The Social Cohesion Days comes from the desire to connect people coming from different sectors and professions (University, public administration, non-profit organization, enterprise) who gather together with a positive vision of the future and a will to determine it, in order to become the collective expression of those who believe that social cohesion cannot be built from the top nor the bottom, but it should be a circular process involving everyone. It is therefore an essential process to promote a fair, sustainable and intelligent growth. The Italian figures are alarming and bring out a need – maybe an emergency – for social cohesion: according to Istat surveys, 28.4% of residents are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, 12.6% of families are in relative poverty and 7.9% is in abject poverty.
When the Bid Committee – Easy Care Foundation, the Foundation for Cooperation between People and the Municipality of Reggio Emilia – met in 2014 to form the first edition of the event, launching a four-year pilot project (2014-2018) the statement was unequivocal: to bring social cohesion to squares, universities, libraries, public and private offices, opening a debate among the scientific community, politicians and citizens. The first edition of Social Cohesion Days proved the existence of an entire community affected by the issue of promoting social cohesion in Italy. We truly hope that organizations, companies, citizens, students, researchers, academics, policy makers will contribute to this project to affirm its goals, improve its activities and to increase its contents. There is no doubt: we “think cohesive” for passionate people.
Raul Cavalli, Bid Committee Spokesman
