Involving the community in participatory processes is a key component in promoting social innovation functional to the transformation of local welfare. The Inclusive Development Unit carried out an Emancipatory Research with users benefiting from the Inclusion Income (Reddito di Inclusione REI) provided by the social services of the Prato Area to evaluate the impact of the “Social Board” Model. In the article “The potential of emancipatory research in the practice in user-centered practice” (Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione, 2024) Federico Ciani, Caterina Arciprete and Maria Nannini analyse this experience highlighting the role of users and policy makers in defining new strategies aimed to an effective empowerment of people in disadvantaged conditions.
The Inclusion Income and the “Social Board” Model in the Prato Area
The Inclusion Income was a universal anti-poverty measure applied at national level, in force from January 2018 until March 2019. It provided for an economic benefit and the activation of a customised project for users in disadvantaged conditions.
Starting in 2018, the Social Services pertaining to the Prato Area (Prato and neighbouring municipalities) applied these national directives through the experimentation of the ‘Social Board’ Model. This constituted a particular procedure for the activation of the personalised process provided by REI. The model aimed at providing an integrated, flexible and personalised response to people in disadvantaged conditions so that they could break the perpetuation mechanisms of poverty. The ‘Social Board’ intervention model demonstrates the overcoming of the standardised response, and a significant capacity to activate different resources at local level (ability to network).
The Emancipatory Research
In 2019, ARCO carried out a study of the ‘Social Board’ model, highlighting the multiplicity and complexity of situations of social exclusion of individuals and households that turned to social services. In particular, the complexity was due to the presence of several interrelated problems: insufficient income, housing hardship, isolation, lack of awareness of the opportunities available, low cultural level. The context analysis showed that the importance of acting on motivation is transversal for all types of users, the priority of intervention is not uniform for all.
The Inclusive Development Unit carried out an Emancipatory Research involving a selected group of users. The effective involvement of service beneficiaries within the emancipatory research allowed Researchers to assess on the importance of applying innovative methodologies in the implementation of welfare policies.
The research had in fact a twofold objective: on the one hand, to create new knowledge bases with respect to the marginalisation situations of the users and their interaction with the social services, identifying obstacles and areas of improvement for the organisation of the services. On the other hand, this research methodology was intended to foster a process of empowerment of the group of researcher-users called to participate in the project not as an “object” but as an active “subject” of research, capable of producing knowledge on their own experience with social services and on the factors that prevent or favour a full and effective participation in society and therefore a enjoyment of citizenship rights.
This research contributes to demonstrating the positive impact of the effective involvement of users in the evaluation of social service outcomes.
To deepen the discussion, read the article here (available only in Italian).