Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Rabaiotti: "A topic that deserves particular attention, we are very grateful to the entire network that took action to carry out the project"

Milan, January 8 2021 – Casa Alba opens, a center dedicated to homeless women, which expands the reception network set up in the city as part of the Cold Plan. It is the result of a mobilization of the private and private social sectors who have decided to collaborate with the municipal administration following a model of "generative action" which, by virtue of a redistribution of the resources present in the territory in favor of its inhabitants, also of the most fragile ones and those in relationship with the Municipality, manages to build responses and projects capable of carrying out an important social function.

The structure is located at the oratory of Santa Bernadetta in via Boffalora, Barona area, and will be able to accommodate up to a maximum of 20 women who, sent by the Municipality's Sammartini Center, will find here a safe place to sleep, as well as two hot meals , dinner and breakfast.

In the reception room, everything needed for health triage, carried out by Emergency staff, has been set up. The creation of 'Casa Alba' was also possible thanks to CIG Arcigay Milano and private companies, which expressed their willingness to finance the hospitality project. The operation is led by the Sviluppo e Promozione Onlus association, together with a large network of volunteers.

Custody services and socio-educational support will be carried out by the social promotion association Cisonoanch'io. 

“An important sign of attention towards the fragilities of Milan - says the councilor for social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti -. In times of difficulty, the city is able to forcefully express its ability to hold together very different stories and roots: associations, social cooperation and profit-making businesses. These experiences question in a very profound way the role of the public, and therefore the methods of action of local administrations and public institutions in general called to build a comparison with the many and different capacities present in society and in the entrepreneurial system and which if called into cause, are ready and available to give their contribution in the implementation of important projects for the territories and the city. We discussed it during the FareMilano working groups and this speech is a first demonstration of it. Now more than ever we cannot do without these relationships and these potentials which must find concrete and valuable opportunities to express themselves. We have identified this need because the issue of female presence among the homeless deserves particular attention: very often these are people who have suffered forms of discrimination and exclusion and who, remaining on the streets, are more exposed to the risk, including violence. For this reason we are very grateful to the entire network that activated the project, with the hope that it is only a first experiment, a model that can be replicated and strengthened in the future".

“The opening of 'Casa Alba' - intervenes the manager Anna Ajelli, of the Sviluppo e Promozione association - was made possible by a consortium of subjects who, by expanding, made their resources and skills available: to the volunteers of the Sviluppo e Promozione association, leader and creator of the project, the Giovanni XXIII pastoral community, the Navigli Deanery, Emergency with its healthcare support, the Solidarity Brigades, the social promotion association Cisonoanch'io. This is the demonstration that when you network, coagulating your strengths and peculiarities, it is possible to respond to the needs of the territory in a targeted and profitable way".
The CIG Arcigay Milano has raised the funds intended for this important initiative through the Rainbow Social Fund, established on the occasion of Milan Pride 2020 to support the city of Milan during the health emergency due to Covid-19, for the construction of projects for who is most in difficulty.
 
Thanks to the generosity of companies and private citizens, who did not hold back despite the complex year, the funds raised by the Rainbow social fund will be used to finance projects dedicated to people in conditions of social fragility, such as assisted housing for LGBT+ people included in assistance paths managed by the CIG Arcigay Milano. Among the other purposes of the fund there are also projects in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan, and this is precisely the path in which the choice to support the opening of 'Casa Alba' fits.
 
Fabio Pellegatta, president of the CIG Arcigay Milano, comments: “With the Rainbow social fund and the destination of part of the funds raised to the 'Casa Alba' project, the LGBT+ community reaffirms its presence and its social and political nature: working for the common good and with respect for everyone is in fact the backbone of our movement. The project was particularly appreciated and felt by the new management of the CIG Arcigay Milano: we must remember that women are still a segment of our population particularly exposed to violence, discrimination and more generally difficulties. We are particularly proud to be able to launch the 'Casa Alba' service, in the hope that in the future there will be more and more organizations ready to support these initiatives.”

Meanwhile, still within the scope of the initiatives planned for the Cold Plan, in collaboration with ATS and Emergency, the execution of rapid swabs at the Sammartini Center has also begun, which will allow the streamlining and speeding up of the procedures for inserting guests into the reception centers (up to now, before entering the facilities, molecular swabs have always been carried out, in agreement with Villa Marelli). To carry them out, three gazebos are set up every day outside the Sammartini Centre, one reserved for healthcare personnel, one for carrying out swabs and the third for waiting for the results.

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