Growing Together is the name of the association. It operates out of Cristo Re parish on Viale Mazzini in Rome. But our first meeting with them takes place in a private home.
There we find about ten women—young and older, disabled—gathered around six or seven bolts of fabric, spools of thread, balls of wool, and handcrafted objects. They joke, trade quips, tease each other cheerfully. The mood is warm; everyone contributes what they can, and no one is left out. Later they'll have a snack together. They meet here every Friday at five o'clock. The work produced throughout the year goes on display and sale at a market held in the parish on the first or second Sunday after Easter. The proceeds are distributed as a small equal wage to each person who worked—a modest but meaningful educational gesture. It also creates an opportunity for contact with the parish community, which isn't particularly engaged with disabled people, most of whom come from other neighborhoods anyway.
The Agricultural Project
Our second visit is a Tuesday afternoon. About fifteen young people, many facing various challenges, play soccer on a concrete pitch: some distracted, others burning with explosive energy. It's freezing—penguin weather—but the game keeps them warm; they're down to light sweaters.
When it gets dark, they move to a small room. The games now aim to sharpen the mind and sharpen the eye. A young leader runs things with liveliness and rhythm; even the most severely disabled person isn't left out—he takes part in the game as he's able, and fully in the energy. The afternoon had started with bookbinding workshops.
On Thursday there's a picture-frame workshop, and on Monday some come to play table tennis.
It's an intense commitment, and no flash in the pan: Growing Together was founded in 1978. Its aim is "to socialize and integrate disabled children and young people by placing them in groups with as many age-matched peers as possible." In 1982 it formally became an association. The most promising project has been cultivation of land near Cesano, outside Rome. As always, contact with nature, the pedagogy of varied work with tangible results (in this case, oil, artichokes, chickens, rabbits) had excellent effects on the young people's bodies and personalities.
Unfortunately, says Enrico Palombi, one of the founders and main animators of Growing Together, we couldn't continue that work because the landowner withdrew permission. Besides, the distance from here was becoming prohibitive. Our goal—or rather our hope—is to establish an agricultural cooperative. Right now we're looking for land closer by.
Fatigue and Succession
But surely—we ask—the local administration has some small public plot it could let you use?
At the district office, he replies, we do get a hearing. But we have a bigger problem.
There are many gatherings (we also have an organizational meeting every two weeks, and two to four times a year we organize a Sunday group outing), and the team running things—which includes several scouts—doesn't have enough fresh people to rotate in. The fatigue, combined with growing demands as we get older, is taking its toll.
What about relations with the parents of people with intellectual disabilities?
Our work relieves them—they actually ask us to do more—but there's no structured growth program for the parents themselves, nor does the association see that as part of its mission.
— Sergio Sciascia, 1985
From the Growing Together presentation leaflet
I may have legs that cannot walk;
I may have arms that cannot embrace; I may have eyes that cannot see;
I may have a mind that cannot think;
but I have one thing that you have too:
I have an angel who sees, I have a heart that suffers, I have a good Jesus who always protects me.
Maybe I cannot cry;
maybe my hands cannot help you;
maybe when you speak my ears cannot hear you;
maybe because I am physically different from you I am abandoned by all; maybe because my smile is different from yours you always move away from me; you go with normal people because I am abnormal to you.
You who have legs to walk, eyes to see,
arms to embrace,
a mind to think,
pray with me so that we too might be loved by someone.