I work as an educator at Il Ricino, a community in Milan located at P.za S. Materno 15 (Loreto-Lambrate area).
The community was founded by the parish "S. Maria Bianca della Misericordia," which, with support from the Caritas Ambrosiana cooperative "Farsi Prossimo," made the project possible in November 1995 by providing an apartment.
The house welcomes adults up to 45 years old who struggle with psychological distress—people whose histories of pain and rejection have made it extraordinarily difficult for them to relate to themselves and others. When family life is no longer possible, the community offers them acceptance for who they are, seeking to discover and nurture their strengths while respecting each person's freedom and pace. In particular, we try to create a welcoming space that, grounded in normalcy, helps residents:
- develop a better relationship with themselves, others, and reality;
- accept their own difference, which is neither exclusion nor inferiority;
- find well-being in their lives, necessary to value their own freedom as they gradually grow in autonomy.
Founded in 1995 to welcome four residents (women), the community expanded in September 1998 when the parish made an entire floor available, and now houses ten residents—five women and five men.
The community's rehabilitative approach centers on creating moments and spaces of "normalcy" that help residents make their difficult journey toward gradual social integration. The neighborhood itself is vital to this work.
The community cannot and will not meet every need our residents have. The neighborhood, then, is first and foremost a network of services and outside consultants we turn to. The public service system, particularly the Psycho-Social Service, remains an active partner throughout each resident's time with us. Beyond referring people to us, it ensures collaboration across all healthcare areas—psychiatric and psychological appointments, medication management, family intervention when needed—and stands ready to help develop and review each resident's individual plan.
We also count on an "informal" network that has grown around us: the shopkeepers we see regularly, volunteers, neighbors, and others.
Finally, the neighborhood functions as a destination—the spaces and people surrounding us toward which our residents look. This begins with the immediate district. In this spirit, educators work to champion all the significant moments that mark "neighborhood life."
The community is the place where residents and educators live out their daily lives through the simplest, most ordinary moments: preparing meals, tidying rooms and common spaces, personal care, and respect for those with whom we share our home.
In this way, Il Ricino embodies all the characteristics of a normal home, where sharing, listening, mutual respect, joy, sorrow, and daily struggles find their true place. Over time, we have learned how important it is to mark special occasions together—a resident's birthday, someone's graduation, the community's own anniversary, the holidays that come each year. Beyond the ordinary rhythm of daily life, vacations hold great meaning. During these days, everyone lives and shares every moment together, a privileged space for listening and communion, for deepening the friendships that grow over time as trust deepens.
Residents live here twenty-four hours a day, while educators share certain moments each week, rotating through shifts. Everyone, however, is asked first of all to be themselves and to live the community as genuine communion and sharing among people—each willing to take the risk of real relationship, to give time and space to mutual growth, with honesty and simplicity. In this way, Il Ricino becomes truly the space where one can trust being accepted for who you really are, without fear of revealing even the most hidden and painful parts of your story.
The community is, however, a passage for each of its members—a stage in which we try to grow and improve, and in some cases to rebuild and restore each person's capacity for autonomy. The journey is not the same for everyone. Not everyone finds it easy to lower their defenses and move forward. Not everyone's path follows the same route. Some discover in the community the space to increase their autonomy, to learn to move through the neighborhood and city, to find work, and to begin living independently; others use the community as distance from their families, then return to live with them; others, unfortunately, cannot sustain this "dive" into "normalcy" and abandon the journey; still others find a next step in another community better suited to them.
Stays range from a few months to a maximum of three years. To date, Il Ricino has welcomed twenty residents. Two have completed their journey and begun independent lives in their own apartments; two left the community after a short stay to live in an apartment with another person; one moved to another community and now lives with an elderly person around the clock; six have, over these four years, been unable to maintain the community's rhythm; currently nine residents are with us, some having been here longer than others as they walk their paths.
- Giovanni Vergani, educator, 1999