We meet Samantha Lentini, who tells us about the social work of Fondazione La Rotonda and how it is changing the face of the northern Milan hinterland.
“Suburbs need beauty,” says Renzo Piano, because “they are the cities of the future.”
In this episode of Real People, we interview Samantha Lentini, President of ETS La Rotonda, now a foundation, founded by Don Paolo Steffano in 2010. A place of inclusion, hospitality, and support on the outskirts of Milan, more precisely in Baranzate.
Samantha began volunteering at 15 and realized that was her path: not just doing something for others, but creating spaces where people could find room to grow.
One day someone tells her: “You need to meet Don Paolo, because you’re alike.”
Comparing a young educationalist to a priest seems a bit of a stretch, she thinks but she goes to meet him anyway. He shares a striking metaphor: “A mine is a hostile environment, but if you know how to dig, you’ll find gold. Baranzate is a mine. I intend to find miners to help me.”
And so, with two young children, enrolled in a master’s program, and holding a permanent job, she answers Don Paolo’s call: she quits her job and dives into this adventure.
Samantha, can you tell us about the place where La Rotonda was born?
Baranzate is a municipality covering just 2 square kilometers, squeezed between three highways on the border with Milan and its hinterland, with a very high level of immigration: in the neighborhood where La Rotonda was founded, it reaches 70%, with 80 different nationalities.
Step by step, we have built a community journey, working both with people and with places.
From the very beginning, we started regenerating spaces.
First an old Chamber of Labor building, then a former supermarket: we renovated them at our own expense, collaborating with the local administration and involving the community of elderly people who had migrated from southern Italy in the 1960s.
This led us to La Rotonda’s current headquarters: a large industrial warehouse, an abandoned “eco-monster,” 1,400 square meters unused for twenty years, right next to the parish. We had the dream of renovating it. Spazio InOltre was born.
How do you find the resources to support this true process of regeneration?
We collaborate with the Municipality and with Caritas, but these are not partnerships that involve financial support. The collaboration with public institutions lies in the fact that La Rotonda’s beneficiaries are the citizens of Baranzate. In a logic of circular subsidiarity, we must rally around these people to help them start again.
We also have a strong network of companies that support us. Sometimes people think that nonprofits approach the business world simply to ask for money. That’s not the case. From a sustainability perspective, as an integrated project, we must be partners in a challenge we cannot carry forward alone. Companies that believe in the project provide the financial resources to sustain it but not only that: they actively collaborate, for example by offering job opportunities to the people we support. These are shared goals we must strive toward, without losing our identity.
For example, we have been working for years with Fondazione Bracco, led by Diana Bracco, president of Expo (now MIND), located just outside Baranzate. I still remember when Don Paolo wrote to her: “Madam President, you host EXPO once in a lifetime we have it all year round.”
What kind of feedback do you receive from the companies that work with you?
Companies are realizing that employee wellbeing has a direct impact on their revenue. People are looking not only for a job, but for a workplace that engages them in terms of values. Working holistically means taking care of the person in all aspects the individual who brings specific value to the company and wants that value to be recognized.
We organize team-building activities and corporate volunteering days that always involve a shift in perspective: there is more joy in giving than in receiving. By interacting with the people we support, employees discover the value of being available to others, of learning, and of helping others emerge.
You operate on the outskirts of Milan, a major city undergoing economic and social transformation around housing. What is your approach to ensure Baranzate is not overwhelmed by it?
We cannot stop rising prices, but we can start looking around and understanding which strategies to put in place. For example, Baranzate has a number of properties up for auction an unused asset. Accessing auctioned housing, if properly guided, can be a first step.
We also address the issue of rentals. We ask property owners to rent their homes to La Rotonda, which then selects individuals and families to entrust them to.
The final element of our approach is to think of territories as interconnected municipalities, within a metropolitan city framework.
We believe in being rooted-in what we do, in staying close to people but also in going beyond. In advocacy actions that can influence other communities and neighborhoods in Milan and its hinterland with our values and our way of working.
What are your future projects?
We have purchased a former nursery school and are renovating it. It will become the home of our after-school program we welcome around 275 children every week and the space will be called the “Academy of Extraordinary Days,” so that every child can experience an extraordinary day.