Urban Innovative Actions

The issue of demographic change in the urban population is one of the biggest emerging challenges globally.

In July 2020 S.T.E.P.S. (Shared Time Enhances People Solidarity) - applied for by the city of Verona, as lead together with numerous partners from the research sector and civil society, was selected together with 10 other proposals, out of over 200 selected by the European Commission to encourage creative, innovative and sustainable experiments in cities with at least 50,000 inhabitants.

The three-year project addresses the issue of demographic change in the urban population and related new social and economic challenges, with €4 million to be invested in three strands of action: measuring the degree of loneliness of residents, creating new places for socialising and working, and redeveloping public and private buildings that will be made available to the community.

The representative context of intervention is the 3rd district of Verona: 59,622 inhabitants, of which 14,932 are over 65 and 5,237 are over 80, with an average age of 46.3 years. This context has the highest number of elderly people (22% of the city total) and families, with 28,165 households present.

The project aims to develop new subsidiarity pacts and encourage the activism of associations and citizens, the creation of new meeting places, reuse and training centres, good neighbourly relations and work orientation, the promotion of socio-cultural initiatives such as theatre, music and art, the training and digital knowledge of citizens, the birth of micro-business initiatives and the promotion of the circular economy. CAUTO, one of the project's partners, is working to meet these needs by setting up a Community Bank, the sharing economy model devised by Officina Sociale experts to activate social, exchange and cohesion processes in the community. The Community Bank is in fact a registered trademark with two other experiences on different areas, and uses digital innovation to facilitate sharing and community practices through a virtual exchange platform and a real meeting place.

S.T.E.P.S. is funded by the European Union for the U.I.A. Urban Innovative Actions, programme, with financing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Municipality of Verona, as the local city authority, plays the role of project leader and brings together, in addition to CAUTO, the following 7 partners: ATER Verona ATER Verona, ARIBANDUS Cooperativa Sociale, Energie Sociali Cooperativa Sociale, MAG Cooperativa Sociale, Consorzio SOL.CO., Università degli Studi di Verona, Associazione Impresa sociale FabLab.

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