The city's challenges - Forum 2024

January 25th and 26th the Welfare Forum of the city of Milan, dedicated to social challenges affecting the local dimension.
 
A lot has been done in Milan in recent years: today the objective is to strengthen the alliance between the various actors in the area, aware that without assuming responsibility also on a national and regional level, cities find themselves operating with insufficient tools in the face of great social transformations.

Rights and inclusion are a resource for a more just and equitable society, where everyone can find space for their aspirations.

During the opening morning, together with the Mayor Giuseppe Sala, many authoritative voices contributed to raising our gaze on the major issues affecting the future of welfare; the thematic panels were dedicated to examining them in depth, starting from planned interventions that introduced the discussion open to the various contributions and the comparison with the councilor for Welfare and Health Lamberto Bertolé.

The Welfare Forum was held at Base Milan, in via Bergognone 34. 

The presence of LIS - Italian Sign Language - interpreters was guaranteed during all scheduled events.

The two-day Welfare Forum ended with over three thousand attendees overall; below, the program, also available in printable version and, by clicking on the names of the speakers, the podcasts of the individual speeches. 

9 am – The challenges of the city
On the crucial issues of inequalities and immigration, independent living for people with disabilities and ageing, adolescent hardship and social work, the Municipalities are called into question by citizens and various stakeholders: what strategies do we implement field, faced with a limited scope of resources that is progressively narrowing at a local level? Multi-voice dialogue with:

14 hours: 00- Panel 1
Aging: how do we prepare for the future?
The sociodemographic trends speak clearly: the population continues to age, the number of lonely people and people with chronic illnesses is increasing, family networks are thinning. The current solutions for housing independence and support for non-self-sufficiency show limits of economic sustainability and adequacy with respect to new needs. Innovative responses are needed, centered on socio-health integration and territorial welfare, widespread senior housing, active aging and an intergenerational approach. Introduces Carla Facchini, the president of the Nestore association and speakers:


16 hours: 00 – Panel 2
Immigration: inclusion is a resource for all.
Our country continues to address immigration only as an emergency and a critical issue, without truly untying the issues and seizing the opportunities. The national regulatory framework generates illegality and does not help to rationally manage the phenomenon. Without involvement to tackle the problems at the root, even the most virtuous Municipalities in promoting integration and rights struggle to build downstream solutions, being able to count only on the resources of their own territories. The rector of Bocconi University Francesco Billari introduces the discussion with:

  • Matteo Biffoni, Mayor of Prato and national ANCI immigration manager 
  • Maurizio Bove, president of ANOLF CISL Milan 
  • Elena Jona, coordinator of services for unaccompanied foreign minors of Farsi Prossimo 
  • Sarah Nocita, legal consultant of the WeMi Inclusion Service Center
  • Gaia Romani, councilor for Civic Services and Participation
  • Angelo Stanghellini, director of the Rights and Inclusion Area of ​​the Municipality of Milan 
  • Barbara Vajani, coordinator of the projects of the Reception and Inclusion System of Milan.
     

18 pm – Dialogues on welfare.
How to defend the welfare state? (listen to podcast).
Redefining public policies to promote rights, guarantee protections and respond to new needs, in a scenario of uncertainties, demographic decline and difficult sustainability. The journalist Lorenza Ghidini leads the discussion between the Welfare councilor Lamberto Bertolè and the economist Tito Boeri. 

9 hours: 30 – Panel 3
Disability: the centrality of the life project
The implementing decree of the Delegation Law on Disability rightly places people's life plans at the center of public attention, identifying the methods for an all-encompassing definition of the condition of disability. The attribution of important competences and responsibilities to the Municipalities must be supported with adequate transfers of resources, without which the local authority's proximity role cannot be carried out effectively. We discuss it with:

11 hours: 30 – Panel 4
Social work, poor work?
The increase in social demand and the decrease in available public resources impact not only on the quality of social work, which has already paid off so much in recent years, but on the very ability of our system to guarantee the human capital that "provides" welfare. Today more than ever, the coexistence between different interests raises the need for discussion and an assumption of shared responsibility by all the actors involved. In collaboration with Vita, we discuss it, led by its director Stefano Arduini, with:

  • Lamberto Bertolè, Councilor for Welfare and Health
  • Marco Bentivogli, co-founder of Base Italia 
  • Stefano Granata, president of Confcooperative Federsolidarietà
  • Cristina Palmieri, director of the Department of Educational Sciences of Bicocca University
  • Rossella Sacco, spokesperson of the Third Sector Forum of Milan 
  • Luca Stanzione, secretary of the metropolitan Chamber of Labor 
  • Eleonora Vanni, president of Legacoopsociali 
  • Manuela Zaltieri, president of the Regional Council of Social Workers.
     

14 Hours: 00 - 5 Panel
Adolescents: how do we deal with their discomfort?
We are faced with a need that is changing: the topic of mental health and psychological well-being concerns a growing number of girls and boys. Youth hardship produces loneliness and isolation and also affects social cohesion in neighborhoods. We need an integrated city plan that involves all institutional and territorial areas: school, health, sport, youth policies. Introduces Stefano Laffi, sociologist and co-founder of Codici and speakers:


16 hours: 00 – Panel 6
Inequalities: how to make Milan fairer?
Overcoming the fragmentation of local welfare is essential to impact growing inequalities: consolidating social networks is the best way to reach people and families who otherwise remain invisible to the system. Local measures against child poverty and serious marginalization, for the right to housing and food access are fundamental elements, which however have an effective impact only if accompanied by national policies of income support and guarantee of a minimum wage. The Oxfam Italia spokesperson introduces Francesco Petrelli and intervene: 


18 pm – Dialogues on welfare.
Sport is a reflection of contemporaneity (listen to podcast).
The rhetoric of values ​​and sport as a meeting ground between competition and inclusion. Sports councilors Martina Riva and Welfare Lamberto Bertolè they meet the volleyball champion Andrea Zorzi.

Updated: 20/03/2024