In Sori and the surrounding towns of the Golfo Paradiso, the Fondazione Gigi Ghirotti's local outpatient service supports people living with cancer, working alongside their families through a difficult time. Sori Solidale ODV, the volunteer organisation that sustains this work locally, currently operates from premises that are too small and too precarious for the job: there is no proper street-level storage for the medical equipment patients rely on, which slows down how quickly it reaches them, and little room to host the meetings, workshops or public events that could bring the wider community together.
At the same time, the town's former railway station has stood closed and unused for years, an empty public building at the heart of Sori contributing little beyond a sense of neglect. Bringing these two situations together, a proper operational base for local care services and a second life for a disused building, offers a concrete way to strengthen both healthcare support and community life at once.
The project
Stazione Solidale restores Sori's former railway station, giving Sori Solidale ODV a proper headquarters with street-level warehouses for the equipment used by the Fondazione Gigi Ghirotti's local outpatient service, improving how quickly and easily that equipment reaches the patients who need it. The building will also house multi-purpose spaces for meetings, conferences, workshops, study rooms and events open to the public, expanding the social, cultural and awareness-raising activities available in the area.
Works are planned in two phases, starting with the ground floor and followed by the first floor, coordinated by Sori Solidale ODV with ongoing attention to timing, cost and long-term sustainability. Beyond its practical use, the project is also an act of urban regeneration: returning a closed, unused public building to the community, improving safety in the area and pushing back against the degradation and vandalism that empty buildings tend to attract.
Who the project is for
The project's direct beneficiaries are around 120 cancer patients cared for each year by the Fondazione Gigi Ghirotti's outpatient service in Sori and the surrounding towns of the Golfo Paradiso and nearby inland area.
Its impact reaches further, to the whole community of Sori and to other local associations, who gain new spaces for social, cultural and educational activities, with particular attention paid to involving younger generations.
Project name: Stazione Solidale
Proposing organisation: sori solidale
Area of intervention: Health & Welfare
Country: Italy