LABORATORIES FOR SOCIAL SOLIDARITY IN THE DISTRICT OF CASALECCHIO DI RENO (BOLOGNA, ITALY)

Abstract

This article describes an experience that took place between 2012 and 2014 referred to as “Laboratories for social solidarity” in Casalecchio di Reno, a District of Bologna Province in Italy comprising five municipalities and covering a population of 110,895 people, characterized by an aging population. The social fabric of the District includes a strong and proactive third sector: voluntary organizations, associations, cooperatives and trade unions, willing to engage in constructive dialogue with the institutional actors.

The experience involved a variety of local actors, institutional and non, and its main objective was to reshape the functions and responsibilities of the public sector in relation to the growing needs of citizens, and innovate the system of intervention.

This project allowed for the testing of a new method of planning social services through mechanisms of participatory democracy. As opposed to addressing traditional target groups (elderly, adults, children, the disabled), it addressed priority issues transversally from the perspective of community and generative welfare. It generated new alliances and forms of collaboration between different players in the territory. The findings and proposals were approved by the Mayors of the Municipality of the District and incorporated in the institutional “Area Plan for health and social welfare”.