Impact Hub Sicily
From the small island (Ortigia) to the big island (Sicily)…
Social innovation at the intersection of research and action, economics and social issues, Europe and Africa. In Sicily!
Sicilian Makers
Community members
From the small island (Ortigia) to the big island (Sicily)…
For 12 years, Impact Hub Siracusa has been active in the development and support of innovative projects in Siracusa territory and beyond, through the management of a co-working and innovation space in the historical centre of Ortigia, Siracusa downtown.
In the years IH Siracusa has built a community of people, organisations and companies that escape the strictly urban confines of the province of Siracusa and which instead are better identifiable as Sicilian projects, in their interaction with local, national and international stakeholders.
The natural and quasi-spontaneous evolution of a regional community, both geographically and conceptually, led us to rethink our mission by targeting explicitly at a regional impact ambition, electing the island of Sicily as our natural playground.
Mission
In a territory which is traditionally perceived as marginal and removed from the centres of power, Impact Hub Sicily mission is to reclaim the centrality of marginality for the sustainable development of the territory and its society.
Marginality is often a synonym of disadvantage, insofar as it describes a condition of distance and isolation from mainstream narratives. As the world continuously tries to face global challenges through standardised solutions, marginal territories have shown a surprising inventiveness in adapting and evolving through divergent narratives. Impact Hub Sicily believes in the power of such trends for the activation of a radical innovation, based on an endogenous approach rather than a other-directed one.
Also in its relation with the external, and in particular with respect to Sicily’s positioning in the Mediterranean region, the relation between centrality and marginality needs a serious re-reading. What is generally read as ‘backwardness’ from a purely European perspective could be today a great competitive advantage for the Mediterranean today. This idea needs further action and development, as the top-down pressure from “Western-based” models of innovation still monopolises the discourse on social innovation in the Mediterranean. The originality of a Mediterranean model of social innovation could derive from an open dialogue between innovation and tradition to create infrastructures that allow Med countries to take the best of what progress envisions without neglecting the best of what tradition can offer.
Why regional (Sicily)?
Given the challenges faced, IH Sicily wants to establish itself as a key player in the emergence and consolidation of territorial expressions capable of valorizing Sicily’s human, historical, and cultural assets, while projecting it in a contemporary and innovative dimension, sensitive to global and local challenges.
The starting point of the project rests on the will to reimagine the continuum between the centre and margins, giving space and value to territorial expressions which are conventionally removed from the centres of power, both geographically and conceptually. To do so, IH Sicily will work at the junction between action and research, and between the economic and the social.
The impact ambition of IH Sicily is translated into practice through the following three fields of action
Marginal territories
Support marginal territories and communities in developing solutions to maximise positive impact and valorise their territorial potential. Inland and marginal territories are home to an unencumbered potential of material and immaterial assets for the drawing of sustainable models of development. These assets are unique to the region, and not yet sufficiently valorised in the general economy. In this respect, thematic strands such as sustainable tourism, high-quality agriculture and the combination of these two dimensions, as well as community engagement in marginal territories constitute a focal point of Impact Hub Sicilia’s strategy.
Marginalised segments
Promote opportunities for economic inclusion for the marginalised segments of communities in urban contexts. Urban or peri-urban contexts in Sicily are typically multilayered and fragmented. IH Sicily mission is to focus on bridging the gap that creates marginalisation of community, through promoting economic inclusion of disadvantaged groups, support participatory processes in public planning and prioritise social cohesion in urban regeneration processes.
Margins across the Mediterranean
Encourage relations along the south-to-south margins across the Mediterranean region as an experimental ground for innovative social solutions. In 12 years of activity, IH Siracusa has built solid relations with Mediterranean partners and has positioned itself as the key player in eastern Sicily in Mediterranean cooperation. IH Sicily will build on this legacy and continue to deepen exchanges in the region to investigate the innovative potential of Med-based solutions in macro-thematic areas of urgent relevance to the region, such as social entrepreneurship, shared governance, access to finance, food chains, heritage and sustainable tourism.
