On a bright October morning at number 89 Via Acqua Acetosa, we walk up a gentle slope between vineyards and meadows. After parking, we step out and look past the orange-colored houses toward the wide horizon of the Lazio hills—a breath of fresh air, a sweep of space and beauty.
A pergola leads to the house. To our left, a chicken coop hums with its inhabitants' cheerful noise. Two dogs greet us warmly, followed by Giovanni and an educator. The entire property spreads before us: the house, terraces, garden, portico, fountains, smaller buildings—all of it rustic and elegant at once. The interior confirms that first impression.
The House
We can't linger over the full tour as much as we'd like. Beyond the spaces needed for a large family—kitchen, dining room, living room with a grand fireplace, bedrooms, bathrooms—we see a small meeting room, a computer room, and outside, a carpentry workshop (in a small cottage), a room for art and music activities (in something like a garage), a greenhouse, even a small pool.
Who Lives Here
We can only sketch the features of this welcoming place. What matters is the lives of those who inhabit it. For now there are four residents, but soon there will likely be eight young adults with disabilities. Five assistants rotate through the mornings. Three are home-care workers (as Rome's regulations require); two are volunteers, effectively conscientious objectors. The afternoon ratio reverses: two home-care workers and three objectors. At night, one assistant and one objector are present.
Activities
The spaces we've described suggest the rhythms of daily life. There are meaningful initiatives too: a retired carpenter recently finished building a picnic table for the garden, with one of the young residents helping. The neighbor who oversees the kitchen sometimes asks for help with the cakes that make everyday life feel like a celebration.
Purpose
The project responds to the needs of young adults with behavioral difficulties—young people who struggle to find suitable care elsewhere. In theory, the house accepts all residents without excluding any disability, but parents of disabled children with other issues often postpone residential placement and keep their adult children at home as long as possible. "When Giovanni was fifteen," says Rodolfo Braschi, Giovanni's father and the co-creator of this house alongside his wife Francesca, "my wife and I realized that family life had limits. Giovanni, like other young adults his age, needed a life outside his parents' home. Living with peers his own size, outside the family, in a place built to his measure—that would give our son a different kind of life. He could grow toward a balance and maturity that seemed impossible to reach at home with us."
From that insight—it was 1981—came the idea of creating a home suited to Giovanni and a small group of his peers. The road since then has been long, marked by many attempts and setbacks.
Administration and Organization
From the start, they bought the house—no small matter, given the loans and debts involved—and soon founded an association of parents and friends. Early attempts to house Giovanni and other young people with mental health challenges followed. The project had to be revised and corrected more than once. The great challenge was staffing. Many different kinds of collaboration had to be tested.
Today the house is held in trust by "Associazione 89," which manages it. A board of five or six members, appointed by the association's assembly, handles finances and administration. Day-to-day life is guided by a team: a child psychiatrist, a social worker-psychologist, and Francesca Braschi, representing the members. Weekly Wednesday meetings with all the assistants allow for coordination and planning. During the week, a rotating assistant always bears responsibility and is on-site. Additionally, two team members are always reachable by phone.
The Agreement
After years of attempts, work, and varied experience, the project has gained stability. Rome's city government signed an agreement with the association for eight residents. The agreed daily rate is 160,000 lire per resident (provided volunteers participate), so economic management becomes less strained only when the house reaches full capacity. Even so, this agreement marks a new period of strengthening, greater financial peace, and more confidence about the future.
The agreement brings other changes too. Until now, apart from volunteers who gave their support freely, assistants were hired with the understanding that the relationship could end at any moment if collaboration didn't work out. The agreement will require normalized contracts, which could create problems if agreement breaks down—and yet that agreement, that willingness and ability to collaborate on a specific educational project, is absolutely essential.
Similarly, in choosing residents, there must be accord between the city's needs and the association's criteria. Among these, one is vital and non-negotiable: "the ability to live alongside the residents already in the house," Rodolfo Braschi emphasizes.
Projects and Advice
Creativity continues. A new bedroom is being built; a pizza oven is on the horizon. The plan is for residents to do activities outside the house during the day, so the house becomes truly "home"—the place you return to at night. The workshops here (gardening, carpentry, music, computers) would meanwhile serve young people from the surrounding community. This could be another form of openness and exchange with the neighborhood.
Among Giovanni's parents' dreams is to step back gradually and let the house, well-structured, flourish without them.
We ask Rodolfo Braschi what advice he'd give to anyone tempted by such a beautiful, difficult undertaking. Here's what he offers.
- Don't start alone. Find other parents and friends from the beginning.
- Learn about all the legal and financial details before buying a house—it's always a heavy financial commitment. Start with a rental instead.
- Build on existing resources.
- Lean on volunteers to complement your professional staff.
The true leaven for such a work is the inspiration born in the hearts and minds of parents: a life project for their child, a place where he can grow into adulthood according to his own capacities, protected, but free from the symbiosis of family. Anyone who takes on such a project necessarily opens himself to others—and it is that very openness that will make it live.
- Nicole Schulthes, 1997
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