Anmelden
The idea for the municipality of Torre del Greco was born in 2013 and is that of an incubator for the enhancement of traditional local crafts aimed at urban and rural regeneration. The funds – 1,416,943.38 euros – are European Regional Development Funds (FESR) provided over two years, from 2013 to 2015. The STECCA entity wins the contract by proposing itself as a catalyst for the creation of an incubator and accelerator for businesses, aimed at “caring for” entrepreneurial ideas, bringing them to fruition, and ensuring their survival in sectors that have always characterized the town: local crafts, sea economy, tourism.
The name STECCA itself, with a romantic connotation, takes its origin from the name used by ancient craftsmen to designate the area of the old Marzoli mills, a center for coral and cameo processing.
STECCA’s Goals. There are two operational levels: the first is oriented towards providing advice to businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs, the second, which can be defined as “of knowledge”, is oriented towards training competencies, promoting business culture, and basically, offering cultural activities.
The entity’s activity. Information and advice to citizens and businesses through a front office is the main function that has generated excellent results, since from 2019 to 2021, STECCA has seen the number of consultations provided grow by +57% monthly, despite the forced stop due to the pandemic
STECCA’s Numbers. Since 2018 – the real start of activity after three years of forced stop due to technical problems related to the former Marzoli mills, the location of STECCA, about 3 weekly consultations have been recorded, for a total of 120 per year; a number that almost doubles in 2019 when it reaches 220 interventions with an average of 5 per week and remains at good levels even in 2020 with 168 “assistances” despite the Covid outbreak. In 2021, there were 368 consultations with an average of around 8 per week, and there was good progress in 2022 with 414 consultations, with an average of 9 per week.
These data must be integrated with the attached table, which shows the weeks and the working months of each year.
12 training courses have also been provided to about 100 users who produced 10 projects and 9 funding requests for proposals waiting for approval.
Start-ups. There are several start-ups hosted by STECCA spaces that has been supporting them since birth, through the development of business plans, and helping them in their “jouney”. Among many, we would like to highlight some that stand out for the uniqueness of their ideas: “AQUAMARO”, a producer of a bitter drink made of seawater and apricots from Vesuvius and “ZERONETTO”, which creates a new learning methodology , problem-solving techniques through children’s stories, promoting collaboration and critical -project thinking in order to increase behavioral, social and active citizenship skills. GRAPHS
STECCA and young people. The negative note, however, emerges from the low visibility of this idea incubator among young people. From a brief survey conducted at the De Bottis High School, it was found that only 35% of students know STECCA, just 20% know of the presence of “Her Majesty”, a school of English, 45% exclusively attend the “CoBar”, a service offered by STECCA that takes inspiration from a new work model mostly adopted by freelancers who use shared spaces, autonomous workstations where it is also possible to interact with others.
Conclusions Although it seems that young people from Torre have not been captivated by the initiative yet, the entity seems to be growing exponentially so much that its attractive power as a forge of “young” ideas for the future of the “Gen Z” can now be considered mature.
