When I was choosing a place for internship, I was moved by Across -   https://www.acrossassociazione.eu/aps/  -  way: it is an association of professional psychotherapists who also do social projects that enhance and empower citizens, addressing mental health needs through creating a healthier environment. 

This period gave me an invaluable opportunity to have first-hand experience in understanding how such projects are created, their architecture, management and synergies that can arise when different professionals contribute their expertise to a cause. 

I am passionate about exploring what simple actions can improve quality of life on an individual, collective and social levels, and how the environment, in turn, impacts the quality of life. 

Taking part in such projects can help to get an insight into this dynamic: what about the environment is supportive to the well-being, what is undermining, and how it can be addressed. 

This experience also stimulated me to reflect deeper on what is well being, what is mental health, as I observed how each project had in core the motivation to support personal agency and empowerment. 

We also got to participate in the events and meetings dedicated to mental health, like mental health day, where professionals in the field have shared their expertise, and their view on the needs in the field as it is now.

The experience with Across gave me the opportunity to get a clearer structure starting from the idea of the project, understanding and analyzing the target audience's needs. 

We were learning about and applying in practice organizational tools that allow us to optimize management of complex projects, such as Gantt chart, and Theory of change diagram. 

Also being an intern allowed me to see the dual bridge between the official professional structures and the final beneficiaries of the project's work.

Here are the projects I took part in as an intern:

San Basilio Polo Civico project final event on December 21st

The event took place both as a part of finale of the project that took place during autumn and as a bridge to the Holidays season.

The event lasted for 4 hours and took on a form of a marching parade throughout all of the quartiere of San Basilio, bringing together professionals and families, and children from 5 to 15-16 years old, including stops at key locations like animation center, local church, and center for the elderly.

 It was put together by joint collaboration of Across APS, TRAMA, Amici di Roberto. Not all of the organizations participating in the project fully succeeded to engage their audience to participate, however, the event itself was really moving and uniting.

San Basilio is an area in Rome with a lot of social stigma due to a history of poor social inclusion, deprivation and economic status of the population. To the day, despite the improvement of overall living situation, this stigma creates palpable isolation, and the project was aimed to aid the citizens to be more empowered, included into social benefits and services available in the area, and also to have more opportunities for engaged and creative activities.

 During the event it was especially moving to see both the “why” of the project and its potential impact: the parade was decorated with hand-crafted symbols of peace, created together by children and their care-givers, and it was accompanied by musicians — all this created an ambience of friendship, openness and engagement — and throughout the route we saw windows of the apartment buildings open, people coming to the balconies and greeting the participants — this is something very significant in this quartiere, where people avoid to cross its borders or walk to another neighborhood.

Another moving part of the event was the exhibition of photographs made by children, the photos represented their response to the question “what is culture”. Their works were really insightful and wise, and it was especially valuable to feel that they have voice, and there are ones who want to listen to them. This exhibition was displayed in Morricone School and Ghandi School, with final show in the center for elderly people. This project showed simple but efficient ways of engaging people of different ages to express themselves and create a safe environment for dialogue — something that can steadily alleviate the ramifications of social stigma. 

https://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2025/12/03/news/costruiamo_la_pace_san_basilio_celebra_il_natale_con_una_grande_sfilata-425019808/

Youth and culture 

What is culture? This question opens up a door to inquiry that can bring maybe more questions than answers.

 Being a foreigner in Italy, even broader put — being outside of my country it is always mesmerizing how little time it takes to spot someone from my home country. Intonations, facial expressions, gestures — it all signals to me “oh, they must be from Kazakhstan”. Is it already the cultural code in me speaking?

 Or being from a post-soviet union country, it was always curious to me that by meeting any person from any other country of this post-soviet space, it will take seconds for us to find common things to sigh about and to smile about. But how did the 70-years long imposition of the Soviet system transform into a cultural code for millions of people? And these traces of collective trauma, do they really belong to the culture?

 When bringing this question to the youth, besides finding rich art material to reflect upon, I also in turn find myself feeling moved by the actual gesture of giving voice to the youth. I remember growing up myself being told, rather than being asked, was much more of a norm. Is norm a part of culture too? Another moving aspect is that inviting to answer such a question by an image invites an artistic expression and statement. As we know, there isn’t a single society in history that would not have precious examples of artistic expression. Creative expression nurtures the sense of agency, the feeling of one’s voice and dignity.

 If we look at the images offered by students, we can see how multifaceted is the understanding of culture: space, friendship, craftsmanship, art, creative expression, peace, belonging, inclusion. I was deeply moved by an image of a tree and a small text following it: “Culture is something that makes you grow and shine, just like a tree full of colors”.