Innovating welfare services in the 2016 earthquake crater

The 2016 post-earthquake area is a large geographical region still affected by the consequences of the earthquake and grappling with the pre-existing problems typical of the inner Italian’s areas. Here, local welfare services have difficulty providing adequate responses to the emerging and increasingly pressing social needs of communities. In these places, moreover, the lack of a rooted young population ready to become active has been a disincentive to strengthening services and the local social and economic fabric as well as to design targeted policies to prevent and counteract youth and female poverty. The data on the NEET population show a picture not yet adequately intercepted on which it is urgent to take tailored actions. To respond to these problems, the use of collaborative practices between the public and the formal and informal social private sector may constitute a new opportunity that, however, is still insufficiently explored in the inner crater areas due to contingent and/or structural problems. This article therefore describes the activities that ActionAid has been carrying out in this area since the first days after the earthquake to respond to these critical issues. The presentation of the RETI project allows us to explore in depth the set of interventions implemented by ActionAid that aim to support people’s participation and protagonism and to build forms of community cooperation also through service co-design practices with local stakeholders.

Keywords: community welfare, NEET, social innovation, youth empowerment, 2016 earthquake

Lucia Romagnoli, Marco Polvani, Rossella Silvestre, Innovare i servizi di welfare nel cratere sisma 2016 in "PRISMA Economia - Società - Lavoro" 1/2024, pp 102-111, DOI: 10.3280/PRI2024-001007