Date of label : 29/10/2024
A moment of community healthcare provision in an urban setting, with an ambulance and medical personnel attending to the needs of the local residents.
Summary
Reggiane OFF is a multi-level, multi-stakeholder initiative promoting social and health inclusion for migrant communities living in the Reggiane area, once home to one of Italy’s most important factories. Recently, the area has become one of the biggest informal settlements for homeless people and migrants in the Region, with a high concentration of people living under extremely poor conditions. As part of an innovative inter-institutional urban regeneration intervention within the Reggiane Innovation Park, Reggio Emilia Municipality (IT) helped create a public-private governance model to establish “local humanitarian corridors”. These create long-term and sustainable inclusion paths, based on dialogue and mediation with the people involved.
The solutions offered by the Good Practice
Since the closure of its large factory, the abandoned area in Reggiane has become one of the Region's largest informal settlements, covering 251 780 m² with about 100-250 residents. For many years, the City failed to provide a comprehensive response, partly due to overlapping interventions by several actors.
Over the past decade, the area has been included in the City’s strategic plans for a major urban regeneration project to preserve Reggiane's cultural heritage while promoting assets like the Innovation Park, RCF Arena, and the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre. This shift required a new approach to the humanitarian crisis, moving beyond a securitarian approach to create social infrastructure for an inclusive urban recovery.
In 2020, the City initiated a public-private partnership to establish local humanitarian corridors that provide humane, sustainable conditions for residents’ reintegration. An inter-institutional and multi-level Protocol was signed by the Municipality, Region, Health Agency, Diocese, charity organisations, and the urban regeneration company, to design individualised and cross-sectoral care support, including:
- Integrated public-private governance structures.
- Widespread reception in apartments for area residents.
- Legal teams for personalised counselling.
- Systematic medical care (especially during COVID).
- Work placement pathways.
- Enrollment in population registers and national health service.
- Building renovations.
Building on the sustainable and integrated urban approach
The Protocol established the formal framework for a multilevel and cross-sectoral approach addressing social and health aspects, site management and urban safety. It fostered shared responsibilies between public and private actors, and social and health stakeholders, to support the regeneration of the former Reggiane factory buildings. This reuse of abandoned spaces enhanced urban and social quality, and created social innovation opportunities.
It addressed several dimensions:
Social: Individualised support pathways for vulnerable people, in line with the strategic objectives of the Regional Social and Health Plan to tackle exclusion, poverty and fragility through integrated local approaches.
Legal: Individualised pathways to legality, enabling access to residency status and to essential services.
Health: Partnerships with the Local Health Unit Authority (AUSL) and Civic Protection Services for basic hygiene, healthcare, and COVID vaccinations.
Economic: Enabling the company managing the Innovation Park to integrate urban, social and economic regeneration strategies to provide solutions that meet multiple needs.
Environmental: Upgrading and creating new social facilities (e.g. skate park, basketball courts) to improve the quality-of-life and make a new community hub, on previously degraded spaces.
Based on participatory approach
The Municipality established a public-private partnership that engaged all the long-standing actors in the Reggiane area, to identify common approaches and solutions to combat social marginalisation and protect vulnerable people. The resulting Protocol was signed by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna Region, the Local Health Agency (AUSL), the investment management company for the Reggiane requalification process (STU Reggiane), and the Diocesan charity association, in collaboration with the Prefecture of Reggio Emilia and the policy department. Social organisations already active in the area, including cooperatives, voluntary associations and NGOs, were also engaged, enabling effective, sustainable interventions based on dialogue and mediation with the people involved.
The Protocol formalised shared responsibilities, roles and competencies, by integrating spatial governance, healthcare, social care, inclusion and planning.
Two key organisational methods supported this collaboration:
- Steering Committee: Coordinated and monitored the actions of the signatories and ensured integrated governance.
- Technical Operational Table: Assessed individual situations and proposed tailored support for residents.
What difference has it made?
The Reggiane OFF initiative engaged 31 actors, including public authorities, institutions, social cooperatives, religious actors (Diocese, parishes), associations, the police department, and the Prefecture of Reggio Emilia.
Key outcomes included:
- 353 people gained access to services, such as the Proximity Unit, Centre for Foreign Family Health, and Legal Counselling Desk.
- Individualised social reintegration paths for 104 residents.
- Counselling services offered to 850 people to tackle dependencies and risky behaviours.
- The legal status of 100 people regularised.
- 50 people granting residency and access to healthcare, including mental health services.
- Vaccination of 70% of people living in the settlement.
In addition to the impact on direct beneficiaries, around 30% of Reggio Emilia’s citizens indirectly benefitted as a result of the improvement in livability and security in the area:
- 4 560 residents of Santa Croce neighbourhood from the urban regeneration.
- 400 employees of the companies in the Innovation Park.
- 5 million people yearly (pre-COVID average) using the area for intermodal transport and to reach the RCF Arena events.
- 130 000 yearly visitors to the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre on study visits or attending international conferences on early childhood education.
Why this Good Practice should be transferred to other cities
The Reggiane OFF good practice addresses a major challenge of all EU cities: creating inclusive, safe, and sustainable communities for everyone, including migrants and refugees.
By addressing this challenge, the practice contributes to:
- UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 (No poverty) and 11 (Sustainable cities and communities).
- The Urban Agenda for the EU.
- Regional and national strategies, such as the Regional Poverty Alleviation Plan 2022-2024, the Regional Social Health Plan, and the National Guidelines for Severe Adult Exclusion.
The practice demonstrates a more effective approach to immigration and marginality. It can be replicated in other territories, and amended to suit any context, to better respond to local needs and specific situations of marginality. The Protocol for local humanitarian corridors could be adapted to match the relationship and commitments of signatory organisations in any city, and it could be extended to other thematic areas.
Key factors for replication include:
- Political commitment across different governance levels to ensure long-term sustainability and the necessary personnel and economic resource investments.
- Strong multi-stakeholder collaborations, coordinated by the reference public authority.
- Integrated resources to enhance the impact and align with other development initiatives.
- Support and motivation for engaged operators and volunteers.
Reggiane OFF’s model is being replicated in Reggio Emilia's Central Station district, which faces poor social cohesion challenges. In 2024, a Protocol was signed with 18 organisations to co-design multi-stakeholder participatory activities, reclaim public space, enhance relationships, and boost public safety. The Protocol activated four working groups to address specific challenges in the district.