What does Glocal mean? Glocal is a term that combines two words that are often at odds, “local” and “global”, proposing to enhance the local dimension through international good practices.

The Glocal Factory project, by the Liberitutti cooperative, born in November 2019, has developed in these months, on the one hand, as a local social enterprise that has given support to the artisans of Barriera di Milano by developing sewing courses, all-round creative courses, events and webinars (live and online) related to sustainable fashion and internships for people in difficulty. On the other hand, as an innovative model, unprecedented in Turin, which provides a continuous interaction between profit and non-profit, establishing an equal relationship that gives shape to a network enterprise with the aim of developing knowledge, network and skills of its users.

Certainly the place chosen as the headquarters of Glocal Factory, Via Regaldi 7 /int 11 of Barriera di Milano, has allowed the interaction with the other major project for the enhancement of artisan knowledge, the TriCircolo Reuse Center, creating a real innovative hub to support the artistic and traditional craftsman of the neighborhood.

Among the other companies, projects and places with which Glocal Factory has begun an ongoing collaboration and with which it has set up a real innovative ecosystem we find:

  • the NIDō social tailoring project, which mainly involves young women and men who are asylum seekers and refugees. Starting from the collaboration with the artist and designer Francesco Liberti, it has developed into a path of personal redemption and accompaniment to micro-entrepreneurship.
  • The initiative i Fiori di Cotone – carried out thanks to the collaboration with Rete al Femminile Torino, IF life design and Krearte association – that in addition to teaching sewing techniques, through real photo shoots has trained seamstresses on how to create books and videos to promote their own production lines, also turning them into models for a few days.
  • Glocal Factory is also a cocrafting of different brands (Au Petit Bonheur, Petit Le Cad, Arbrora, Baobab Couture, Anna Maria Carrieri, Episodio Zero, Sosa Baby design), which have teamed up to develop their own brands by sharing spaces, machinery, but above all craftsmanship.
  • Another element of the project is the cooperative’s commercial network (Au Petit Bonheur, Il Grifone Kids, Il Grifone, Uno), intended as a tool for social, cultural and economic promotion, with the objectives of inclusion and integration.
  • Among the privileged places of collaboration, we find the Bagni pubblici of via Agliè, a socio-cultural center that organizes various cultural events during the year, open from Monday to Saturday.

The Covid-19 has certainly given a boost to the project, but there are many future developments of Glocal Factory that the cooperativa Liberitutti is trying to put in place, such as, for example, the birth of the Atelier for integration for the boys of CAD Superabile – job placement of young adults with mental and physical disabilities – which will be trained not only on production aspects, but also on those of sales.

If you want to know more about the project watch the official video of the initiative

Glocal Factory is part of the 15 generative welfare projects of Torino Social Factory program of the City of Turin, co-financed by the  Programma Operativo Nazionale Città Metropolitane , European Social Fund, carried out within the framework of Torino Social Impact.

For more information on the Torino Social Factory program and the other 14 projects that are part of it go to this link.