Inauguration of the
"Long Live the Elderly!" HOME

Via Nicola Fabrizi, 2 
Thursday 23 April 2009 – 5.00 pm

Cardinal Agostino Vallini takes part in the inauguration

Home. It means stability, dignity. Identity. Place of love, of memory, of the toil and loveliness of living, shelter, environment in which to find again oneself. Home, if it is not all, it is much. Home is a hardly replaceable good, for each one of us. And yet it is what is first lost when there is a difficulty.

In the big cities, isolation, the reduction of the number of members of the familiar unit, the high cost of the rentals, all concurs to send out, at the first crisis, from its own home above all who is elderly.

The Community of Sant'Egidio, for many years committed to defending the human dignity of the elderly, understood, long time ago already, how much evil it is being sent away from one's own environment and being sent to an institute, above all if this is not freely chosen. And it found progressively new manners to accompany the elderly, helping them to remain in their own home.

Thus free services of home care have been originated by the Community of Sant'Egidio and whereas it is not possible to remain home, protected and familiar environments were created, cohabitations and family-homes, as an alternative to the mega-institutes.

These experiences brought to develope some examples of the most successful residential solutions for elderly people.

An expression of this is the Home "Long Live the Elderly!", located in the historic city Center of Rome, in an attractive villa of the 50's immersed in the green but not isolated from the context of the quarter.

Not sending away the elderly from the places where they have always lived, even if in a different residence, is fundamental not only for the elderly, but also for the human ecology of the quarters.

The Home "Long Live the Elderly!" consists of different housing typologies. the building is on five levels. It has a total covered surface of 1,500 sqm surrounded by a park, in the quarter of Trastevere. 

A whole floor, sqm 180, is intended to a family home for six elderly needing a more intense assistance.

The rooms are bright and wide, not anonymously furnished; the guests are encouraged to bring in their furniture, their pictures and to choose the colors of the furniture.

The absence of architectural obstacles, the wide corridors, the many aids, help everyone to preserve its own autonomy.

Other three plans are articulated in 12 house units for a total of 20 places meant to welcome, even for temporary periods, self-sufficient elderly, when there the necessity.

These guests too are offered common services, besides a permanent connection with the staff of the family home, 24 hours on 24 on volunteer service.

Furthermore, wide common areas, including a garden that can be opened to the quarter for easing the continuation of relationships.