How did Casa di Gino come into being, and why does it bear that name?
It was founded in 1946 when a Guanellian religious arrived here with six troubled boys. There were still tenant farmers on the property. The land—32 hectares—had belonged to a wealthy family who bought it for their only son, Gino. He died in an aerial collision during the final months of the war. To honor his memory, his parents decided to donate the land to a congregation dedicated to abandoned youth. The Guanellians, through the parish priest of Lora, accepted the gift. Those first boys who came here were socially maladjusted; they learned to work the soil and went on to build lives. When we celebrate something, many of them still come back to visit. Some of them now do educational and technical work with our current residents.
Who are the residents today?
In 1960 we began accepting boys with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. Since 1970 we've taken in more severely disabled young men, and they tend to stay much longer—nine or ten years. The house aims to help these boys develop their capacities and personalities so they can enter social life and find work outside. But now we face harder challenges than before. Here they live in a protected environment, and it's difficult to find placements for them once they leave. The house was established more as a residential community than as a family home.
In your view, what's the difference between a family home and a residential community?
Generally speaking, a residential community is a place where a community or group of people who lead the house devotes itself to people with difficulties and supports them through an educational project—whether temporary or lasting. A family home is a house where a family or couple welcomes people with difficulties to offer them a place to live, a permanent arrangement.
How is Casa di Gino structured?
The setting is an agricultural colony where boys with difficulties come to develop their abilities and personalities through work. It divides into two distinct areas:
work spaces
- greenhouses, stables, sheds (for raising animals, growing ornamental and vegetable plants, and so on)
- fields (where we grow corn, potatoes, cabbage, strawberries, hay, and more)
- an orchard of 2,000 apple trees
living spaces
"We believe a person becomes mature not so much by doing work well as by learning to manage their own free time"
- bedrooms for the boys
- dining halls and kitchen
- cinema room
- rooms for cultural activities
- swimming pool
- gym
- sports field
After work, the boys have cultural activities and leisure time—some together, some alone. We don't want to force them into groups the way we do for work. So after dinner, everyone is free to spend the evening as they wish, except once a week when we show a film. They can listen to records, go into town, use the gym, do nothing, go to bed. We believe a person becomes mature not so much by doing work well as by learning to manage their own free time.
What do you mean by cultural activities?
From September through May, after work the boys have an hour and a half every day of structured activity with a teacher sent by the regional education office, helped by about thirty volunteers—young men and women—working in shifts of three or four a day. For example, they study road signs and talk about the work they did that day. For some there is actual literacy instruction.
What's the daily schedule?
Rising and breakfast.
8:45 - In small groups they go to work: the largest group heads to the fields; four or five go to the greenhouses; two to the vegetable garden, five or six to the animals.
12:00 - Lunch
2:00 to 4:00 p.m. - Back to work (until 6:00 p.m. in summer)
4:00-5:30 p.m. - Cultural activities from September through May; from May through September, swimming after 6:00 p.m.
After dinner, free time.
How many residents do you have, and what disabilities do they have?
Forty-five young men with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, some with behavioral issues. We can't take more of the latter because they need to use farming equipment that could be dangerous for boys like that. They come from Lombardy, and some from Veneto, Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna. Public services refer them to us. We have many requests and very few departures. Only two are minors; the rest are adults. We'd like to discharge them when they turn twenty-five, but we can't find placements that guarantee the continuity of life and education they need. Especially after law 180, we get requests for admission for more severely disabled boys, but we don't feel equipped to take them.
What's your relationship with their families?
Of the forty-five boys, twenty-five never go home—either they have no family, or the family is broken apart, or it can't take them back. Some have been here since 1972 and have no one to care for them, even though from a work perspective they might be able to leave. We're asking ourselves whether we need to transform this into a permanent home, just for them.
Of the other twenty, five go home weekly; the rest only for long school holidays. It's sad to say, but for most of them, returning home gets harder each time. Parents generally provide for them financially, but give little emotional support. That's a heavy burden for the boys—they desperately need their parents' affection. I believe half of recovery comes from family affection, not from the affection we can give.
What about staff and assistants?
There are nineteen of us in total:
- 6 Guanellian religious who are the true educators in charge of the house. Each religious oversees an educational area (communal living, free time, work time, and so on). The religious is both educator and work supervisor.
- 5 paid workers, who also do educational work. We all try not to give orders like "Rake!" but rather "Let's rake together, let's pot these..." What matters is not command but example.
- 5 conscientious objectors doing their civil service here. Before they're hired, they work on trial, and then they decide whether to stay. So far we've always been happy with them.
- 3 Guanellian sisters who handle the kitchen and laundry.
- 1 teacher
- our volunteers
How integrated are you into the local community?
People from the village come to buy our products at the shop you see as you enter.
Elementary and middle schools visit to learn about the agricultural colony, the animals, the greenhouses. The sports field and pool are open to the community. In their free time, our residents can go into town, where they're invited into families' homes. Everyone knows them and accepts them as they are.
We struggle to place boys who could leave us into jobs in the outside world
What are your biggest challenges and advantages here on an agricultural colony?
We have difficulty, as I've said, placing boys who could leave us into outside jobs.
It's also hard to find people willing to make a stable commitment to volunteer work. Our work demands heart, education, perseverance. Overall, the community helps the boys a great deal in developing their abilities. Agriculture, animal husbandry, greenhouse work—it's ideal for them. Here the boy has concrete experience of things and deeply formative contact with nature: he plants a potato, watches the sprout emerge, sees it grow, harvests it, eats it. He watches the flower cycle from seed to bloom. He sees animals born, cares for them, feeds them, drinks their milk, eats their meat. The boys' work is always manual—machines aren't suitable for them, even though certain farm tools are essential.
For me, preaching the Gospel means above all witnessing it through daily life and commitment.
What about funding? Can you sustain yourselves with your products?
The farm allows us mainly to eat well and healthily. But we need the fees (20,000 per day per person) for house maintenance and staff salaries.
Any final thoughts?
First, what troubles us most: if vocations decline, we'll have even fewer religious. Second, I want to emphasize that a community like this needs unity among the educational staff. Decisions are always made together. That unity reflects in everything else. Finally, for me, preaching the Gospel means above all witnessing it through daily life and commitment.
-Redaction, 1986
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