A sports center with popular prices but equipped with all the tools to allow people of all ages to play sports, with specialized professionalism even on subjects with chronic diseases. The first “Health Gym” in Rome and Lazio was inaugurated on Thursday 26 May, recovering some premises that had been closed since 2016. The structure, in via Gioacchino Ventura in the Rome XIV Municipality, was granted on free loan by Roma Capitale to ASP Asilo Savoia through an agreement between public administrations. This was good news for the inhabitants of the area as the gym had been banned several times but without success.
The initiative is part of the “Talento & Tenacia” project, a program conceived, promoted and financed by the Savoy Asylum with the aim of creating paths of social inclusion and youth participation in urban suburbs, using sport as a lever and value tool. as a team, starting with the most popular football. As for the Health Gym, young athletes will be following the elderly in active aging.
Gym of Health, the role of social trainers
“Through the Gym of Health – says the president of Asilo Savoia Massimiliano Monnanni – there is also an intervention for the job placement of young athletes defined as ‘social trainers’. It is an innovative professional figure that combines sports, social, digital and relational skills that make it suitable for supporting self-sufficient elderly for active aging. With a view to fully integrating the structure into the network of local services, the ASP, in addition to investing its own resources for equipment and furnishings, has also signed specific agreements with the ASL RM 1 and with the XIV Municipality ”.
The Health Gym consists of an open space, also equipped with two swimming pools, and a covered space of approximately 1,265.10 square meters with rooms dedicated to various sports activities, saunas and Turkish baths. The ASP Asilo Savoia, over the last few months, has intervened by arranging the premises, also equipping them with tools and furnishings appropriate to the project. The gym will be a real pole for the promotion of well-being and health for all ages, able to intervene at a sporting level and with specialized professionalism even on subjects with chronic diseases.
The focus is on economic sustainability by welcoming free users – about 350 units including elderly residents in the structures of Rome Capital and 100 fragile subjects identified by the Capitoline social services – and paid subscriptions, but always with reference to the rates established at the municipal level.
“The health gym – explains the councilor for social policies and health Barbara Funari – represents a model of socio-health integration and an excellence for the territory of the XIII and XIV Municipalities, ensuring suitable and cutting-edge services to the elderly who live in the Roma 3 nursing home. As a Municipality of Rome we will be by their side because everything can work better, working together for a shared idea of sports and social policies ”.
The councilor for health of Lazio Alessio D’Amato was also present at the inauguration: “the Health Gym is a model to be replicated and which represents a moment of rebirth, because thanks to the Municipality of Rome, the Lazio Region, the ASL Roma 1 and at Asilo Savoia a new type of service with a social and intergenerational vocation is created, which combines sport with the promotion of well-being and health. Another step towards the health of the future. I want to thank Massimiliano Monnanni, president of Asilo Savoia, this will be just the beginning of a path during which other health gyms will be built throughout the region “.