Taborchi (Ada Umbria): “Volunteering, social forces and the third sector cannot be ignored”
Perugia, 7 June 2024 – The Perugia neighborhood parties were not just an opportunity for recreational entertainment and tastings. At the Pescaia Park, in the two days of celebration of 1st and 2nd June, theAssociation for the Rights of the Elderly (ADA) Umbria organized a public discussion together with thePsychological Profession Association on how the city can take care of the well-being of its inhabitants, become a place of safety and welcome, a place where different ages and cultures meet and interact, a place where people can feel good and live well.
“Urban quality – said the President of ADA Umbria Luciano Taborchi – is not an issue that concerns only the Municipality, to be addressed in secret rooms and through urban planning tools alone. Precisely because it directly concerns the community and affects the health and quality of life of citizens, it must be addressed in terms of horizontal subsidiarity.
Therefore, in defining the strategies and guidelines for urban quality, the contribution of volunteering, social forces and the Third Sector cannot be ignored. Municipalities should equip themselves with a specific urban quality office, which operates across the entire organizational structure of the entity and systematically monitors and evaluates urban quality and all the services offered to citizens. Citizens, to be considered no longer as simple recipients and sources of data, but as true subjects of ‘civic evaluation'”.
The need for a new approach to urban design itself also emerged from the meeting, according to the logic of participatory urban design laboratories, where the various actors participating in the transformation collaborate in the drafting of projects that take into account the needs of users, with particular reference to the weakest categories. While in the new urban redevelopment programs, the projects will have to contain effective indicators and parameters to verify the achievement of the set objectives, both for the aspects of building and environmental quality, and for social cohesion.
At the end of the meeting, the President of ADA Umbria Luciano Taborchi and the President of the Psychological Profession Association Franco Cocchi agreed on the need to work together on an experimental project for the improvement of social well-being and the development of proximity social networks in a district of Perugia and signed a memorandum of understanding to formalize this collaboration.
As the first tangible sign to improve social well-being, ADA Umbria has arranged and paved a public space, which has become a small square open to the neighborhood community, inaugurated by Mayor Romizi on 2 June.
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