FOQUS Fondazione Quartieri Spagnoli is an urban regeneration and social innovation project, born in 2013 in the Quartieri Spagnoli district (the Spanish Quarters) of Naples. The Quartieri Spagnoli, situated in the historical center of the city, is a fragile area, densely populated and scarcely integrated in the city’s urban fabric. It hosts 17.500 inhabitants per sq. km. (10% or the children and 64% of the women of the city), 13% of which are first- and second-generation immigrants; it is characterized by high unemployment and non-employment rate, a high risk of early age deviance and school dropout and the almost complete absence of green areas (1,42 sq. m. per inhabitant). In this context, FOQUS redesigned the role and functions of the Montecalvario Institute, transforming this empty and unused property, founded in the sixteenth century by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, into an experimental innovation project.

Since 2013, FOQUS promotes development projects in the neighborhood, fosters social inclusion and works to fight material and educational poverty, as well as all forms of social, economic and educational inequality. The Foundation’s innovative model, through an integrated approach, has created new educational, cultural and aggregative activities; has promoted and offered training for sustainable initiatives; and has worked as an incubator of new businesses and initiatives.

FOQUS is now an educational, economic and productive community, comprised of a nursery, a primary school, a lower secondary school, a non-medicalized center for people with disabilities (ARGO), a library, a permanent contemporary art collection. It hosts the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli, an online sports newspaper (il Napolista), a digital start-up and a photojournalistic agency (Kontrolab). It offers specific training courses for educators and informal courses for people of all ages.