The project Capacity seeks to give inhabitants of three disadvantaged areas of Messina, in particular those living in the barrack settlements, the opportunity to become (again) protagonists of their own life. Simply eliminating the barracks and providing their occupants with more decent housing is an important step, but would not be enough.

Referring to Amartya Sen’s capability approach, the project develops a set of inter-connected actions which aim to create alternatives in the principal areas of human functioning: housing, work, social relations and knowledge. It also integrates elements linked to security and environment. The second, crucial pillar of the initiative is the continuous accompaniment by social workers and social mediators in order to provide families/persons with all information they need to make choices and to feel supported in situations they might never have known before.

Al most at the end of the experience of the CAPACITY project in Messina. The results are there: a district of barracks transformed into a compound of sustainable buildings and a new approach to social housing based on the ownership of the house and not on life-long assistance

A virtuous example of using public funding as a multiplier of inclusion (the project was funded on the basis of an initiative of the Presidency of the Council of the Italian Republic – DPCM 25/05/2016)