti, in questi luoghi di guerra, sarebbe forse possibile iniziare ad allentare le maglie della paura e dell’odio.”

“Mrs F., (sister of a dead Camorra boss), complains that no one visits her to get coffee. At Chance she gets the coffee and she advises other mothers the best way to wake up their children who must go to school...The decompression chamber equally welcomes many people with their different types of unhappiness. It’s the only place in the community where it’s possible to recover from a loss outside of the rituals of these neighborhoods’ societies . A similar space, in economic terms, is not expensive. If there were many, in these battle zones, it would be possible to begin to defeat fear and hate.”

[P 245]

MOVE OUT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

“ ...ci siamo resi conto di quanto possa essere claustrofobico lo spazio della strada, palcoscenico di copioni di vita rigidamente predeterminati ed escludenti. Da tutto ciò ha preso le mosse una didattica itinerante, in un pendolare movimento dentro-fuori, nella quale la funzione rassicurante e protettiva è svolta principalmente dalle persone adulte, docenti ed educatori...”

“we recognized how much the street space is claustrophobic, the street space becomes a stage with predetermined scripts and you become trapped in the storyline. From this rigid starting point, we have initiated nomadic teaching methods which allows the participants to be mobile within the city. This method has the students leaving the confines of their neighborhoods, with protection and support provided by adults, teachers and educators...”

[P 144]

Strategic positioning:Towards more non financial assets

and frontline activities

PROPOSAL: If selected we will organize a series of interactive workshops with MdS in the codesign and coproduction processes to discover new solutions to financial challenges, increase participation and engagement and raise visibility to link success of group with a success to the city and people of Naples.

Our proposed transformation process is based on reciprocal trust, human relationships and respect of the local cultural factors and dynamics. The coproduce.it collective is very aware of these varied factors and will leverage on it to deliver a flexible solution that responds to the complex needs of the final users.

STRATEGY:We aim to use a coproduction approach so to decrease the expenses of the service front stage leveraging on the mutual helping of involved actors, and to generate a new business model built around the emerging concepts of alternative currencies, resilient communities and collaborative consumption.

We want to promote a coproduction approach that involves and empowers members from the local communities, inviting them to play an active role in the transformation process while increasing their sense of responsibility. Promoting the participation of other stakeholders helps to deliver more relevant, viable, and sustainable solutions.

Our intention is to encourage MdS to shift from a solely traditional charity funded business model to a triple bottom line business model (that considers and quantifies also the social costs/benefits) which rationalises the community resources and generates profit to be re-invested in the association’s activities.

CLASSICVOLUNTEER

FRONTSTAGE

BACKSTAGE

MUTUALHELPING

MdSTime banks

Taskrabbit

WizIQ

Loosecubes

SuperCoolSchoolMake it Work

DonorsChoose

Restorative Circles

Loops

Life program

Transition Towns

Lion

Front Stage: departments which come in direct contact with the client, such as marketing and sales.

Back stage: responsibilities and other duties which deal with administration rather than direct client contact.

Classic volunteer: the volunteer is the acts as “service provider” for the beneficiary.

Mutual helping: the actors are both “service providers” and

beneficiaries.

The central idea of our project is to generate a new business model built around the emerging concepts of alternative currencies, resilient communities and collaborative consumption.Today education needs a new funding model that relies less on classic donations and more on peer funding, resource sharing, human capital investment and social finance instruments, with the aim of involving all the social actors of the community and developing “all” its human capital.

STOCK FLOW

NON FINANCIALASSETS

FINANCIALASSETS

Time dollars

Enzi

Citizen effect Kickstarter

Social impact bonds

CofundosGreenNote

Fundcauses

TrustfundMicro credit

Ithaca hours

IRTA

LETS

SCESC

RippleWR bank

The Saber project

MdS

Financial assets: A non-physical asset, such as a stocks, bonds, or bank deposits.

Non-financial asssets: Physical and tangible asset, such as real estate or personal property.

Stock: measured at one specific time, represents a quantity existing at that point in time, accumulated in the past.

Flow: measured per unit of time. Flow is roughly analogous to rate or speed in this sense.

Approach

2011, COPRODUCE.IT

Christian De Neef[Fast Track, Belgium]

Dimitri Berti[strategic designer, Italy]

Kristina Tool[ELLFO Design Group, USA & Italy]

Marianna Recchia[design strategist, Germany & Italy]

Vincenzo Di Maria[Common Ground, UK & Portugal]