Members’ meeting on Friday 21 June at the Agriturismo gli Spinoni in Ancarano (Rivergaro) for Auser Piacenza, the voluntary and social promotion association present and active in our provincial territory for decades. At the end of the work the delegates approved the financial statement 2023 and social budget 2023illustrated by the president Giorgio Reggiani during the session. Leaving behind the main problems arising from the pandemic emergency, 2023 was a season for Auser Piacenza not only of recovery and consolidation of its activities but also of growth and development. In 2023, Auser members almost reached 3 thousand units, with an increase of 24 percent compared to the previous year: both the number of voluntary members and that of club members has grown, a sign that Auser’s identity and activities are increasingly recognized and attractive. “For volunteer services and promotional activities – stated President Reggiani – it was a year of great commitments and great satisfactions: thanks to the availability of its volunteers and the dynamism of its clubs, Auser Piacenza was able to dedicate itself throughout 2023 to countless solidarity and support services for the community and to many activities intended for its members”.
“Auser operates in synergy with the public administrations of the provincial territory, – Reggiani recalled – from the Municipality of Piacenza to the most peripheral areas. Our volunteers make their time and energy available to the community free of charge: the Third Sector Code establishes that they can only be guaranteed the reimbursement of expenses incurred related to the volunteering activity and no other form of remuneration or gratification , as provided for by the agreements themselves”. “The public administrations with which Auser has contractual relations – he continued – determine the social and economic policies that they consider most appropriate, allocating for voluntary activities the sums that they deem sustainable and which can also change year by year, and Auser can only respect these decisions and bring the energies of its volunteers to the benefit of the community in the terms established by the public administration and to the extent that the volunteers themselves make themselves available. Auser is not responsible for assessing the economic impact of resorting to volunteering, in recent years we have always maintained maximum availability in compliance with shared volunteering projects and the requests for maintenance, strengthening or reduction of services that the participating Municipalities make foreseen from the signed agreements.”
In her speech, the president of Auser Emilia Romagna Magda Babini he remarked how “volunteering is a resource for the community and enriches those who do it”. The Councilor for Culture represents the municipal administration of Piacenza Christian Fiazza brought the greeting of the mayor Katia Tarasconi underlining: “Without Auser and its volunteers, culture in Piacenza would be in difficulty, the presence of volunteers in places of culture is fundamental”. “For many services in Piacenza we cannot do without Auser – added Fiazza – and as an administration we must make political and administrative choices to continue to have the support of volunteers. Thanks to the Auser volunteers for everything they do for the city, you are our silent force.” Also present at the meeting was the municipal councilor for Welfare Nicoletta Corvi.
AUSER’S NUMBERS – During the works it was remembered that active volunteering was able to count on the generous availability of over 1,300 volunteer members who, engaged in various sectors of intervention (from school supervision to the care of public green spaces, from support for culture and school activities to support for the most fragile or needy people and more), have constituted a fundamental support for the community in everyday life . Among the many volunteering initiatives of which Auser Piacenza is the protagonist, a special mention deserves social support service: in 2023, the volunteers of Filo d’Argento in Piacenza offered more than 350 non-self-sufficient or needy people the opportunity to go to specialist visits, medical treatments, tests and other appointments. The social transport service has made over 4,000 trips and covered more than 70,000 km, always in the spirit of guaranteeing the Piacenza community a precious and irreplaceable service spontaneously and free of charge. President Reggiani, praising the meritorious activity of the volunteers, however recalled that “to date the Silver Thread service is proposed and organized by Auser independently, without any public support, and the association is struggling more and more to guarantee its economic sustainability: if a new management formula is not found, hopefully in collaboration with social services, the risk that the service will be that of a significant reduction in the offer or even its closure”.
The clubs, among which that of Rivergaro was particularly celebrated which reopened its doors in 2023, have guaranteed for Auser members throughout the year many opportunities for meeting and aggregation, possibilities for cultural exploration and moments dedicated to the well-being of the person, up to moments of leisure or concrete opportunities for solidarity. It was then recalled that among the services developed in 2023 there was the return of Bus Terme di Auser, which remained stagnant during the years of the pandemic, which has started to function again, allowing many members to be able to have spa treatments while significantly reducing travel costs. At the end of the meeting, President Giorgio Reggiani addressed a heartfelt and emotional thank you to all the members and all the volunteers of Auser who daily make concrete the values of solidarity, active citizenship and social inclusion which identify the association and without which Auser cannot it could have the central role it has today in the social fabric of the entire Piacenza provincial community.
