“This is not an administrative step, the choice we have made has a very significant political value”, the words of Lamberto Bertolé, municipal councilor for health welfare. «We want to build a partnership system between the municipal administration and the bodies of the Third sector. I confess that the temptation to sign the document and bring it to the approval of the Council was great, but it would not have been the correct and best way to start this reform».
Per Angelo Stanghellinidirector of the Rights and Inclusions Area of the Municipality of Milan, «basically it is a regulation that seeks to support and promote the construction of relational spaces. It is not a regulation to regulate relations only on a legal, administrative and procedural level, rather it creates spaces, contexts, opportunities and opportunities for relationships between different actors which, together, try to contribute to a public function, which is not the exclusive prerogative of the public body. This must help to create alliances between different subjects on very precise work objects: the dimension of doing comes immediately after the dimension of meeting, of recognizing and valuing each other. Doing to reach people, i.e. the final recipients of our services. Third sector entities themselves are called to dialogue with each other. This regulation seeks to found a change of model, from a competitive approach to a selective but non-competitive approach. The various actors must recompose and regroup. All realities, even the smallest, because they too are important in the micro-contexts of people’s lives. Naturally, everything must go through finding the necessary resources, without which civic activism and the more structured world of volunteering cannot achieve great goals».
«The unitary project becomes a synthesis of the work carried out by the local authority and by the ETS, why it is not that the Municipality decides and the Third sector entities implement: the latter are not service providers but full-fledged partners», added Stanghellini. «Then there will have to be more and more medium-long term partnerships in order to be able to make shared investments on the object of work. Another innovative element is the issue of the use and enhancement of state-owned properties that need to be redeveloped. The sustainability of the projects requires adequate financial resources to support them, but co-financing is also envisaged because it falls within the logic of sharing the project and the consequent investment. In short, it is not one form to join the game. Finally, simplification is essential but must not call into question reporting and formal administrative rigour. Social impact assessment is another decisive step for changing public interventions».
A working group within the Municipality of Milan, which involves numerous Departments, must now translating the regulatory contents of the regulation into procedural guidelines that allow you to really live the principles contained therein. Trying to find a new balance between the rhetoric of co-planning, erroneously seen as the panacea for all ills, and the resistance to change that still exists.
«Administering together is not the sum of “one plus one”, but something that can produce a multiplication»he stressed Christian Malangone, general manager of the Milanese municipality. «The way in which we have proceeded up to now is no longer enough. There are a number of critical issues to be resolved, for example I am thinking of unaccompanied minors. This regulation wants to go beyond the daily, the ordinary commitment: it is a complex, daring proposition, above all in public administration, where there is a tendency to create grids which then enclose. It’s not just about social: all the activity of the Municipality must be invested by this approach. We’re doing it on some things, we’ll have to do it on others: I’m thinking of the environment and sport, just to cite a few examples that concern all citizens”.
Scarlett Saccospokesman for the Third sector forum in Milan, wanted to recall that «welfare is a civil economy, they are not distinct things. It is a co-programming process started in June 2022 and shared with all the subjects of the city, not just with one. If we achieve the welfare of the city, generating economies with the involvement of profit companies, these companies will also benefit. Comparison with other cities will be fundamental, which can help us identify improvements and correctives, and perhaps help them grow together with us».
“This regulation marks a challenging step for the institution that promotes it, because it implicitly proposes the goal of experimenting with a new form of welfare”, is the opinion of Marco Brunod, professor at the University of Milan Bicocca, expert in shared administration. «We must not forget that individual citizens and families often manage many problems on their own, mobilizing their own economic resources. bravely, the Municipality of Milan takes on a challenge: to try to progressively develop experiences of community welfare. None of us can do it alone, and neither can the Municipality. There are aspects of our life that we cannot delegate to the free market or by placing profit at the centre, i.e. the economic advantage of one of the subjects involved in the treatment of these problems which, finally, can be raised to the rank of common goods».
Valeria Negrinipresident of Federsolidarietà Lombardia, began with a wish: «I hope that the City Council will approve this proposal for a regulation, due to the quality of its contents. The co-programming aspect must be absolutely taken care of for the good of all citizens. And this cannot be invented, it can only be done with a great deal of listening and with the encounter between two great subjects who have different roles and responsibilities but a common goal. In short, great listening, analytical and vision skills are required. And, consequently, it must acquire new skills also in being together. I beg you not to do one thing: define the hierarchies of knowledge. Is medical knowledge worth more than educational knowledge? Or is the social worker of the Municipality worth more than that of the Ats? I think not, but that’s what happens every day. Then a change of method is needed. Thirty years of tenders have led many organizations, especially the entrepreneurial part, to lie down on logics that are not ours. But despite the many critical issues, the third sector, the world of cooperation and associations have produced great social innovation in this country. It is undeniable. Now let’s go find the latent energies. I am thinking of the problems of young people, an issue that is often dealt with superficially. Well, in Emilia Romagna there are many young people who have also come from our Lombardy, who are doing well because they are doing good. These are latent energies that must be valued».
“We want to move from a vertical relationship to a horizontal one, with a delegation process that allows citizens to contribute in planning and participatory terms within their community,” he said Claudia Pontidirector of Csv Lombardia. «Like all innovative processes, it requires support and accompaniment actions for both the public administration and third sector entities. We build a new cultural approach around people and goods. We return the theme of welfare to the communities, giving value to the construction of social fabrics and daily ties, protecting the most fragile people. The third sector must have the ability to reposition itself. We must go back to legitimizing ourselves around needs. Volunteering must act as guarantor of a right and must be able to maintain an active role within relations with the institutions. We leave the logic of service to be bearers of proposals. We must contribute to the definition of community objectives and priorities, participating actively and responsibly in decision-making processes. If we imagine this new profile of relations between the public administration and third sector organizations, it is necessary that also the voluntary sector questions itself on the themes of self-referentiality, fragmentation, recomposition of needs. Strong maintenance of in-game skills is required. The CSVs must help the voluntary sector develop these skills, not only from a technical-specialist point of view but also in the ability to read the territories we inhabit. We also look at other cities, for example at similar experiences started in Como and in the Monza-Brianza-Lecco area».
At the top, an image of the Arca project in Milan