ESC: Volunteer in Ecovillage Torri Superiore, Italy 2024

The Ture Nirvane Società Cooperativa Sociale di Comunità was originally founded in 1999 by members of the Associazione Culturale Torri Superiore to transform the abandoned medieval village of Torri (XIII sec) into a thriving Ecovillage. In May 2020 it was transformed into a Social & Community Cooperative in compliance with the new national regulations for the third sector. To develop the local activities and be registered as a fully licenced enterprise, a cultural centre and a guesthouse were established in a large part of the village, now open to the public and managed by the Cooperative. The centre includes a guesthouse for holiday accommodation, a restaurant, training facilities for courses and workshops and a small library. The cooperative employs six people, mostly women, and is largely supported by the resident community in daily chores like cooking, shopping and cleaning. Normally, the guesthouse dining area and meeting rooms are shared by the resident community, the volunteers and the guests, with buffet meals served at fixed times, and everyone eats together at large tables either in one of the three dining rooms or on the terraces. Since the start of the Covid19 sanitary emergency, the community has decided to eat separately in the individual homes, and the meals are served to the guests at tables that apply the social distancing regulations. In May 2020, the Ture Nirvane a r.l. (founded in 1999) was refounded and transformed into the “Ture Nirvane Social Community Cooperative”. This choice, considered for a long time and matured over the years, is linked to the solidarity and social nature of the Ture Nirvane, which for about 20 years has invested its energies in managing the accommodation and "commercial" part of the Torri Superiore Ecovillage in the field of sustainable tourism, cultural events, training for adults, through the social form of production and work cooperative. In the course of its activity, the Ture Nirvane has always had strong solidarity and social aims, which have gradually increased over the years. The need and desire to expand its social purpose, inherent in the very concept of Ecovillage, began to take shape already with the first accreditation for the European Voluntary Service program (2015), with the foundation of the business network "Le Terre di Confine "(2016) and consolidated with the collaboration with the SPES Social Cooperative in the field of social agriculture (from 2019). The membership, also at the Steering Committee level, of the national CulturMedia network of Legacoop, has stimulated the debate and the focus of the Community Cooperative, a new tool for managing marginal territories that is currently attracting a lot of attention from the cooperative and legislative world. The aims of the Ture Nirvane are to: - develop and manage cultural programs and ecotourism activities in the Ecovillage, including training courses, conferences, concerts, tours on foot and by bike, and also to preserve the state of the local trails and the characteristic dry stone walls (UNESCO World Heritage since 2018); - provide a welcoming location for organised groups interested in sustainability related topics, personal wellbeing and development, social and political topics; - encourage, support and promote the production of local organic food, including high quality olive oil, organic vegetables and fruits, different kinds of preserves, and through this activity contribute to the protection and management of the surrounding area; - promote the development of the local economy through cooperation with other enterprises, cooperatives, associations, individuals and the public administrations; - create work opportunities for the Ecovillage residents and the local population. The Ture Nirvane Società Cooperativa Sociale di Comunità is a member of national networks like Legacoop Liguria, CulturMediaLiguria, Banca Popolare Etica, Cooperfidi and Confcommercio. And as Ecovillage it cooperates with national and international ecovillage and community networks as RIVE (Rete Italiana Villaggi Ecologici) in Italy and GEN (Global Ecovillage network) at European level, and the Italian Permaculture Academy.