Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, May 21 2019 – It will be held on Saturday 25 May, starting from 10 am, in the main courtyard and in the Sala Alessi of Palazzo Marino, the Board Game Festival “Play ME”, organized by Giuditta and Demetrio De Marchi ONLUS Foundation. Until 18pm, 30 stations will be made available to adults and children, where around 100 different board games will be played. Playing with children and teenagers there will be well-known personalities, including Mara Maionchi, who will help them rediscover board games, to stimulate the desire to have fun in company and prevent web addiction. 

Various meeting moments are also planned during the day: at 11am there will be the award ceremony for the competition "A dream playroom”, in which 45 classes and over a thousand children from primary and lower secondary schools participated (created thanks to the collaboration of Play Modena, MeMo and the publisher Cmon); at 11 am the round table "Experiences of a society at play" will be held, which will address the issues of social isolation and the risks connected to the abuse of digital tools, with a first moment dedicated to the reasons that lead to addiction and to web pathology and a second to possible solutions; Finally, from 15pm, a series of meetings will be held with game designer professionals, expert ludologists and enthusiasts to discuss and answer questions from the public on the latest trends, a peaceful and fun approach to gaming, titles to start with, how to choose a toy library, the aggregating and inclusive function of board and board games and the ability to create positive and solid bonds.   

The games available were provided by most of the publishing houses active in Italy: Cmon, Cranio creations, Giochi Uniti, MS editions, Uplay, Oliphante, Giochi briosi, DV Giochi, Need games, Asmodee, Hasbro, Pendragon, Raven, Horrible games as well as UESM – Casa dei Giochi and Politecnico di Milano, which will be present with an experimental game. 

GiocaMi has obtained the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, the Lombardy Region, the IRCCS Ca' Granda Foundation Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano and the technical support of Coop Lombardia and Play, the Modena Game Festival. 

The event is organized by the G. and D. De Marchi ONLUS Foundation founded in the 80s by a group of doctors and parents who felt the need to do more for their children affected by serious chronic diseases. Since then it has been committed to guaranteeing the best possible global care for the young patients of the De Marchi Pediatric Clinic of the Milan Polyclinic. The commitment translates into the restructuring of departments, the purchase and renewal of equipment for treatment, diagnosis and reception, in promoting research and guaranteeing specialization scholarships, in the use of doctors, healthcare workers, entertainers, psychologists and art therapists. The Foundation's activity also includes the organization of assisted holidays for children, support for needy families with financial aid, and the training of volunteers who work in the Clinic's departments.  

The only integrated pediatric pain medicine clinic in the Milan area is active at the De Marchi Clinic of the Milan Polyclinic. Created to accommodate chronic and severely disabled patients, over time the clinic has also become a point of reference for patients who present symptoms of youthful distress with a tendency towards social isolation which leads to dropping out of school and the onset of disorders, until recently does unknown, linked to the abuse of new digital technologies. A pathology born in Japan and called Hikikomori which literally means "to be in part, to isolate oneself", a phenomenon that is also spreading in Italy. The clinic is made up of a multi-disciplinary care team made up of doctors, psychologists, physiotherapists, humanists, language and web experts and pet therapy.

For information and registration: info@fondazionedemarchi.it.