“We don’t want to end up in a retirement home”: 40 elderly people together in the “Gentile Community” in Rimini

There are already about forty of them, “a group of people who are no longer young, who have reflected on their future and the needs of the territory they belong to, in San Giuliano Mare”. And they created an association “to remain masters of our lives”.

It is called the “Kind Community” and aims to be “a multipurpose structure, inserted in the territory, to respond primarily to the needs of self-sufficient elderly people, in a self-managed way, and to other types of needs of the citizens who live in that area”, explains president Enrico Pecorari.

72 years old, already at the helm of Federconsumatori Rimini, Pecorari lives in Barafonda and feels very comfortable there. “But the years pass and unfortunately we realize that very few people think about the elderly. Instead, the Gentile Community was created to respond to the needs of freedom, sociality, exchange of ideas and opinions with other voluntary associations, cultural activities, service to people present or new to the area. We think this dimension of life makes everyone, including the elderly, more active and aware.”

The inevitable destiny for those entering old age seems to be only that of the retirement home. “But from the research done on the effects they have on the people assisted there, it is clear that after a short time they find themselves with limited freedom and autonomy, their needs are all satisfied by the institution and they soon become dependent on the staff and the environments, the real risk is that of closing oneself off, losing relationships with others and the taste for life. It is a sad prospect to which we cannot resign ourselves”, says Pecorari again.

Hence the idea of ​​the association: “The birth of a movement of this type, autonomous and self-managed which transforms an old abandoned building into a self-managed residential community, can become a new subjectivity that is currently missing. In Italy there are other experiences, but none like this one born spontaneously among people who intend to set up as a cooperative, investing of their own. Of course we will need the public hand, both to identify the suitable structure and for the necessary assistance services”.

There are already many ideas also from a functional point of view, also because Pecorari was part of the energy community of San Giuliano Mare, the first established in Rimini. For example: “A pergola could be built on the roof of the building, as well as installing photovoltaic panels”.

At the beginning of May the Gentile Community will present itself to the city in a public meeting. In the meantime, the invitation to those interested in the project to join: “We are open to all contributions and want to decide together the structure of the cooperative, the size of the shares and all the organizational details”.

Stefano Cicchetti