Founded in early 2025, HOPE is an Italian charity that aims to give real meaning to the word hope, especially for those affected by chronic neurological and psychiatric conditions—referred to here as neurodivergents—and their community of care. This term includes all those who interact with and care for neurodivergent individuals: family members, caregivers, friends, doctors, and healthcare workers.

HOPE was born from a grassroots community: a cultural and creative network of people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers, who, through their own lived experiences, developed initiatives inspired by participatory medicine. This approach has allowed them to radically transform their relationship with the disease, leading them to rediscover something essential that had been lost—the deep essence of what it means to be human. This is why HOPE stands as an acronym for Humanity On Planet Earth, a fundamental condition we have at our disposal, but from which we have drifted away over time, culminating in the present age of growing dehumanization and disconnection from ourselves, from one another, and from nature.

For us, HOPE means return, repair, and reconnection with our shared humanity. It is not a nostalgic yearning for an idyllic past, but rather a call to build a future made of small and large personal and collective “revolutions.” We want to take responsibility—to care for ourselves, for others, and for the planet we inhabit. We do not believe in escape, in colonizing other planets, in outsourcing crucial decisions to machines, or in entrusting our future to leaders who pursue personal gain while disregarding the suffering of fellow human beings, sentient creatures, and the Earth itself.

In this Manifesto of Principles and Intentions, we outline the ideals that inspire us—and, above all, the social practices we have long neglected and to which we now intend to return.

We start from our suffering, transforming it into a tool to build happiness for everyone we encounter on our journey.

INSPIRING PRINCIPLES

• Social engagement is the most powerful medicine that exists.. Scientific evidence confirms—if confirmation were ever needed—that we are social beings, and that nurturing this aspect of our humanity is vital to staying healthy and healing when we fall ill.
• A return to the arts, to movement, to nature, to volunteering in civic organizations: these are the medicines for people of all ages. Social health is a fundamental part of every human being’s physical and mental well-being. It enables us to confront the diseases of modernity—first and foremost, the pandemic of loneliness.
• Coming back to ourselves—remembering who we are—is key to our commitment to simply be, to be part of a whole: microcosms that cannot live in isolation, but only in relationship with one another and with the macrocosm, which we reflect in wondrous ways. Alongside countless other human beings—of every ethnicity, religion, and political persuasion—we aspire to a new humanism, one in which science and poetry cannot exist without mutually supporting each other.

ACTIONS AND PRACTICES

We do not ask those who walk alongside us to adopt any prefabricated ethical, religious, spiritual, or philosophical principles. On the contrary, we wish to be inspired by the ideas they bring, adopting an attitude of active listening and openness. By transcending our limited egos, we strive toward a learning process that is curious, enthusiastic, warm, and passionate.

We focus on actions and practices, rather than on theories and ideologies. What we propose in this Manifesto of Principles and Intentions are activities we already carry out—or intend to carry out—together, from a community-based perspective, with open eyes and hearts:

• Creation of a Cultural Production Center dedicated to cultivating the creativity and knowledge of fragile and vulnerable individuals
• Launch of a Web Radio run and managed by people with neurological and psychiatric conditions (NeuroRadioWeb project)
• Organization of urban and rural workshops focused on music therapy, aimed at fragile and vulnerable people—but open to all
• Collaboration in the establishment of Homes for fragile and vulnerable individuals, promoting co-housing and co-working solutions that respect human dignity (ParkinsHome project)

To achieve HOPE’s goals, we commit to:

Organizing ourselves—seeking funding and partnerships, building bridges with other civic organizations;

Educating ourselves—co-constructing knowledge and expanding our horizons beyond the narrow boundaries of our ego, our group, or our country;

Engaging—becoming promoters of awareness and active agents of hope

Rome, January 29, 2025

References

Can social activity be a form of medicine?

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/can_social_activity_be_a_form_of_medicine

Julia Hotz, The connection cure: the prescriptive power of movement, nature, art, service and belonging
https://www.amazon.com/Connection-Cure-Prescriptive-Movement-Belonging

Stefania Guerra Lisi, Concetti e principi della globalità dei linguaggi
https://www.disciplinaglobalitadeilinguaggi.it/concetti-e-principi/

I sogni senza limiti di Alex Langer
https://www.internazionale.it/opinione/franco-lorenzoni-2/2015/07/02/alexander-langer

Marina A Noordegraaf, Sanne W van den Berg, Bastiaan R Bloem, Hopamine as Personalized Medicine for Persons with Parkinson’s Disease

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36806516/