WISH-MI

It takes a village to raise a child, but more importantly it takes children to make a village. The Municipality of Milan (Italy) created new opportunities to integrate its youth (0-18 years) fully into society by increasing social cohesion, building vibrant communities, and reducing educational and economic disparities. Milan helped its 225 000 minors face the many challenges of city life by building the Wellbeing Integrated System of Milan (WISH-MI).

WISH-MI created a more integrated and holistic framework among city departments and community-based service providers. Milan empowered its youth to play an integral part in shaping the city’s future through proactive listening methodologies and co-designed programmes. The city engaged youth by building new easy-to-navigate digital pathways to its services, using gamification and other tools to incentivise positive real-world behaviours. Local community hubs were built to serve as innovative “playgrounds” where all members of the community can interact and co-produce, find and offer tailored opportunities. WISH-MI therefore enabled communities to have greater access to and take advantage of city services, and promoted a strong social fabric in which all community members felt included and supported. 

What SOLUTIONS did the Urban Innovative Action project offer?

WISH-MI stimulated the creation of a pathway toward a new working culture both within the municipal administration and among stakeholders, while providing a testing ground for a new set of infrastructure and devices designed to increase the level of wellbeing of young people. In addition, WISH-MI fine-tuned new principles of collaboration and the co-design of services.  

The WISH-MI project:  

- Rethought and redesigned the city's youth policies and services so that they are implemented in an inter-departmental manner.  

- Increased opportunities for access to child welfare services, and increased the number accessing child welfare services in Milan. 

- Created integrated spaces (physical and online) to facilitate access to services.  

- Created mechanisms for the city's municipal administration to listen to children and families, and to promote the co-design of services. 

What DIFFERENCE has it made at local level?

WISH-MI piloted a new youth (0-18 years) wellness system, marking a significant shift toward a new way of thinking that puts the wellbeing of children at the heart of policies. The results were encouraging in all project areas: a strategic plan shared among six directorates of the City of Milan, which fed into the 2021-2023 welfare development plan; a multidimensional index for youth policies; 50 Milan 0-18 ambassadors; 150 entities admitted to the Milan 0-18 catalogue; €2 000 000 of digital vouchers allocated to families; 25 missions and 1 000 beneficiaries; 6 hubs and 1 000 beneficiaries; 100 local micro-projects and 4 000 beneficiaries. 

What PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES have been put in place for the project?

WISH-MI activated a co-design process among local stakeholders, service users and beneficiaries, and both profit and non-profit service providers, which has led to the creation of local micro-personalised projects. These projects were funded by collective vouchers in order to generate services increasingly tailored to the needs of end users. At the same time, six WISH-MI Collective Hubs were created in different neighbourhoods of the city to offer young people the opportunity to help create the services offered to them, and to provide a physical space for the exploration, co-design and experimentation of new innovative services. Each hub was allocated a dedicated budget for the development of local micro-personalised projects, such as participative public art projects, which addressed the needs, desires, and ideas of young people and their families. 

How does the project tackle different aspects with an INTEGRATED APPROACH?

Local public administrations and all project partners were aware that opportunities for youth are not evenly distributed across the City of Milan, heightening the risk of isolation, and social and educational segregation. The project team mapped the best opportunities throughout the city, and brought them closer to underserved areas. The long-term aim was better integration of youth into society by broadening the number of children/schools/communities that benefit from existing educational opportunities (formal and non-formal), and the creation of new opportunities by co-designing a new system hand-in-hand with its future beneficiaries: families and children.  

The project catalysed a long-term integration process, in which all Milan’s youth and their families have access to concrete opportunities that increase their quality of life, and foster a more equal and tolerant local community. A reward (voucher) system facilitates access to services for all youth at lower or no costs. WISH-MI promoted integration in different dimensions: an innovative integrated set of urban policies and programmes; integration between different dimensions of child wellbeing, different departments of the local public authority, and different sectors (public, private, NGOs); and intergenerational integration, focusing on urban poverty and the digital transition. 

Why should other European cities use the solution the project explored?

Other cities can grab the opportunity of changing and improving its plans to re-engineer traditional welfare models, giving citizens more choice over the services offered by the municipality. Milan created individual and collective vouchers to access services under five categories (Arts, Health, Education, Sport, and STEM), based around WISH-MI’s youth wellbeing pillars (social relations, physical activity, healthcare, access to education and training, opportunities to express talents and creativity, self-determination, and access to quality common spaces). The voucher system presents opportunities to empower children, young people and families, giving priority to the most socially and economically vulnerable families. WISH-MI represented a major shift in the city’s support framework for its young people, and all these experiences and results can be deepened, adapted and exploited by other cities facing the same challenges.